Collective intelligence, or not: lessons from social insects

Human society or health, ecosystems or engineered systems: the processes most relevant to our lives all depend on collective behavior, that is, are shaped by the actions and interactions of many semi-independent units, whether they be people, cells in our bodies, species of organisms, or nodes in a biological or engineered 'neural network'. What types of organization in such collectives lead to 'intelligence', and when and how does such organization emerge? Evolutionary biology turns out to have some key answers to these questions, and social insect colonies provide a rich set of examples of robust, effective, and flexible strategies with minimal overhead.

Anna Dornhaus, University of Arizona

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