[starlogo-users] Filmmaker request

[Justin James]

Some time ago (early 2000) I used StarLogo to provide an implementation of Deborah Gordon's theories on this topic (from her "Ants at Work" book, if I recall). I would be more than happy to provide this to you (as well as the writeup of my conclusions) or anyone else if they would find it useful. The spftware has a manual as well, which may be helpful to you.

In a nutshell, Ms. Gordon states that when ants are performing a task, they emit a chemical "scent" letting others know what they are doing. The other ants who detect the "scent" start doing the same thing along the same lines. While her model works well to describe how ants get organized once they get started, she does not provide for any way for the ants to start doing their tasks in the first place. In other words, in a "monkey see, monkey do" scenario, when all of the monkeys start off doing nothing, nothing ever gets done. I had to have a "random task" system built into my model for her system to not get stuck in this trap.

J.Ja

-----Original Message-----
From: starlogo-users-bounces at media.mit.edu [mailto:starlogo-users-bounces at media.mit.edu] On Behalf Of Danielle Parsons
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 2:09 PM
To: starlogo-users at media.mit.edu
Subject: [starlogo-users] Filmmaker request

Hello Starlogoers,

Thank you in advance for reading and considering this post.  I'm in search of a better description of self-organizing systems in layman's terms?  (without resorting to example)

I am a filmmaker currently making a film about ant society.  Half of the program is about how ant genetics support altruism, tho other half concentrates on self-organization.  So I'm devoting quite a bit of time to building some comprehension.  I hope to illustrate to a teen audience what a decentralized system is and how it works.    

I wish I had a better description of the phenomenon itself, abstracted from example, beyond this cursory notion:   

Put enough local interactions together and you start to see unpredictable patterns on the macro level.  

CAN ANYONE EXPAND ON THIS?  Actual plain-English prose responses will be so much more useful than referrals to other material, though good ones are welcome, too.  

For instance, are there additional definable dynamics like negative feedback loops?
And is it fair to say about decentralized systems across different disciplines, that a common set of dynamics are in play?  

It may be that to understand this process any more meaningfully involves a dizzying amount of information that can't be simplified into layman's terms.  But I am hoping for more detailed generalizations, if you will.  

I've read about various EXAMPLES of self-organization.  ("Emergence", "Termites, Turtles, and Traffic Jams")  These are great at taking a reader all the way through a particular situation.  In the film, I'm giving the example of ants' communal stomach.  I'm also comparing the flow of traffic to the superorganism in ants. 

Thank you!  I am most grateful for your time and expertise, both of which will definitely help the project.  

Kind regards,

Danielle Parsons
Wholesome Pictures
 

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