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Honeybee Democracy how a bunch of tiny-brained bees achieves a high collective IQ

Honeybee Democracy how a bunch of tiny-brained bees achieves a high collective IQ. Tom Seeley Neurobiology & Behavior Cornell University. Bert!. Ed!. Portal, Arizona 1974. Estabrook Woods, Massachusetts 1975. Martin Lindauer, Karl von Frisch, and students. KvF. ML.

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Honeybee Democracy how a bunch of tiny-brained bees achieves a high collective IQ

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  1. Honeybee Democracy how a bunch of tiny-brained bees achieves a high collective IQ Tom Seeley Neurobiology & Behavior Cornell University

  2. Bert! Ed! Portal, Arizona 1974 Estabrook Woods, Massachusetts 1975

  3. Martin Lindauer, Karl von Frisch, and students KvF ML Forstenrieder Park, Munich ca. 1952

  4. Martin Lindauer, bee observer extraordinaire

  5. One 16-hour “debate”: 11 sites, 149 scout bees Seeley and Buhrman (1999) Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 45:19-31.

  6. One 16-hour “debate”: 11 sites, 149 scout bees Bees have a democratic process for choosing a new home!

  7. How does honeybee democracy work? Some special tricks of the bees: Decision = reaching a quorum, not a consensus E pluribus unum by means of quorum responses Blending interdependence and independence. 1974-1978, 1997-2009 (with collaborators)

  8. Special Trick #1: Use quorum sensing, not consensus sensing Bees build a consensus, but they use it for implementing, not making, their collective decision

  9. Dynamics on swarm cluster and at nest sites during swarm decision making Quorum of scout bees at one site Consensus among scout bees at swarm

  10. Summary of a swarm’s decision-making process

  11. Decision-making = seeing which option accumulates sufficient evidence first Monkey brain Bee swarm Selected nest box Quorum (threshold) Nonselectednest box

  12. Special Trick # 2: Quickly build a consensus by means of quorum responses Linear response probability of response Quorum response QR = sharp change in response probability when a threshold group size is exceeded No. of individuals in group Sumpter and Pratt (2008) Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 364:743-753.

  13. Scouts from site with quorum start producing piping signals on swarm. Effects: -- non-scouts warm up -- “losing” scouts give up Scouts from site with quorum start producing stop signals on swarm. Effect: -- scouts advertising losing sites stop dancing (?) Two quorum responses that speed up consensus formation

  14. Active inhibition (!) of bees still advertising non-chosen sites New! Consensus formation is accelerated (evidently) by special inhibition processes

  15. Special Trick # 3: Blending interdependence and independence • Interdependence: • bees perform dances, share information • recruitment creates positive feedback • Independence: • bees don’t slavishly copy dances they follow; make own assessment of site and only then dance (or not) • personal assessment prevents info cascade about inferior site

  16. Variable interdependence, Full independence (no mimicking) High interdependence (0.8) Variable independence (0-1) List, Elsholtz, and Seeley (2009). Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 364:755-762.

  17. Swarm Smarts (lessons about good group decision-making) Use open and free debate: a powerful means of aggregating info that is dispersed across a group. Use quorum sensing: a means of getting the right balance between speed and accuracy. Use quorum responses: a means of eventually achieving consensus, if needed. Blend public discussion (interdependence) with private evaluation (independence): a means of avoiding amplifications of poor information

  18. “Second Edition” of my PhD thesis Honeybee DemocracyPrinceton University Press 2010 Contents 1 Introduction 2 Life in a Honeybee Colony 3 Dream Home for Honeybees 4 Scout Bees’ Debate 5 Agreement on Best Site 6 Building a Consensus 7 Initiating the Move to New Home 8 Steering the Flying Swarm 9 Swarm as Cognitive Entity 10 Swarm Smarts

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