What the Internet has in common with an ant colony

#1

Post by dmpatierno » Tue, Feb 03, 2015, 10:18 PM UTC

What the Internet has in common with an ant colony
priceonomics.com

Re: What the Internet has in common with an ant colony

#2

Post by danso » Tue, Feb 03, 2015, 10:52 PM UTC

Ants and their colonies are so fascinating to me that I'm constantly saddened by Maxis's decision to not remake SimAnt. I'd be happy with a SimBee, too.

Re: What the Internet has in common with an ant colony

#3

Post by murbard2 » Tue, Feb 03, 2015, 10:56 PM UTC

This is an old project http://mute-net.sourceforge.net/ but the idea is still sound. It's routing inspired by ant colonies, for anonymous file sharing.

See http://mute-net.sourceforge.net/howAnts.shtml for an explanation of the algorithm

Re: What the Internet has in common with an ant colony

#4

Post by wiredfool » Tue, Feb 03, 2015, 10:58 PM UTC

I'd tell y'all a UDP joke, but you might not get it.

Re: What the Internet has in common with an ant colony

#5

Post by mnem » Tue, Feb 03, 2015, 11:03 PM UTC

wiredfool wrote: post #4

I'd tell y'all a UDP joke, but you might not get it.

In that case, I'll just keep telling you this TCP joke until you do get it.

Re: What the Internet has in common with an ant colony

#6

Post by 0xdeadbeefbabe » Tue, Feb 03, 2015, 11:04 PM UTC

mnem wrote: post #5

wiredfool wrote: post #4

I'd tell y'all a UDP joke, but you might not get it.

In that case, I'll just keep telling you this TCP joke until you do get it.

I acknowledge you; go ahead.

Re: What the Internet has in common with an ant colony

#7

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Feb 03, 2015, 11:08 PM UTC

0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #6

mnem wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that case, I'll just keep telling you this TCP joke until you do get it.

I acknowledge you; go ahead.

[deleted]

Re: What the Internet has in common with an ant colony

#8

Post by sanoli » Tue, Feb 03, 2015, 11:26 PM UTC

danso wrote: post #2

Ants and their colonies are so fascinating to me that I'm constantly saddened by Maxis's decision to not remake SimAnt. I'd be happy with a SimBee, too.

I don't know about SimBee (not into bees as I'm into ants I guess), but I would love a new SimAnt.

Re: What the Internet has in common with an ant colony

#9

Post by spiritplumber » Tue, Feb 03, 2015, 11:43 PM UTC

sanoli wrote: post #8

danso wrote: post #2

Ants and their colonies are so fascinating to me that I'm constantly saddened by Maxis's decision to not remake SimAnt. I'd be happy with a SimBee, too.

I don't know about SimBee (not into bees as I'm into ants I guess), but I would love a new SimAnt.

There's a French game called Empire of the Ants that came out circa 2002, that is intended to be a spiritual successor.

Re: What the Internet has in common with an ant colony

#10

Post by leephillips » Wed, Feb 04, 2015, 12:11 AM UTC

Ant colonies can also solve variational calculus problems: http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/01/have-a-scientific-pro...

In other news, this article uses "comprise" to mean the opposite of what it actually means, which is the subject of another of today's HN front page articles: https://medium.com/backchannel/meet-the-ultimate-wikignome-1...