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From: marek@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Marek W Lugowski)
Newsgroups: comp.theory.cell-automata
Subject: Re: Something for the ants to do
Message-ID: <1991Feb18.001127.16317@news.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 18 Feb 91 05:11:11 GMT
References: <16mJX2w163w@shark.cs.fau.edu>
Organization: Computer Science, Indiana University, Bloomington.
Lines: 43

In article <16mJX2w163w@shark.cs.fau.edu> tomh.bbs@shark.cs.fau.edu
(Tom Holroyd) writes:
>If we want the ants to create some higher level organization,
>they must cooperate with one another, as well as compete against
>constraints in the environment and rival ant species.
....
>
>Don't worry so much about deciding what the ants should be doing
>at this stage; get them to cooperate effectively and new high-level
>behaviors based on simple sub-behaviors should emerge almost by
>themselves.
>
>tomh@bambi.ccs.fau.edu
>Tom Holroyd
>Florida Atlantic University
>Center for Complex Systems
>"An anthill is a queen's way of making another queen."

I think those two statements are incompatible.  While I agree with the
former, I can't quite see how ecosystemic constraints reduce to
arbitrary sub-behaviors on which something meaningful is based.  I would
say:  Worry very much about what the ants ought to be doing (i.e., what
path in chaotic space they are to be computing) and by proper design
at first and natural selection later, get them to cooperate effectively.

I don't buy into this "should emerge almost by themselves."  That's just
alife propaganda that we should be careful not to get zapped with.  In
real life, the ecosystem and the pressures from without as well as from
within form a complex slippage of constraints, none of which is arbitrary.
To compute with ants ex nihilo is artificial intelligence pure and simple:
you are just defining arbitrary symbols and shoving them around, with a
bit of optimization thrown in for good measure.  If so, anthill-climbing
is not too far from hill-climbing (search) period.

What we should be doing is trying to replicate a microcosm and computing
with it.  This will take nontrivial amount of design and tweaking, because
we will be making up for the absence of natural constraints.

I share Tom's call for better ants, but only via a better antworld.

				-- Marek

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