轉錄自:http://www.oursci.org/lib/cell/028.htm
「Stigmergy」 是一個新詞。格拉西(Grasse,P.P.)新近創造了這個詞,用來解釋 白蟻的築巢行為,大概也可推及其他群居性動物的複雜活動。這個詞是在幾個希臘語詞 根的基礎上造出來的,那幾個詞根的含義是「激發工作」。格拉西意圖表明,是工作成 果本身為進一步的工作提供了刺激和指令。他是在長期觀察白蟻築巢行為後得出這一結 論的。除了人造的城市外,白蟻的巢大概要算自然界最龐大的建築了。如果白蟻站在巢 邊照個相,而我們據此來評價一單個白蟻,那麼,它相當於一個紐約人,而比洛杉磯的 居民顯出更好的組織感。非洲大白蟻(Macrotermesbellicosus)的垤穴,有的高達十二 英呎,直徑達百英呎,一窩裡生活著幾百萬隻白蟻。在穴的周圍,聚集著較小的、較年 輕的蟻垤,好像城市的四郊。 巢的內部好像一座三維的迷宮。其中有螺旋式的迴廊和通道,有拱券式屋頂,通風 良好,還有空調。有的大洞穴作真菌種植園,白蟻靠從這些園子獲得營養,也許還用它 作取暖設備。有一個圓形的拱頂宮室裡住著蟻後,這個室就稱作後宮。整個設計的基礎 單位是拱券。 格拉西為瞭解釋這些細小、盲目、相對來說沒有頭腦的動物建造形體如此龐大、內 部結構如此複雜的建築物的能力,便需要用自己的新詞來描繪它。是每一隻白蟻都有著 一份圖紙,還是那詳細到每個拱頂的整個設計都編碼於它的DNA?或者,由於這麼多小小 腦袋互相聯繫,整個群體便有了可與大承包商相比的集體的智慧力量? 格拉西把一批白蟻放進一隻盛滿泥土和木屑的盤子,觀察它們怎樣工作。木屑的成 分是木質素,是種微型木料。開始,它們的舉止一點也不像個承包商。沒有誰站在那兒 發號施令或收費。它們只是團團轉著跑來跑去,漫無次序地銜起土粒木屑又放下。後來, 兩三顆土粒木屑碰巧堆疊在一起,這一來一下子改變了所有白蟻的行為。它們開始表現 出極大的興趣,發瘋一樣把注意力集中到初始的柱上,給它加上新的木屑和土粒。達到 一定的高度後,建築停止了,直到近處建成了別的柱子,他們才重新活躍起來。這時, 構造由柱變成了拱,彎得勻勻的,然後合攏,一個拱券建成了。於是,幾隻白蟻又開始 建造另一個拱券。
[book] Stigmergic Optimization
http://www.springer.com/east/home/computer?SGWID=5-146-22-173661230-0
About this book
Biologists studied the behavior of social insects for a long time. After millions of years of evolution all these species have developed incredible solutions for a wide range of problems. The intelligent solutions to problems naturally emerge from the self-organization and indirect communication of these individuals. Indirect interactions occur between two individuals when one of them modifies the environment and the other responds to the new environment at a later time. Such an interaction is an example of 『stigmergy'. This book deals with the application of stigmergy for a variety of optimization problems. This volume comprises 12 chapters including an introductory chapter giving the fundamental definitions, inspirations and some research challenges.
Important features include a detailed overview of all the stigmergic optimization paradigms, excellent coverage of timely, advanced stigmergic optimization topics, state-of-the-art theoretical research and application developments and chapters authored by pioneers in the field. Academics, scientists as well as engineers engaged in research, development and application of stigmergic optimization will find the comprehensive coverage of this book invaluable.
Written for:
Engineers, researchers, and graduate students in Computational Intelligence
Keywords:
Self-Organization
Stigmergic Organization
Stigmergy
(有帳號可下載PDF,但我沒帳號...Orz..)
http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-3-540-34689-0/?p=a2d8ca22e4bd4521ab63e1f16bae2067π=3
Stigmergy 定義
轉錄自Wiki
Stigmergy is a method of communication in emergent systems in which the individual parts of the system communicate with one another by modifying their local environment. Stigmergy was first observed in nature - ants communicate to one another by laying down pheromones along their trails, so where ants go within and around their ant colony is a stigmergic system. Similar phenomena are easily seen in many (all?) eusocial creatures, such as termites, who use pheromones to build their very complex nests by following a simple decentralized rule set. Each insect scoops up a 'mudball' or similar material from its environment, invests the ball with pheromones, and deposits it on the ground. Termites are attracted to their nestmates' pheromones and are therefore more likely to drop their own mudballs near their neighbors'. Over time this leads to the construction of pillars, arches, tunnels and chambers. The term was introduced by French biologist Pierre-Paul Grassé in 1959 to refer to termite behavior. He defined it as: "Stimulation of workers by the performance they have achieved." It is derived from the Greek words stigma 『sign' and ergon 『action,』 and captures the notion that an agent's actions leave signs in the environment, signs that it and other agents sense and that determine their subsequent actions.」 (Parunak, H. v D. (2003). Making swarming happen. In Proc. of Conf. on Swarming and Network Enabled Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR), McLean, Virginia, USA, January 2003.) Stigmergy is not restricted to eusocial creatures, or even to physical systems. On the internet there are many emergent phenomena that arise from users interacting only by modifying local parts of their shared virtual environment. Wikipedia is a perfect example of this. The massive structure of information available in a wiki could be compared to a termite nest; one initial user leaves a seed of an idea (a mudball) which attracts other users who then build upon and modify this initial concept eventually constructing an elaborate structure of connected thoughts. The term is also employed in experimental research in robotics, multi-agent systems and communication in computer networks. In these fields there exist two types of stigmergy: active and passive. The first kind occurs when a robotic or otherwise intelligent "agent" alters its environment so as to affect the sensory input of another agent. The second occurs when an agent's action alters its environment such that the environmental changes made by a different agent are also modified. A typical example of active stigmergy is leaving behind artifacts for others to pick up or follow. An example of passive stigmergy is when agent-A tries to remove all artifacts from a container, while agent-B tries to fill the container completely.
其它reference:
Definition of Stigmergy
http://www.stigmergicsystems.com/stig_v1/stigrefs/article1.html
What is Stigmergy?
http://www.stigmergicsystems.com/stig_v1/whatisstigmergy.html
The Stigmergy-the secret of organization
http://evolutionofcomputing.org/Multicellular/Stigmergy.html
2008/9/26
Reference:http://www.stigmergic.net/
The definition in the "Double-Tongued" dictionary is a good start:
stigmergy n. a process via which unorganized actions of individuals serve as stimuli to the actions of other individuals, and, in sum, result in a single outcome; a group of individuals who collectively behave as a sole entity.The only quibble I have with this definition is that I wouldn't require the "unorganized action" but would perhaps say "even unorganized action" but this is because I want to draw the definition of Stigmergy out into the human world. The Wikipedia Stigmergy entry inspires me to describe stigmergy as "sign-of-action". It is both record and dynamics. It implies feed back loops and group computation, and it produces maps and adaptation. What definitions do other people like? Where are the limits to what can be described as stigmergy? What other terms compliment stigmergy in the study of adaptive systems for these other domains?
下面這個網站有很酷的白蟻築巢過程及video.
http://www.esf.edu/efb/turner/termite/stigmergicbuilding.html
下面這個網站則介紹螞蟻利用stigmergy的技巧能完成的複雜工作.
http://onionesquereality.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/adaptive-routing-taking-cues-from-stigmergy/