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Scientists Crack the Mathematical Mystery of Stingless Bees’ Spiral Honeycombs

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Scientists Crack the Mathematical Mystery of Stingless Bees’ Spiral Honeycombs

#2
Learning that surprisingly complex behaviours can emerge from simple rules was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me. The Game of Life is the premier but Schelling's segregation model is one of my favourites.

There are a bunch of these models available in the standard library that ships with NetLogo.

https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/

Re: Scientists Crack the Mathematical Mystery of Stingless Bees’ Spiral Honeycombs

#3
post #2

Learning that surprisingly complex behaviours can emerge from simple rules was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me. The Game of Life is the premier but Schelling's segregation model is one of my favourites. There are a bunch of these models available in the standard library that ships with NetLogo. https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/

I vaguely think that the lesson is not that complex behaviours can emerge from simple rules, but that some behaviours aren't as complex as they seem. There's a sense in which those beehives are actually very simple, but we don't see them that way.

They're not complex in a Kolmogorov sense, for sure.

What's more of a mystery to me is what metric we instinctively use for complexity.

Re: Scientists Crack the Mathematical Mystery of Stingless Bees’ Spiral Honeycombs

#4
post #3
post #2

Learning that surprisingly complex behaviours can emerge from simple rules was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me. The Game of Life is the premier but Schelling's segregation model is one of my favourites. There are a bunch of these models available in the standard library that ships with NetLogo. https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/

I vaguely think that the lesson is not that complex behaviours can emerge from simple rules, but that some behaviours aren't as complex as they seem. There's a sense in which those beehives are actually very simple, but we don't see them that way. They're not complex in a Kolmogorov sense, for sure. What's more of a mystery to me is what metric we instinctively use for complexity.

[deleted]

Re: Scientists Crack the Mathematical Mystery of Stingless Bees’ Spiral Honeycombs

#5
post #3
post #2

Learning that surprisingly complex behaviours can emerge from simple rules was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me. The Game of Life is the premier but Schelling's segregation model is one of my favourites. There are a bunch of these models available in the standard library that ships with NetLogo. https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/

I vaguely think that the lesson is not that complex behaviours can emerge from simple rules, but that some behaviours aren't as complex as they seem. There's a sense in which those beehives are actually very simple, but we don't see them that way. They're not complex in a Kolmogorov sense, for sure. What's more of a mystery to me is what metric we instinctively use for complexity.

Good point!