Book Review: The Smart Swarm by PeterMillerMax the Magnificent - February 07, 2011

I’ve been having a lot of fun the past few days reading a variety of different books, including How IKilled Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown, Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, and – mostrecently – The Smart Swarm by Peter Miller.

I will be writing reviews on the first two books as soon as I get a free moment – the reason I decidedto write up The Smart Swarm first is that a friend of mine is really anxious to borrow it off me, and Idon’t blame him because it’s a really great read.

Generally speaking we (humans) tend to organize ourselves in a hierarchical manner. Someone “atthe top” is in charge, and their decisions, directions, and instructions ripple downhill throughvarious levels of the organization until they reach the bottom of the pile (which is where you’lltypically find me hanging out).

We have, of course, achieved astounding things in this way, from the Great Wall of China toconstructing massive dams, to building ginormous skyscrapers, to taking men to the moon (andbringing them back again). Just consider the government and various infrastructure organizationsrequired to keep a country like America humming along. Having said this, in some cases ourhierarchical organizations and our tendency to partition problems can cause us to drop the ball andmess up in all sorts of ways.

And so we come to consider insects like termites – Macrotermesmichaelseni, for example – whose towers can stand ten feet or higher onthe African savannah. The roughly spherical nest itself is about three tofour feet in diameter and is normally located just below ground level. Thetower acts like a giant lung (the colony can consume as much oxygen as asmall cow), capturing wind to ventilate the mound and conveying carbondioxide and water to the outside world.

When researchers created a 3D image of a complete termite mound (theprocess they used will blow you away), they were amazed by what itshowed. The network of tunnels and air passageways inside was “ascomplex as a Chinese puzzle ball carved from ivory.” Of particularinterest were special large tunnels inside the mound forming a network oforgan pipe-like chambers that resonate when turbulent winds blow past

the tower and convert the “nuisance” energy in the turbulent airflow into “wind-power gold.”

But how can creatures no more than a quarter of an inch in length – with minimal brainpower andlittle or no vision – create structures of such complexity and sophistication? It turns out that eachtermite follows only a small number of very simple rules and collaborates indirectly with its fellows,but the results are truly astounding (you’ll have to read the book to get a better understanding ofthis).

The Smart Swarm takes an in-depth look at Ants, Honeybees, Termites, Flocks of Birds, Schools of

Fish, Herds of Caribou, and so forth. By studying, analyzing, and understanding the simplegoverning rules used by these various creatures, computer scientists have written computerprograms that can solve complex problems and streamline things from factory processes totelephone networks to truck routes, with possibilities for so much more…

The bottom line is that this is a very interesting and well-written book; the author has an engaging,easy-to-read, conversational style that informs, entertains, and offers numerous surprises in thisthought-provoking study of problem making and problem-solving.