Crown-of-Thorns Starfish

Crown-of-thorns starfish have no brain whatsoever. Their nervous system is a ring connecting radial nerves in each arm - pure distribution without central coordination. Yet they move coherently, hunt coral, avoid predators, and reproduce. Decision-making emerges from arm-to-arm communication through the nerve ring. When multiple arms sense food, the arm with strongest signal 'wins' and others follow. Direction emerges from distributed voting.

This brainless coordination has surprising capabilities. Starfish can right themselves when flipped, navigate mazes, and learn from experience - all without central processing. The architecture is radically robust: damage to one arm barely affects the whole. Cut a starfish in pieces and each piece can regenerate a complete animal. The distributed system is both cognitively limited and physically resilient.

For business, crown-of-thorns starfish represent radically decentralized organizations - cooperatives, blockchain networks, or open-source projects - that function without central authority. Decisions emerge from member voting; direction comes from whoever moves most decisively. Such organizations are extremely resilient to attacks on any single node but struggle with coordinated strategy. They can't hunt like an octopus hunts, but they can't be killed like an octopus can be killed either. The brainless architecture trades capability for survivability.