Ants Have Algorithms by Iain Couzin @ Edge

ok

ANTS HAVE ALGORITHMS
A Talk with Iain Couzin

Edge Video

IAIN COUZIN is Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. His research focuses on underst

hat the way we interface with the technology is very important. Because despite the fact I use computers and do simulations and taught myself to program computers, I was a reluctant individual. I first started my Ph.D. in '96—I'm 33—I didn't have email, and then I realized initially that what I wanted to do was to get a computer to see for me. If I am observing an ant colony, and there are hundreds of ants doing things at the same time, I have a very limited view of that. I also have all of these biases in my own perception and in my own judgments. I first started out trying to program a computer to look at the trajectories of these individuals and then I became interested in developing these simulated models. But I still find my innovating with computers is very clumsy. I don't like Windows, I don't like Unix, I don't like the Apple system. These systems do not gel with me at all; it is always a struggle to get beyond a threshold at which I will force myself to learn a new technique.

http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge240.html