Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
Steven Johnson’s views about Swarm Intelligence
Published in
3 min readJul 8, 2022
In ‘Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software’ (2001) American science author and media theorist Steven Johnson showcased what he calls ‘emergent behavior’: the improbable ability of a swarm to exhibit greater intelligence than the individual units that make it up, offering a new, different way to understand how complex systems work.
Taking the organization of ant colonies as a case in point, Johnson showed how these colonies adapt to the environment as a single entity and manage to solve complex problems such as gathering food, fighting off enemies, and depositing waste without the existence of a top-down decision system but by a self-generated series of actions. Ants collecting food leave behind a special scent, and other ants pick up that scent and follow the path to the food. The most direct path to the food becomes the best path to take, no singular ant knows where the food is — the emergent system is smarter than any member of the colony and functions as…
