#804 Deborah Gordon: Ant Colonies, Distributed Intelligence, and Systems Without Central Control
RECORDED ON MARCH 9th 2023.
Dr. Deborah Gordon is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Stanford University. She studies how ant colonies work without central control using networks of simple interactions, and how these networks evolve in relation to changing environments. Her projects include a long-term study of a population of harvester ant colonies in Arizona, studies of the invasive Argentine ant in northern California, arboreal ant trail networks and ant-plant mutualisms in Central America.
In this episode, we talk about ant colonies. We discuss decision-making from an ecological perspective, and distributed problem solving. We talk about the tole of genetics and the environment in ant sociality. We discuss task allocation, and why “division of labor” is not a good term to apply here. We talk about how ants recognize nestmates. We discuss genetic relatedness, kin selection, group selection, and the debate surrounding levels of selection in evolutionary biology. We talk about ant personality. We discuss if there are hierarchies or caste systems in ant colonies. Finally, we discuss if the study of ants can help us understand other systems that work without central control, and if we can extrapolate from ants to humans.
Time Links:
Intro
Decision-making from an ecological perspective
Distributed problem solving
The role of genetics and the environment in ant behavior
Task allocation in ant colonies
Do ants recognize nestmates?
Do ants move between colonies?
Genetic relatedness, kin selection, and group selection
Levels of selection in evolutionary biology
Do ants have personalities?
Are there hierarchies or caste systems in ant colonies?
Can ants help us understand other systems that work without central control?
Extrapolating from ants to humans
Follow Dr. Gordon’s work!
Follow Dr. Gordon’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3I9QbML
The Gordon Lab: https://bit.ly/3WO4xq2
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/3sMaarH
Amazon page: https://bit.ly/3vrFBsN