Behavior
Swarm Intelligence
Collective problem-solving behavior that emerges from simple individual actions without centralized control. The group exhibits intelligence beyond any individual's capability.
Biological Context
Ant colonies find shortest paths to food through pheromone trails. Honeybee swarms select nest sites through democratic voting. Fish schools make better decisions than individual fish. Each individual follows simple rules; complex behavior emerges from interactions.
Business Application
Organizational swarm intelligence: prediction markets, collective estimation, and distributed decision-making. The challenge is designing systems where individual contributions aggregate into good collective decisions.