Is swarm intelligence the key to our future? An award-winning photograph of toad larvae hints at the links between nature and technology
Tadpole party wins top wildlife prize
Is swarm intelligence the key to our future? An award-winning photograph of toad larvae hints at the links between nature and technology
A falcon swoops down to pluck a butterfly from the sky. A baby macaque monkey sleeps in the arms of its mother. An army of wood ants overwhelms a blue beetle.1
These are some of the stunning award-winning images in this year's Natural History Museum wildlife photographer of the year competition. Calming and alarming, beautiful and brutal, the photographs celebrate the endless variety of the natural world.
This year's winner shows a swarm of western toad tadpoles in Cedar Lake, Canada. Sheltered by the lily pads that cover the lake's surface, hundreds of toads in larvalRelating to a form of an insect or an animal such as a frog that has left its egg but is not yet completely developed. form glide through the water.
Photographer Shane Gross said he wanted "to see something new and try to photograph it in the best way I possibly can". For Kathy Moran, head of the judges, the image "swirls with light, energy and a feeling of synchronised movement".2
But the photograph is also a glimpse into one of nature's most vitalVery important. systems: the swarm. Swarms are groups of animals that act collectively by following the same simple rules. There is no central intelligence directing these animals, yet they can perform complicated tasks.
Understanding swarms is transforming science. They can be applied to everything from traffic jams to infections. And they may be vital for AI, creating complicated systems that run without human involvement.
But teaching machines to run without human control might be dangerous. Military forces are researching how one soldier could control a "swarm of dronesDrones are aircraft flown with no humans on board. They are used for many different purposes. ".3 If drones could operate without people, they might cause unimaginable destruction.
Research into swarms also raises moral and philosophical questions, such as who is responsible for a swarm, and what is intelligence?
Tadpoles may not be intelligent in the human sense, but they can create complex and beautiful patterns. We just have to look beneath the surface.
Is swarm intelligence the key to our future?
Yes: Understanding animal swarms is already used for modelling traffic and pandemics. It could allow us to connect human intelligence and create super-intelligent machines.
No: Group intelligence is a moral as well as a technical question. Armies of machines able to operate without human oversight sound like a science fiction nightmare.
Or... Technological progress is not the only reason to learn about animal swarms. They can also help us to appreciate the hidden complexity of the natural world.
Keywords
Larval - Relating to a form of an insect or an animal such as a frog that has left its egg but is not yet completely developed.
Vital - Very important.
Drones - Drones are aircraft flown with no humans on board. They are used for many different purposes.
Tadpole party wins top wildlife prize
Glossary
Larval - Relating to a form of an insect or an animal such as a frog that has left its egg but is not yet completely developed.
Vital - Very important.
Drones - Drones are aircraft flown with no humans on board. They are used for many different purposes.