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From: jimf@idayton.field.intel.com (Jim Fister)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Bird flight as an emergent property
Message-ID: <1990Oct24.114805.3306@idayton.field.intel.com>
Date: 24 Oct 90 11:48:05 GMT
References: <1990Oct23.170118.27104@ecn.purdue.edu>
Organization: Intel Corp./ Dayton Sales Office
Lines: 24

muttiah@stable.ecn.purdue.edu (Ranjan S Muttiah) writes:
>	It seems that some flock of birds fly in random formation and
>then suddenly converge together, and then continue almost in random flight
>and then again converge etc. [stuff deleted 'cause of bandwitdh]
>It is really an interesting question of whether
>birds  (in flight) show intelligent behaviour or are just purely constrained
>by the physical laws of flight (wind streams etc).

>Any comments ?

Sure.

My experience of watching birds (usually somewhat drunk sitting in a field)
seems to say that birds just kinda' weave around in flight for fun.  Who   
says a straight line is the best way to go?  Anyway, the observations you've
made could be a byproduct of many random patterns turning into one large one.

Oh, nature programs always say that migratory birds exchange leadership roles
while the rest of the flock drafts off of the leader.  Less random there.

Greetings from the rocking metropolis.

JimF