Sip Posted October 5, 2002 Report Share Posted October 5, 2002 I was sitting at the patio of the coffeehouse at UCLA today ... since it's saturday, not too many people are around and it's a great place to get some work done. I was pondering some complicated crap trying to solve some crazy equations when I noticed the ants running around on the table. The ants were following a PERFECT LINE from one corner of the table, to the middle, running up the umbrella pole, making a U turn and coming back down ... following the exact same line to the corner of the table!!! There were maybe 10 or 15 ants going through there every minute. They were following the line so perfectly, that they would run head-on into each other everytime they had to pass one another It fascinated me completely! Then I decided to mess with them a bit. I rubbed my finger hard on a small section on the table where the ants used to walk. The next time a group of them came, they got completely confused! They had NO idea where to go ... they split off and started going in separate directions until one of them found the original line and started following it Soon after, the remaining ants started to follow that same line again. The ones that got lost just wondered off ... This "ant" model is actually a strong theme starting to develop in the computing/automation/robotics community. Instead of trying to stick very COMPLEX behavior into the smallest parts of your system (which is HARD to do), you stick VERY SIMPLE behaviors in each component (almost reactive to the environment) and much like ants, that could result in an extremely functional, efficient, and "complex" system. This of course relies on a large number of "components" like ants. But given the levels of cost, miniaturization, and sophistication that we are starting to achieve, this is not that science fiction anymore!!!! Anyway, I just thought those ants were fascinating to watch ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azat Posted October 6, 2002 Report Share Posted October 6, 2002 nope, but I use to burn them with a magnifying glass when I was a kid. Ok, ok, I did it again last week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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