Wonderfest: The Ecology of Systems Without Central Control

Many systems - ant colonies, brains, and some data networks - operate without central control. Local interactions, collectively, regulate the behavior of the system. There are more than 14,000 species of ants, in every conceivable habitat. Their diverse behavior helps us understand how collective behavior evolves to deal with different environmental conditions. This talk will contrast the ways that harvester ants in the desert, arboreal ants in the tropical forest canopy, and the invasive Argentine ants in your kitchen, regulate colonies using simple chemical contacts among ants.

Speaker: Deborah Gordon, Stanford