Swarm Intelligence

Mind Hacks deftly discusses an article in the Economist I missed on swarm intelligence. This method uses a biologically inspired intelligence metaphor to solve some kinds of otherwise very difficult problems. The group behavior of ants is often used. The broad premise is that we are not close to using brains as our model, so lets use simpler bio forms. We looked at several examples of its application to problems of the enterprise. I would say that net this method was not successful, but it did make us think differently. The economist article: Riders on a Swarm.