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A collaboration between a Stanford ant biologist and a computer scientist has revealed that the behavior of harvester ants as they forage for food mirrors the protocols that control traffic on the Internet.
On the surface, ants and the Internet don't seem to have much in common. But two Stanford researchers have discovered that a species of harvester ants determine how many foragers to send out of the nest in much the same way that Internet protocols discover how much bandwidth is available for the transfer of data. The researchers are calling it the "anternet."
"Ants have discovered an algorithm that we know well, and they've been doing it for millions of years," Prabhakar said.
They also found that the ants followed two other phases of TCP. One phase is known as slow start, which describes how a source sends out a large wave of packets at the beginning of a transmission to gauge bandwidth; similarly, when the harvester ants begin foraging, they send out foragers to scope out food availability before scaling up or down the rate of outgoing foragers.
Another protocol, called time-out, occurs when a data transfer link breaks or is disrupted, and the source stops sending packets. Similarly, when foragers are prevented from returning to the nest for more than 20 minutes, no more foragers leave the nest.
Prabhakar said that had this discovery been made in the 1970s, before TCP was written, harvester ants very well could have influenced the design of the Internet.
So ant algorithms have to be simple, distributed and scalable – the very qualities that we need in large engineered distributed systems," she said. "I think as we start understanding more about how species of ants regulate their behavior, we'll find many more useful applications for network algorithms."
Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
So what?
All they are saying is that the behavior of ants resembles the way the internet works. No big deal. You had to know ants can communicate in some way. I see roaches do this all the time.
This is how the government throws money away for so called scientists researching stuff that gives us more useless knowledge.
Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
I see roaches do this all the time.
Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
So what?
All they are saying is that the behavior of ants resembles the way the internet works. No big deal. You had to know ants can communicate in some way. I see roaches do this all the time.
This is how the government throws money away for so called scientists researching stuff that gives us more useless knowledge.
Originally posted by Exitt
Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
So what?
All they are saying is that the behavior of ants resembles the way the internet works. No big deal. You had to know ants can communicate in some way. I see roaches do this all the time.
This is how the government throws money away for so called scientists researching stuff that gives us more useless knowledge.
No, the way the internet works resembles ant behavior. There's a huge difference. Just like the way a plane flies resembles bird aerodynamics etc. If it weren't for the scientists researching 'this stuff' we would be far less advanced as society.
So give it up for the ants will ya
Originally posted by strafgod
If wasps evolved from ants and the internet resembles ant behavior would that mean the future internet will resemble wasp behavior? Swarms of flying wifi repeaters??? Not sure wasp behavior would benefit the internet, in fact I have no idea what they do other than sting the S#¿T out of you lol.
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Originally posted by InfiniteConsciousness
Excellent post, OP! There are actually people who still believe that ants are merely robots and not conscious beings. They're obviously highly analytical beings.
Originally posted by john_bmth
Originally posted by InfiniteConsciousness
Excellent post, OP! There are actually people who still believe that ants are merely robots and not conscious beings. They're obviously highly analytical beings.
This isn't the same as high-level thinking or conscious activity, it is instinctual behaviour "developed" over time through evolution.
Originally posted by InfiniteConsciousness
That's a human conjectural perspective. There is no way for us to know anything about what goes on in the mind of an ant. Just because we observe something and make assumptions doesn't bear out any real truth on the matter.
Take quantum physics for example.