Ants
We can learn a lot from the leaderless self-organising abilities of ant colonies. Stanford University biologist Deborah Gordon has uncovered five principles: 1. A group must reach a critical mass; too few and no order emerges. 2. The underlying rules of engagement are simple; ants only use ten pheromone signals. 3. Individuals must be free to explore; random encounters alert to new food or incoming danger. 4. Behaviour is adjusted based on pattern detection; ants register the frequency of their encounters. 5. Local information creates global wisdom; ants don’t need any big-picture overview, reading their neighbours’ signals is enough.
— Wayne Visser
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From Purpose Inspired: Reflections on Conscious Living, Volume 3. Buy on Lulu ↗