
Unwanted emergent behaviour in complex systems: Ant Death Spirals - msy
http://theantroom.blogspot.com/2006/11/ant-death-spiral.html
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j_baker
Hmmm... interesting. I suppose this could be thought of as a real-life example
of livelock. Or maybe a deadlock with busy waiting.

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JoeAltmaier
Not a spiral! Simply a cycle.

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Qz
If you add the dimension of the lifetime of the ant, then it becomes a spiral,
hence _death_ spiral.

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JoeAltmaier
I don't get it - where is the spiral? The ants are circling.

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Qz
You're only thinking two dimensionally.

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JoeAltmaier
I guess the TShirt guy is too.

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sprout
Can't put time on a T-Shirt. Clearly he's thinking 3-dimensionally.

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Jach
Interesting behavior. I like the one commenter's explanation that it emerges
from ants simply being selected to follow ants in front of them.

