Sunday, June 23, 2013

No termite has a clue how or why to build a mound

 

“A classical example of emergence is how termites with their tiny brains are able to construct huge mounds up to twenty-five feet in height. No termite has a clue how or why to build a mound ; its brain isn't large enough to carry the information. There are no termite engineers, architects, or critics ; all termites are low-level laborers operating without blueprints, or even a mind's eye notion of a termite mound . Yet the mound is built. Somehow the inter­ action of lower-level capabilities produces a higher-level activity.”

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