Lausanne World Pulse – Learning from Ants: Intelligent Swarms in Many Settings
By Justin Long
Unfortunately, decentralization is a big paradigm shift for humans. In a swarm, solutions emerge out of the tiny actions of millions of participants (the ants), not directed from a central headquarters. This makes an ant (or any other swarm system) incredibly adaptive to events on the ground, but largely uncontrollable. And, as one swarm theoretician says, “Many managers would rather live with a problem they can’t solve than with a solution they don’t fully understand or control.”
Yet, decentralization works for us too. It is actually active in many things we use on a daily basis. One example is a relatively recent piece of Internet software that has taken the world’s phone calls by storm.
Skype
Skype is a piece of software that runs on a computer and enables voice calls—like telephone calls—over the Internet. Someone who has Skype can either call someone else who has Skype installed or—for a small fee—can call a regular telephone number. Skype supports video calling, conference calling and instant messaging. All are highly encrypted. Skype is available in twenty-seven languages and is used by four million people in virtually every country around the world.
The program was created in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. The two were originally involved in the creation of Kazaa, an illegal peer-to-peer file sharing system. Skype, on the other hand, is completely legitimate and was recently acquired by eBay for US$2.6 billion.
What does Skype have to do with swarms? Like Kazaa, Skype is a peer-to-peer application. It uses the same basic idea that ants use to find food.
So what does Skype have to do with swarms? Like Kazaa, Skype is a peer-to-peer application. It uses the same basic idea that ants use to find food. It does not use one centralized computer server. Instead, peer-to-peer software uses all the computers in a network (each individual computer running Skype) to dynamically process traffic.
When a phone call is made over Skype, your voice is nearly instantly recorded by the computer and broken into little electronic packets. These are sent hurtling at light-speed over the Internet, hopping from computer to computer until they reach the computer of the person you are calling. The packets do not always use the same path, although they are encrypted from end to end. The first packets that go through find the quickest route. Later packets follow this “quick route.” The result: crystal-clear, high-quality phone calls. For free. With no central server to be hacked, debugged or monitored. But Skype’s not the only example. There is a far more radical one.
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The VISA Credit Card
As you read this, you may have a small card in your pocket that will take you “everywhere you want to be.” A similar card is in the wallets of at least 600 million other people. All you probably know about the card is that it comes from your bank, your airline, your favorite store or some club you are involved with. When you need to pay a bill, you present the card and the bill is counted paid. Once a month, you get a notice of how many charges you have made, and you get to pay all or part of them. The card, of course, is the VISA credit card. But have you stopped to ponder how VISA works?
A short background: VISA was founded in part by Dee Hock, a very unorthodox philosophical thinker and business manager. In 1966, the Bank of America launched a credit card program: the Bank Americard. A franchise for this card was bought by a bank that Hock worked in. He became the manager of the bank’s credit card program, and when the program—and the whole of Bank Americard—began having problems, he was nominated to a small committee to help fix some of the problems. Those problems proved insurmountable without completely redesigning the program.
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