Courses/CS 461/Winter 2006/Rick Strom/Week Two
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[edit] Week Two
[edit] Fireflies
[edit] Emergent Properties
Fireflies attempting to synchronize their flashes with the whole group by looking at their neighbors. The emergent property is that the entire population eventually syncs up.
[edit] Rules
Fireflies all have the same cycle length, but begin at different points in the cycle. Fireflies look at the behavior of their neighbors and use this information to reset their clocks to try to sync with their neighbors.
[edit] Why the property emerges
starting with small "neighborhoods" of fireflies, the synchronization is fairly easy if you consider only small groups. Once small groups sync with one another, larger synchronized groups can form as groups sync with neighbor groups, and so on until the entire population is essentially a supergroup of smaller groups which have already synchronized their clocks.
[edit] Termites
[edit] Emergent Properties
The termites somehow manage to collect wood chips into a single pile despite a simple set of rules that say nothing about how the piles should be formed.
[edit] Rules
Each termite moves randomly until it bumps into a wood chip. When it does, it picks it up and wanders around until it hits another woodchip, at which point it puts the woodchip down.
[edit] Why the property emerges
Essentially the termites, although incredibly stupid, act as attraction facilitators who's sole goal is to bring two wood chips together. As long as two wood chips remain apart, and as long as termites are running around, eventually the two will be united. Thus the single wood pile emerges given enough time.
[edit] Slime
[edit] Emergent Properties
The turtles dropping pheremone aggregate into clusters if the population is large enough, despite their rules being fairly simple, and despite there being no explicit leader.
[edit] Rules
Turtles wander around and drop pheremone. They sniff around them looking for other pheremone which will attract them.
[edit] Why the property emerges
If the population is large enough, there is a greater chance of a small group of turtles dropping pheremone in the same area, which will increase the scent and attract neighboring turtles to their area, and those turtles will drop their pheremone in the area, etc.
