Expert Assessment of Human-Human Stigmergy
Abstract
Human-Human Stigmergy is pervasive. A wide range of pre-computer social systems fit the pattern of stigmergic coordination, and have provided a rich set of metaphors on which a diverse set of computer-enabled systems for enabling human stigmergy have been constructed. It would be more difficult to show a functioning human institution that is not stigmergic, than it is to find examples of human stigmergy. The reason that human-human stigmergy is so common can be understood from the growing body of experience in constructing large-scale distributed computing systems with resource-constrained elements. It has become clear that central control of such systems is not feasible, since resource-constrained components cannot cope with the large-scale, distributed aspects of such systems. The central insight of stigmergy is that coordination can be achieved by resource-constrained agents interacting locally in an environment. Two fundamental principles govern the success of this strategy: 1. No matter how large the environment grows, because agents interact only locally, their limited processing capabilities are not overwhelmed; 2. Through the dynamics of self-organization, local interactions can yield a coherent system-level outcome that provides the required control.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA440006
Entities
People
- H. Van Dyke Parunak