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 young falcon swoops down to pluck a butterfly from the sky. A baby macaque monkey sleeps peacefully in the arms of its mother. An army of wood ants overwhelms the brilliant blue body of a beetle.1
These are some of the stunning images awarded prizes at this year's Natural History Museum wildlife photographer of the year competition. Now in its 60th year, the competition attracts entries from all over the globe. Calming and alarming, beautiful and brutal, they celebrate the endless variety of the natural world.
This year's winner is special. It shows a swarm of western toad tadpoles in Cedar Lake, Canada. The photographer, Shane Gross, had to sift through the silt and algaeA simple plant that grows in or on water. on the lakebed to capture this unique image.
Sheltered by the lily pads that cover the lake's surface, hundreds of toads in larvae form glide through the water as if dancing. It is the first time an image of these reptiles has won the award, and it shows how even a murky pond can be filled with wonder.
For Shane Gross, there is nothing more fun than "to see something new and try to photograph it in the best way I possibly can". For Kathy Moran, head of the judges, the winning 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 vital systems: the swarm. Swarms are collections of animals - colonies of ants or bees, flocks of birds and schools of fish - that act collectively by following the same simple rules. There is no central intelligence directing these animals, yet they can form groups and even perform complicated tasks.
Understanding swarms is transforming science. They can be applied to everything from modelling traffic jams to stopping the spread of infections. And they may be vital for AI, creating complicated systems that run without human oversight.
According to Hannah Critchlow, a neuroscientist at Cambridge, if society could unlock the power of swarms, we could think collectively like groups of animals. We could even "usher in a utopianImpossibly perfect. The term comes from an ancient Greek phrase meaning "no-place" invented by Henry VIII's chancellor, Sir Thomas More, in 1516, as the name of an imaginary, ideal island. era of human cooperation".3
Yet teaching a machine to run without human control might be dangerous. At the moment, 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. ".4 If drones could operate without any human involvement, they might cause unimaginable destruction.
Research into swarms uses insights from maths, biology and social science. It also raises moral and philosophical questions. Who is responsible for a swarm? Should we think about humans as groups or individuals or work on developing a "collective intelligence"?
The winning image at this year's wildlife photography awards cannot answer these questions. But it can give us a sense of the secret processes taking place in nature. Tadpoles may not be intelligent in a 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.
Algae - A simple plant that grows in or on water.
Utopian - Impossibly perfect. The term comes from an ancient Greek phrase meaning "no-place" invented by Henry VIII's chancellor, Sir Thomas More, in 1516, as the name of an imaginary, ideal island.
Drones - Drones are aircraft flown with no humans on board. They are used for many different purposes.
Tadpole party wins top wildlife prize

Glossary
Algae - A simple plant that grows in or on water.
Utopian - Impossibly perfect. The term comes from an ancient Greek phrase meaning "no-place" invented by Henry VIII's chancellor, Sir Thomas More, in 1516, as the name of an imaginary, ideal island.
Drones - Drones are aircraft flown with no humans on board. They are used for many different purposes.