Peter Miller: "The Smart Swarm" (Avery)
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-08-11/peter-miller-smart-swarm-avery
Ants do it. So do fish, birds, bees and humans. They think better in groups than as individuals. How understanding flocks, schools and colonies in the animal world can help people become more productive and make better decisions.
Guests
Peter Miller
senior editor at National Geographic.
Comments
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Great topic! Could you please bring up the following topic to Mr. Miller? He spoke earlier about the collective intelligence of ants, even though each individual ant is actually not that brilliant. In Mr. Miller's research, has he encountered any examples of insects or higher organisms who have started to realize the benefits of self preservation vs. group preservation? Are there examples of species who still have group behaviors but where some individuals start to work to their own benefit?
Does Mr. Miller write about this in National Geographic magazine?
In as much as the behavior of a single ant may not reveal the purpose of the colony the behavior of a nerve cell does not tell us about the purpose of the brain. In both cases, synergy arises from the interactions between the collective's members. In Max Wertheimer's words the hole is greater than the sum of the pieces.
Read more about Max Wertheimer's discovery here:
http://brainmindinst.blogspot.com/2008/06/professor-max-wertheimers-syne...
Do swarms work only because each ants, fish etc have a predictable behavior built into their brains (neural circuits?) - sort of like a computer algorithm?
Sachin
I'm really glad Michaelangelo, Edison, Jesus and Ghandi believed the individual can make a difference
A mob voted for George W. Bush. Twice! In 2008, a similar but even larger mob voted for Sarah Palin!
Mob, schmob. Our country's framers understood the madness of mobs and created a constitutional democracy that limits their power.
err
Hello,
I loved the interview today (8/11/10) with Peter Miller by Frank Sesno. I teach a class in teambuilding and would like to get a copy of the show to use in class, as well as permission to use it.
Can you oblige?
Thanks,
Nona Saling, Ed. D., SPHR
Instructor, Leadership Development,
College of Business,
East Carolina University,
Greenville, NC 27858
919-419-7888 (cell)
252-737-4212 (office)