Social Insects
Social insect colonies are an excellent example of a decentralized system, because no individual is in charge of directing or making decisions for the colony. Several groups of social insects have been shown to use quorum sensing in a process that resembles collective decision-making.
Read more about this topic: Quorum Sensing
Famous quotes containing the words social and/or insects:
“Smitten as we are with the vision of social righteousness, a God indifferent to everything but adulation, and full of partiality for his individual favorites, lacks an essential element of largeness.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“There are men from whom nature or some peculiar destiny has removed the cover beneath which we hide our own madness. They are like thin-skinned insects whose visible play of muscles seem to make them deformed, though in fact, everything soon turns to its normal shape again.”
—E.T.A.W. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus Wilhelm)