RE5 Unit 8A · THE GENIUS OF SWARMS (群体智慧)

Reading 8A · THE GENIUS OF SWARMS (群体智慧)

群聚生物如何依靠简单的个体互动涌现出惊人的群体智能？人类能从昆虫身上学到什么？

Paragraph A

A single ant or B isn't smart, but ant and B colonies are.

我过去一直以为蚂蚁对自己的一举一动都心知肚明。那些大摇大摆爬过我厨房料理台的蚂蚁看起来如此自信、目的明确。它们背后必定有位指挥官在发号施令、调度大军。然而在深入研究“集群智慧（群体智能）”之后，我才发现事实完全不是这样。

The reason, as writer Peter Miller discovers, is something called swarm intelligence.

I used to think ants knew what they were doing.

The ones marching across my kitchen counter looked so confident.

I figured they had a coherent plan.

Paragraph B

Knew where they were going and what needed to be done.

没有任何一只蚂蚁能够统领整个蚁群。这里既没有总司令，也没有首席执行官。一个蚁群可能包含数万甚至数百万只个体，但无需任何集权管理就能以惊人的高效运转。事实上，单只蚂蚁根本谈不上聪明；它只有极其微小的脑容量，并遵循极其简易的局部行事规则。

How else could ants create highways, build elaborate nests, organize epic raids,

and do all the other things ants do?

It turns out I was wrong.

Ants aren't clever little engineers, architects, or warriors after all.

At least not as individuals.

When it comes to deciding what to do next, most ants don't have a clue.

Paragraph C

If you watch an ant try to accomplish something, you'll be impressed by how inept it is,

“单只蚂蚁谈不上聪明，”斯坦福大学生物学家德博拉·戈登指出，“但整个蚁群却聪明绝顶。”在一亿四千多万年的漫长演化中，这些微小的昆虫将集群智慧淬炼到了极致：这是一种基于去中心化、自组织系统的群体协作模式。群体展现出的复杂问题求解能力，远远超越了任何单只蚂蚁的认知上限。

says Deborah M. Gordon, a biologist at Stanford University.

How do we explain then the success of Earth's 12,000 or so known ant species?

They must have learned something in 140 million years.

Ants aren't smart, Gordon says, ant colonies are.

A colony can solve problems unthinkable for individual ants, such as finding the shortest path to the best food source,

Paragraph D

allocating workers to different tasks, or defending a territory from neighbors.

以蚂蚁觅食为例。当一只工蚁发现食物源时，它会叼起食物返回蚁巢，一路上沿地表留下被称为“外激素（信息素）”的气味轨迹。其他蚂蚁嗅到这一踪迹后便循味前往觅食，并在返程中加固该气味。距离最短的路线上信息素浓度累积最快，从而自然而然地引导整个蚁群走上最高效的捷径。

They do it with something called swarm intelligence.

Where this intelligence comes from raises a fundamental question in nature.

How do the simple actions of individuals add up to the complex behavior of a group?

One key to an ant colony is that no one's in charge.

No generals command ant warriors, no managers boss around ant workers,

and the queen plays no role except to lay eggs.

Paragraph E

Even with half a million ants, a colony operates as a single entity without any management at all,

即便顶着女王头衔的蚁后，实际上也从不发布任何施政命令。她唯一的职责就是繁衍卵细胞，以维系和壮大蚁群族裔。假如蚁群不得不仰赖蚁后来做出统筹决策，其系统势必会在庞杂的信息超载下迅速崩溃。集群智慧之所以卓有成效，恰恰在于决策权被充分下放并分散给了无数普通个体。

at least none that we would recognize.

Such a system described by scientists as self-organizing relies upon countless interactions between individual ants,

each of which is following simple rules.

That's how swarm intelligence works.

Simple creatures following simple protocols, each one acting on local information.

No ant sees the big picture or tells any other ant what to do.

Paragraph F

Temnothorax, all by pennies, for example, can rate the quality of a potential nest site using multiple criteria.

与此相反，人类社会组织往往高度依赖自上而下的科层等级制。在企业与政府机构中，少数领袖往往掌握着牵涉成千上万人生计的前途大权。虽然这种模式能确立清晰的目标，但也埋下了致命的系统隐患：一旦决策层判断失误，极易造成信息瓶颈、反应迟滞乃至灾难性溃败。

But in each case, says Ian Cousin, a biologist at Oxford and Princeton universities,

no leadership is required.

Even complex behavior may be coordinated by relatively simple interactions, he says.

Inspired by this idea, computer scientists have been using swarm behavior

to create mathematical procedures for resolving complex human problems,

such as routing trucks and scheduling airlines.

Paragraph G

In Houston, for example, a company named American Air Lockheed has been using ant-based guidelines

如今，现代商界正纷纷师法自然，借鉴集群智慧攻坚物流运筹瓶颈。在货运调度与智能工厂排产中，受蚂蚁觅食法则启发的仿生算法帮助规划出运输最优路径。去中心化软件代理无需依靠中央主机提前死板计算每条线路，而是能根据实时路况与动态需求灵活自如地调整策略。

to manage a complex business problem.

The company produces industrial and medical gases at about 100 locations in the United States

and delivers them to 6,000 sites using pipelines, rail cars, and 400 trucks.

Air Lockheed developed a computer model inspired by the foraging behavior of Argentine ants,

Leena Pithima Humile.

The species, like any other ant species, deposits chemical substances called pheromones.

Paragraph H

says Charles N. Harper, who oversees the supply system at Air Lockheed.

在法国，电信运营商应用仿蚁群算法成功化解了通信拥堵。当某段光缆受损或突发流量暴涨时，成千上万个数字“虚拟工蚁”会在通信网络中探测可用信道并标记虚拟信息素，使网络系统在毫无人工干预的情况下实现全自动化自愈重定向。

The pheromone trail gets reinforced every time an ant goes out and comes back,

kind of like when you wear a trail in the forest to collect wood.

So, we developed a program that sends out billions of software ants

to find out where the pheromone trails are strongest for our truck routes.

Air Lockheed used the ant approach to consider every permutation of plant scheduling,

weather, and truck routing.

Millions of possible decisions and outcomes a day,

Paragraph I

It takes four hours to run, even with the biggest computers we have,

“这就像沿途洒下的面包屑导航，”复杂系统专家查尔斯·哈珀形象地比喻道，“与其让管理者命令每名员工走到哪里，不如让环境本身承载记忆，动态指引后续行动。”这一前瞻洞见对现代软件架构、机器人协作群以及供应链管控产生了颠覆性启示。

Harper says, but at six o'clock every morning, we get a solution that says

how we're going to manage our day.

Other companies have also profited by imitating ants.

In Italy and Switzerland, fleets of trucks now use ant foraging rules

to find the best routes for bulk deliveries.

In England and France, telephone companies improved their network speed

by having messages deposit virtual pheromones at switching stations,

just as ants leave signals for other ants to show them the best trails.

Paragraph J

But ants are not the only insects with something useful to teach us.

蜜蜂群体则展现出一种更为登峰造极的民主群智决策机制。当蜂群规模膨胀超出巢穴负荷时，数千只蜜蜂会紧紧抱团悬挂在树枝上，同时派出数百只经验丰富的侦查蜂飞向四面八方寻找合适的新家。这项抉择直接关乎整个蜂群的生死存亡。

On a small island off the southern coast of Maine,

biologist Thomas D. Sealy of Cornell University has been studying

how colonies of honeybees, Apis Malefora, choose a new home.

In late spring, when a hive gets too crowded,

a colony normally splits.

The queen, some drones, and about half the workers

migrate a short distance to cluster on a tree branch.

While a small number of scouts go searching for a new site for the colony.

To find out how, Sealy's team put out five nest boxes,

Paragraph K

and released a colony of bees.

康奈尔大学生物学家托马斯·西利耗费数十年潜心研究蜜蜂寻巢。每只侦察蜂都会依据严苛标准评估候选树洞：内部容积、离地高度、洞口朝向以及天敌防范性。返回蜂团后，侦察蜂会跳起“摇摆舞（8字舞）”，向同伴生动传递巢穴的坐标方位与优劣等级。

Scout bees soon appeared at all five boxes.

When they returned to the Maine group, each scout performed a waggle dance,

urging other scouts to go have a look.

These dances include a code giving directions to a box's location.

The strength of each dance reflected the scout's enthusiasm for the site.

The decisive moment didn't take place in the Maine cluster of bees,

but out at the boxes, where scouts were building up.

As soon as the number of scouts visible near the entrance to a box

reached about 15, a threshold confirmed by other experiments,

Paragraph L

and they returned to the swarm with the news.

巢穴条件越优越，侦查蜂舞动的时长就越久、姿态越热烈。这会吸引更多侦察蜂前往该地点实地勘察复核。如果它们表示认同，归来后也会为该选址激情起舞。通过这种思想与方案的公开公平竞争，最优方案的支持度如燎原之火迅速飙升，而劣质选址则门庭冷落、渐遭弃置。

It was a race, Sealy says, which site was going to build up 15 bees first?

Scouts from the chosen box then spread through the swarm,

signaling that it was time to move.

Once all the bees had warmed up, they lifted off to secure their new home.

To no one's surprise, it turned out to be the best of the five boxes.

The bees' rules for decision-making, seek a diversity of options,

encourage a free competition among ideas, and use an effective mechanism to narrow choices.

Paragraph M

I've applied what I've learned from the bees to run faculty meetings, he says.

西利在缅因州海岸的一座孤岛上放置了多组不同规格的蜂箱来实证这一现象。当分蜂群抵达该岛后，侦察蜂对所有箱体进行了地毯式考察。令人惊叹的是，蜂群几乎每次都能精准选中品质最高的蜂箱，其达成共识的过程极为严密且全过程透明。

He wants to avoid going into a meeting with his mind made up,

hearing only what he wants to hear and pressuring people to conform.

Therefore, Sealy asks his group to identify all the possibilities,

discuss their ideas for a while, and then vote by secret ballot.

It's exactly what the swarm bees do, which gives a group time

to let the best ideas emerge and win.

In fact, almost any group that follows the bees' rules will make itself smarter,

says James Surawicki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds.

The analogy is really quite powerful.

Paragraph N

The bees are predicting which nest site will be best,

蜜蜂民主决策之所以坚韧可靠，在于个体蜜蜂绝不盲从附和。每一只侦察蜂在“投票表决”之前，都坚持亲自飞抵目标树洞独立验核。这里毫无威逼胁迫，没有随大流的同侪压力，更没有强势霸道的领袖对异见进行打压。

and humans can do the same thing, even in the face of exceptionally complex decisions.

Investors in the stock market, scientists on a research project,

even kids at a county fair, guessing the number of beans in a jar can be smart groups,

he says.

That is, if their members are diverse, independent minded,

and use a mechanism such as voting, auctioning, or averaging to reach a collective aggregate decision.

That's the wonderful appeal of swarm intelligence.

Whether we're talking about ants, bees, or humans,

Paragraph O

response to local cues, simple rules of thumb,

一旦聚集在最优选址处的侦察蜂数量达到预设法定阈值（Quorum，法定人数），争论便尘埃落定。侦察蜂随即全速飞回大本营发出启程信号，带领成千上万只同伴以整齐划一的阵列直飞新家安居。

add up to an effective strategy to cope with complexity.

Consider the way an internet search engine like Google uses group smarts

to find what you're looking for.

When you type in a search query, the engine surveys billions of web pages on its index servers

to identify the most relevant ones.

It then ranks them by the number of pages that link to them,

counting links as votes.

The most popular sites get weighted votes since they're more likely to be reliable,

and the pages that receive the most votes are listed first in the search results.

Paragraph P

With free collaborative encyclopedias available to anyone online,

这套精妙的群体机制令西利大受启发，他甚至将其精髓引入到了人类团队会议中。在担任康奈尔大学系主任期间，他推行了诸如鼓励成员独立探索多元方案、不带个人偏见坦诚交流见解、以及在所有人充分评估证据前暂缓终审表决等一系列科学议事规则。

it's now possible for huge numbers of people to think together in ways we never imagined a few decades ago.

says Thomas Malone of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

MIT, Center for Collective Intelligence.

No single person knows everything that's needed to deal with problems we face as a society,

such as health care or climate change.

But collectively, we know far more than we've been able to tap so far.

Such thoughts underline an important truth about collective intelligence.

Paragraph Q

A group won't be smart if its members imitate one another,

蜜蜂给人类带来的启示再明白不过：集群智慧的发挥必须具备三大前提——观点多样性、个体独立性以及科学的意见汇聚机制。当这三项条件齐备时，群体综合决策的品质往往能远超场内任何顶尖个体的孤立研判。

unthinkingly follow fads, or wait for someone to tell them what to do.

When a group is being intelligent, whether it's made up of ants or attorneys,

it relies on its members to do their own part.

For those of us who sometimes wonder if it's really worth recycling that extra bottle

to lighten our impact on the planet, the fact is that our actions matter,

even if we don't see how.

A honeybee never sees the big picture any more than you or I do,

says Thomas D. Seeley, the bee expert.

💡 审辩式思维 (Critical Thinking: Reflecting & Evaluating)

1. What are examples of collective intelligence or swarm behavior in human society?

在人类社会中，有哪些机制体现了群体智能？其最终决策结果通常是积极的还是消极的？

思维指引 (Sample Perspective):
• 典范案例：维基百科（全球无数志愿者协同修订编写庞大百科全书）、民主选举与陪审团制度、开源软件开发（如 Linux 内核协作），均是人类群体智慧的体现。
• 决策成效：群体智慧在大多数情况下能得出远超单个专家精度的积极结论；但在缺乏独立判断时，群体盲从或选错领导人也可能造成失误。

2. What are the pros and cons of applying swarm intelligence to the Internet?

互联网汇聚了数十亿网民，将其视为群体智能网络有哪些利弊？

思维指引 (Sample Perspective):
• 优势 (Pros)：海量用户协同能够极速汇总灾情情报、众筹资金、实时修正路况与解决复杂科学难题（如蛋白质折叠游戏 Foldit）。
• 弊端 (Cons)：虚假新闻、极化阴谋论和网络暴力在算法推荐下以病毒式蔓延。如果网民群体丧失批判思维盲从虚假信息，所谓的网络“群体”将沦为非理性的乌合之众。

📝 课文理解深度练习 (Comprehension & Skills)

Reading Comprehension: Multiple Choice (P.165) Reading Comprehension: Patterns & Swarm Rules (P.166) Reading Skill: Cause and Effect Connections (P.167)

预习练习得分: 0 / 18 题

Reading Comprehension Part A: Multiple Choice (P.165)

READING COMPREHENSION · MAIN IDEA

1. What is the main idea of the passage?

READING COMPREHENSION · INFERENCE

2. In paragraph A, what does the author imply?

READING COMPREHENSION · RHETORICAL PURPOSE

3. Why does the author quote Deborah M. Gordon in paragraph C?

READING COMPREHENSION · REFERENCE

4. The word 'it' in the last sentence of paragraph C refers to:

READING COMPREHENSION · DETAIL

5. According to the information in paragraph E, what is the primary role of queen ants?

READING COMPREHENSION · RHETORICAL PURPOSE

6. How does Charles N. Harper explain the concept of a pheromone trail in paragraph I?

READING COMPREHENSION · INFOGRAPHICS

7. According to the infographic 'Articulate Ants', what does a weaver ant NOT do when an intruder is nearby?

Reading Comprehension Part B: Swarm Decision Rules & Functions (P.166)