A Synergistic System In Douglas Hofstadter's Ant Fugue

Our world is filled with complex systems which defy reductionist understanding. Systems ranging from the self-organization of life and emergent intelligence to the chaos of fluid dynamics and dripping faucets. Just as surely as these systems exhibit a synergistic process of generating information they share some analogous processes on their most basic levels. A shared characteristic is a sensitive interaction between activities on the low organizational levels (microscales) with the structure of the system as a whole (macroscale). Such a system retains a large portion of the information which is lost as noise in a less dynamic macroscopic organization; the behavior of the small scale structures does not “cancel out”. For instance a system such as a container

In this analogy for the mind, Hofstadter describes a sophisticated intelligent ant colony composed of automaton ants. It is the way in which these imbecile insects are organized and the way in which they can carry and transmit information on the most basic level which allows for the emergent intelligence and unpredictability of the colony herself. Ants organize themselves into teams due to evolutionary mechanisms of common interest, when there is some environmental reason to do so, such as when there is a large piece of food to be collected. When these teams form the constituent ants act in concert and move together through the colony. Once the environmental cause of their organization no longer exists the teams dissipate, but the affect of their team may last much longer. The brief synchronized movement of the ants acts as a kind of impulse or signal which can effect other parts of the colony. These signals interact with other signals from other teams and may even organize themselves into teams of signals all the way up to affecting the entire colony (Hofstadter