Ant communications: experience them through a simulator
Stumble It!Ant communications are very different from the communications we typically experience in our organizational teams. In fact they are so different that to really understand them you have to try and find some way to experience them. Here is one way!
Ants predominantly use Pheromones (chemical signals) to communicate – for more on this see The perfect mobile messaging system: pheromone signals.
A tool for helping us experience an ants-eye view of team communications is a neat little simulation game from forgefx, a San Francisco-based interactive 3D simulation and visualization company, which allows us to run a simulation of the actions and interactions of two adjacent ant colonies.
I suggest you run through the simulation three times and note the main differences between ant communications and our normal team or group communications.
The first time run through without intervening.
The second time drastically increase the number of ants in one of the two colonies.
The third time move the rocks between the ants and their food sources and see what happens.
Now compare your notes with the first 6 principles of the bioteams manifesto.
Any surprises? Drop me a comment!
To activate the simulation click here
Tags: ants, simulators
Digg | 
del.icio.us | 
Reddit | 
Yahoo! | 
Add to my favourites
3 Comments | Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Bioteams Books Reviews
The Starfish and The Spider
The Book "The Starfish and The Spider" uses the amazing capabilities of starfish to survive and regrow damaged limbs as a powerful metaphor for leaderless organisations.
Buy it now from:
Amazon.Com
Amazon.Co.UK
Related Bioteams Features Articles
New Bioteams Video by Robert Scoble
Many Thanks to Robert Scoble of Scoble Show fame for producing a brand new 15 minute video interview on the basics of bioteams and how it can be applied in organisational teams.
Human swarming: the mexican wave
Those who don’t believe that humans can swarm and flock must not have been watching the World Cup in Germany. The Mexican Wave, or La Ola, is a spontaneous activity involving very simple individual behaviors which produces an amazing collective result.
Team adaptability secrets: the law of requisite variety
One of the aspects of bioteams in nature is that they seem to have just the right amount of structure to handle their environments. Too much and they would be slow and cumbersome. Too little and they would lack the sophisticated responses to move them up the food chain. In either case the consequences are extinction!
Hi
I got many new data from your site but I am interested to know is there any musical communication between ants?
Thanks in advance for your attention
I once saw a group of Carpenter ants playing a concert. The guitars were acoustic. It seemed to be a free concert open to all ants. Various other insects were enjoying it from a safe distance. I videotaped it, but the musical sound and ant singing didn't pick up on my old camcorder mic.
I'm new here and just waking up, if you catch my drift, Really! Really! need to talk to some body sooner rather than later about this to verify but do not have the necessary tools to accomplish my ultimate goal which is to forward this info to others within my circle to then expand or widen my circle... I'm sending out a signal, if you understand please reply soon. Humbly