TED2003
Deborah Gordon: The emergent genius of ant colonies
黛博拉.高登 研究蚂蚁
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黛博拉.高登与她的学生一起，拿着一把日产标记笔和一台满是尘土的挖土机，挖开了亚利桑那州荒漠地区的蚁群，试图研究复杂系统（是如何运作的）。
Deborah Gordon - Ecologist
By studying how ant colonies work without any one leader, Deborah Gordon has identified striking similarities in how ant colonies, brains, cells and computer networks regulate themselves. Full bio
By studying how ant colonies work without any one leader, Deborah Gordon has identified striking similarities in how ant colonies, brains, cells and computer networks regulate themselves. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:13
I study ants, and that's because I like to think about how organizations work.
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我研究蚂蚁，因为我喜欢去思考组织是如何运作的。
00:18
And in particular, how the simple parts of organizations
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特别是组织中的简单个体
00:24
interact to create the behavior of the whole organization.
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如何通过互动来创造整体的行为。
00:29
So, ant colonies are a good example of an organization like that,
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所以，蚁群是一个很好的例子。
00:35
and there are many others. The web is one.
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还有很多其他的（例子），比如网络。
00:37
There are many biological systems like that --
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比如许多生物系统 ——
00:39
brains, cells, developing embryos.
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像大脑，细胞群，发育中的胚胎（都是很好的例子）。
00:42
There are about 10,000 species of ants.
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世上有大约一万种蚂蚁。
00:45
They all live in colonies consisting of one or a few queens,
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他们都以蚁群的方式聚居，每个蚁群有一只或者若干只蚁后。
00:50
and then all the ants you see walking around are sterile female workers.
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所有那些你看到在忙碌的是没有生育能力的雌性工蚁。
00:55
And all ant colonies have in common that there's no central control.
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所有蚁群有一个共同的特点，那就是没有中央控制。
00:59
Nobody tells anybody what to do.
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没有哪只蚂蚁是被命令去做事的
01:01
The queen just lays the eggs. There's no management.
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蚁后只负责产卵。蚁群中没有所谓的管理机制。
01:05
No ant directs the behavior of any other ant.
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没有蚂蚁指挥其他蚂蚁的行为。
01:09
And I try to figure out how that works.
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所以我试图了解蚁群运作的原理。
01:13
And I've been working for the past 20 years
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我在过去的20年都在研究
01:15
on a population of seed-eating ants in southeastern Arizona.
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一种生活在亚利桑那州东南部食种子的蚂蚁。
01:19
Here's my study site. This is really a picture of ants,
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这是我的研究地点，照片上满是蚂蚁，
01:21
and the rabbit just happens to be there.
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这只兔子只是凑巧在那儿罢了。
01:25
And these ants are called harvester ants because they eat seeds.
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这些蚂蚁被称作收获蚁因为它们吃植物的种子为生。
01:29
This is the nest of the mature colony, and there's the nest entrance.
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这是成熟蚁群的巢穴，那是蚁穴的入口
01:33
And they forage maybe for about 20 meters away,
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他们可能会去20米以外的地方觅食
01:36
gather up the seeds and bring them back to the nest, and store them.
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收集种子，并把种子带回蚁穴加以储存。
01:40
And every year I go there and make a map of my study site.
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每年我去我的研究地点，都会画张蚁群的分布图。
01:42
This is just a road. And it's not very big:
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这（副图）是一条路，这地方并不大，
01:45
it's about 250 meters on one side, 400 on the other.
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一边大约250米，另一边是400米。
01:48
And every colony has a name, which is a number,
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我给每个蚁群都标了号，
01:50
which is painted on a rock. And I go there every year
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并把号码标记在石头上。我每年都会过去
01:53
and look for all the colonies that were alive the year before,
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寻找前一年生存的蚁群
01:56
and figure out which ones have died, and put all the new ones on the map.
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看看哪些已经死了，并把新的蚁群在分布图上标记出来。
02:00
And by doing this I know how old they all are.
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这样做我就知道它们各自的年龄。
02:02
And because of that, I've been able to study how their behavior changes
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也就是因为这样，随着当蚁群越来越成熟，越来越壮大，
02:06
as the colony gets older and larger.
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我可以研究它们行为的变化。
02:09
So I want to tell you about the life cycle of a colony.
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（首先）我想告诉你们蚁群的生命周期。
02:11
Ants never make more ants; colonies make more colonies.
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蚂蚁是不能生更多的蚂蚁的，蚁群却会变多。
02:15
And they do that by each year sending out the reproductives --
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每年每个蚁群都会派出可繁殖的蚂蚁——
02:18
those are the ones with wings -- on a mating flight.
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这些蚂蚁有翅膀——进行婚飞。
02:22
So every year, on the same day -- and it's a mystery exactly how that happens --
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所以每年，并在同一天——很神奇每年都是这同一天——
02:26
each colony sends out its virgin, unmated queens with wings, and the males,
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每个蚁群都会派出有翅膀的没有交配过的蚁后，还有雄蚁，
02:32
and they all fly to a common place. And they mate.
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它们飞到一个共同的地方交配。
02:36
And this shows a recently virgin queen. Here's her wings.
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这是一只刚开始交配的蚁后。那是它的翅膀。
02:42
And she's in the process of mating with this male,
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它正在和这只雄蚁交配，
02:47
and there's another male on top waiting his turn.
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还有一只雄蚁在上面排队。
02:50
Often the queens mate more than once.
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通常蚁后交配不止一次，
02:52
And after that, the males all die. That's it for them.
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交配之后雄蚁就死了。竟落得如此下场。
02:55
(Laughter)
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笑
02:57
And then the newly mated queens fly off somewhere, drop their wings,
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然后刚交配的蚁后飞到某个地方，脱下它们的翅膀
03:02
dig a hole and go into that hole and start laying eggs.
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挖一个洞，进入洞中产卵。
03:06
And they will live for 15 or 20 years, continuing to lay eggs
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它们会在里面生存15或20年，不停地
03:11
using the sperm from that original mating.
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利用那次交配得到的精子产卵。
03:14
So the queen goes down in there.
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蚁后就这样在洞穴深处生存着，
03:16
She lays eggs, she feeds the larvae -- so an ant starts as an egg, then it's a larva.
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它产卵，给幼蚁喂食——蚂蚁开始是卵，然后成为幼蚁
03:21
She feeds the larvae by regurgitating from her fat reserves.
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它把身体储存的脂肪反刍出来给幼蚁喂食。
03:25
Then, as soon as the ants -- the first group of ants -- emerge,
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渐渐地，第一窝蚂蚁就出现了
03:29
they're larvae. Then they're pupae. Then they come out as adult ants.
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他们是幼蚁，接着成了蛹，接着长成了成蚁。
03:32
They go out, they get the food, they dig the nest,
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然后他们出洞，觅食，再把巢穴挖大。
03:35
and the queen never comes out again.
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但蚁后永远待在洞中不出来了。
03:37
So this is a one-year-old colony -- this happens to be 536.
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这是一岁大的蚁穴，536号
03:41
There's the nest entrance, there's a pencil for scale.
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那是蚁穴的入口，那是笔，作为比例尺。
03:43
So this is the colony founded by a queen the previous summer.
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这是一只蚁后在去年夏天建的蚁群。
03:47
This is a three-year-old colony.
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这是三岁大的蚁群，
03:49
There's the nest entrance, there's a pencil for scale.
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那是蚁穴的入口，那是笔，作为比例尺。
03:53
They make a midden, a pile of refuse -- mostly the husks of the seeds that they eat.
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那些蚂蚁制造了一大堆垃圾---大多是吃种子留下的壳。
03:58
This is a five-year-old colony. This is the nest entrance, here's a pencil for scale.
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这是五岁大的蚁群。这是蚁穴的入口，那是笔，作为比例尺。
04:03
This is about as big as they get, about a meter across.
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这是最大的蚁穴，入口大约一米宽。
04:07
And then this is how colony size and numbers of worker ants changes --
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这（张图）显示了蚁群的规模和工蚁数量的变化规律——
04:12
so this is about 10,000 worker ants --
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这是大约一万个工蚁——
04:15
changes as a function of colony age, in years.
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在几年内，随着蚁群生存年龄的变化而变化。
04:18
So it starts out with zero ants, just the founding queen,
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一开始没有蚂蚁，只是蚁后
04:23
and it grows to a size of about 10 or 12 thousand ants when the colony is five.
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五年后，这个蚁群就壮大到1万或1万2千的蚂蚁。
04:27
And it stays that size until the queen dies
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并且这个数量能保持到蚁后死亡，
04:30
and there's nobody to make more ants, when she's about 15 or 20 years old.
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也就是当蚁后达到15或20岁的时候，当它没办法繁殖出更多的蚂蚁了。
04:35
And it's when they reach this stable size, in numbers of ants,
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就在蚂蚁的数量稳定下来的时候（大约5岁）。
04:39
that they start to reproduce.
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蚂蚁就会再开始繁殖，
04:41
That is, to send more winged queens and males to that year's mating flight.
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也就是派更多的有翅膀的蚁后和雄蚁去交配。
04:47
And I know how colony size changes as a function of colony age
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我之所以知道蚁群规模随着生存年龄增长的变化规律，
04:52
because I've dug up colonies of known age and counted all the ants. (Laughter)
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是因为我挖开了我知道生存时间的蚁群，并一只只数了蚂蚁。
04:59
So that's not the most fun part of this research, although it's interesting.
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虽然这很有趣，但并不是研究过程中最好玩的
05:04
(Laughter)
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笑
05:05
Really the question that I think about with these ants is what I call task allocation.
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在研究蚂蚁过程中我所考虑的真正问题叫做“任务分配”。
05:10
That's not just how is the colony organized,
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这不单单是蚁群组织的原理，
05:13
but how does it change what it's doing?
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而是蚁群怎么改变工作内容。
05:15
How is it that the colony manages to adjust
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蚁群到底是如何根据环境的变化设法调整
05:19
the numbers of workers performing each task as conditions change?
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实施每项工作的工蚁的数量的呢？
05:23
So, things happen to an ant colony.
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比如，蚁群总是会遇上变故的，
05:25
When it rains in the summer, it floods in the desert.
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夏天下雨了，雨水淹没了沙漠
05:28
There's a lot of damage to the nest,
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对蚁穴造成了极大的破坏，
05:30
and extra ants are needed to clean up that mess.
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就需要更多的蚂蚁收拾残局。
05:33
When extra food becomes available --
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而当外面有更多食物时——
05:35
and this is what everybody knows about picnics --
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大家出去野餐时都知道（蚂蚁会来）——
05:37
then extra ants are allocated to collect the food.
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也需要派更多的蚂蚁去收集食物。
05:40
So, with nobody telling anybody what to do, how is it that
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但既然没有哪只蚂蚁被告知去做什么事，那整个蚁群是如何
05:43
the colony manages to adjust the numbers of workers performing each task?
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协调完成某项工作的工蚁数量呢？
05:47
And that's the process that I call task allocation.
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我称这个协调的过程为“任务分配”。
05:51
And in harvester ants, I divide the tasks
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在这些收获蚁中，我把
05:53
of the ants I see just outside the nest
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在蚁穴外面看到的蚂蚁的工作
05:55
into these four categories: where an ant is foraging,
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分为四类： 这蚂蚁在觅食
05:58
when it's out along the foraging trail, searching for food or bringing food back.
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它走在觅食的路上，寻找食物，将食物搬回
06:03
The patrollers -- that's supposed to be a magnifying glass --
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巡逻员---那应该是个放大镜---
06:06
are an interesting group that go out early in the morning
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是一群有趣的家伙，它们一早就出去了
06:08
before the foragers are active.
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在觅食蚂蚁开始活跃起来之前
06:10
They somehow choose the direction that the foragers will go,
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它们设法为觅食的蚂蚁确定方向，
06:13
and by coming back -- just by making it back --
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凭着（它们）能回巢——就只凭着（它们）能会得了巢——
06:16
they tell the foragers that it's safe to go out.
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它们告诉觅食的蚂蚁可以安全外出。
06:19
Then the nest maintenance workers work inside the nest,
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负责修理的蚂蚁在蚁穴中工作，
06:22
and I wanted to say that the nests look a lot like Bill Lishman's house.
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我想说的是蚁穴与比尔里斯曼的房子特别相似
06:27
That is, that there are chambers inside,
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因为有很多小房间在里面。
06:29
they line the walls of the chambers with moist soil
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它们用潮湿的土壤塑起了小房间的墙
06:33
and it dries to a kind of an adobe-like surface in it.
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干了之后就成了类似土坯的东西。
06:36
It also looks very similar to some of the cave dwellings
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蚁穴也很像在那个地区
06:39
of the Hopi people that are in that area.
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霍皮人居住的洞穴。
06:42
And the nest maintenance workers do that inside the nest,
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负责维修的蚂蚁在蚁穴内工作
06:46
and then they come out of the nest carrying bits of dry soil in their mandibles.
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然后背着细碎的干燥土壤爬出蚁穴，
06:49
So you see the nest maintenance workers come out with a bit of sand,
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所以你可以看到这些蚂蚁出来的时候大颚里带着一些土壤，
06:52
put it down, turn around, and go back in.
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然后把土壤放下，转身回到蚁穴。
06:54
And finally, the midden workers put some kind of territorial chemical in the garbage.
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最后，负责垃圾的蚂蚁把蚁穴特有的化学物质放入垃圾箱。
07:02
So what you see the midden workers doing is making a pile of refuse.
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所以你看到的是这些蚂蚁在堆一堆垃圾，
07:05
On one day, it'll all be here, and then the next day
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这一天，垃圾还全在，第二天
07:07
they'll move it over there, and then they'll move it back.
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它们就把垃圾搬到别处，然后再搬回来
07:09
So that's what the midden workers do.
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这就是负责垃圾的蚂蚁的工作。
07:13
And these four groups are just the ants outside the nest.
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这四类只是在蚁穴外工作的蚂蚁
07:17
So that's only about 25 percent of the colony, and they're the oldest ants.
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这些蚂蚁只占整个蚁群的25%，并且它们是最资深的蚂蚁。
07:21
So, an ant starts out somewhere near the queen.
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所以蚂蚁是从靠近蚁后的地方开始（生活历程）的，
07:24
And when we dig up nests we find they're about as deep
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当我们挖开蚁穴，我们发现这些蚁穴
07:27
as the colony is wide, so about a meter deep for the big old nests.
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和蚁群的宽度一样，时间较长的蚁穴深达一米。
07:31
And then there's another long tunnel and a chamber, where we often find the queen,
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然后有一条很长的通道和一个小房间，在那里我们通常能发现蚁后。
07:36
after eight hours of hacking away at the rock with pickaxes.
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那时我们用手镐刨了八小时的岩石之后发现的。
07:40
I don't think that chamber has evolved because of me and my backhoe
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我知道那个小房间这么隐蔽不是为了防我和我的挖沟机，
07:44
and my crew of students with pickaxes,
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也不是为了防我那些拿着手镐的学生，
07:46
but instead because when there's flooding,
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而是因为（夏天）有水会淹进来。
07:48
occasionally the colony has to go down deep.
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所以常常蚁群要潜入地下。
07:51
So there's this whole network of chambers.
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这是所有小房间的网状图。
07:53
The queen's in there somewhere; she just lays eggs.
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蚁后在差不多这里，它只负责产卵。
07:56
There's the larvae, and they consume most of the food.
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那是幼蚁，他们吃掉了大多数食物，
07:59
And this is true of most ants --
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这反映了大多数蚂蚁的情况——
08:01
that the ants you see walking around don't do much eating.
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你看到的那些忙碌的工蚁不怎么吃。
08:03
They bring it back and feed it to the larvae.
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它们把食物带回来给幼蚁吃。
08:05
When the foragers come in with food, they just drop it into the upper chamber,
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觅食的蚂蚁带着食物进入蚁穴也只是把食物放在上面的小房间里
08:10
and other ants come up from below, get the food,
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其他的蚂蚁从下面走到上面的小房间拿走食物，
08:13
bring it back, husk the seeds, and pile them up.
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把食物放进巢里，剥去种子的壳，然后把种子堆起来。
08:16
There are nest maintenance workers working throughout the nest.
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而那些负责维修的蚂蚁在整个蚁穴中忙碌。
08:19
And curiously, and interestingly, it looks as though at any time
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挺奇怪的，也挺有趣的是，在任何时候似乎
08:24
about half the ants in the colony are just doing nothing.
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大约一半的蚂蚁无事可作。
08:27
So, despite what it says in the Bible,
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所以，虽然如圣经中所说的
08:29
about, you know, "Look to the ant, thou sluggard,"
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“看这些蚂蚁（多勤劳），懒鬼们”，
08:33
in fact, you could think of those ants as reserves.
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事实上，你可以把那些蚂蚁看成是预备队。
08:36
That is to say, if something happened -- and I've never seen anything like this happen,
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也就是说，如果有事发生了---但我从来没有发现有这样的事发生，
08:39
but I've only been looking for 20 years --
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但我也只关注了20年---
08:41
if something happened, they might all come out if they were needed.
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如果有事发生，它们可以根据所需都会出去工作
08:45
But in fact, mostly they're just hanging around in there.
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但实际上，大多时候他们都在闲逛
08:47
And I think it's a very interesting question --
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我认为这是非常有趣的问题——
08:49
what is there about the way the colony is organized
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蚁群是如何组织工作的这个问题
08:52
that might give some function to a reserve of ants who are doing nothing?
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可能会让我们明白那些无所事事的蚂蚁的作用。
08:59
And they sort of stand as a buffer in between
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它们像是夹在蚁穴深处工作的蚂蚁
09:03
the ants working deep inside the nest and the ants working outside.
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和在外面工作的蚂蚁的一个缓冲带。
09:06
And if you mark ants that are working outside, and dig up a colony,
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如果你把在蚁穴外面工作的蚂蚁标记出来，然后挖一个蚁穴
09:10
you never see them deep down.
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你永远也不会在深处发现它们。
09:12
So what's happening is that the ants work inside the nest when they're younger.
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所以其实当蚂蚁幼小的时候它们是在蚁穴里面工作的
09:17
They somehow get into this reserve.
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然后进入预备队
09:19
And then eventually they get recruited to join this exterior workforce.
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最后通过选拔参与了外部工作的队伍。
09:23
And once they belong to the ants that work outside, they never go back down.
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一旦在外部工作了，它们就永远不会再回巢深处了。
09:28
Now ants -- most ants, including these, don't see very well.
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蚂蚁---绝大多数蚂蚁，包括这些收获蚁，视力并不好。
09:31
They have eyes, they can distinguish between light and dark,
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它们有眼睛，可以分辨光和黑暗，
09:34
but they mostly work by smell.
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但它们通常是用嗅觉来工作的
09:36
So just to reinforce that what you might have thought
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我还要强调的是大家通常对蚁后的认识
09:40
about ant queens isn't true --
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并非是正确的——
09:42
you know, even if the queen did have the intelligence
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你们知道，即使蚁后有智力
09:45
to send chemical messages through this whole network of chambers
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通过房间网络去发送化学信息
09:49
to tell the ants outside what to do,
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给外面工作的蚂蚁分配工作，
09:51
there is no way that such messages could make it in time to see
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但这些信息也不可能及时传达，使得
09:55
the shifts in the allocation of workers that we actually see outside the nest.
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外面蚂蚁的工作分配变化。
10:00
So that's one way that we know the queen isn't directing the behavior of the colony.
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所以从这方面来说，我们知道蚁后没有在指挥蚁群的工作。
10:05
So when I first set out to work on task allocation,
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所以当我一开始研究任务分配时
10:08
my first question was, "What's the relationship
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我的第一个问题是：到底
10:11
between the ants doing different tasks?
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不同工作的蚂蚁之间是什么关系？
10:14
Does it matter to the foragers what the nest maintenance workers are doing?
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负责维修的蚂蚁对觅食的蚂蚁有影响吗？
10:17
Does it matter to the midden workers what the patrollers are doing?"
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巡逻的蚂蚁对负责垃圾的蚂蚁有影响吗？
10:20
And I was working in the context of a view of ant colonies in which each ant
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我一直持这样的观点：就是蚁群中的每只蚂蚁
10:26
was somehow dedicated to its task from birth
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从出生开始就一直致力于其工作，
10:29
and sort of performed independently of the others,
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而且似乎是独立地工作，
10:32
knowing its place on the assembly line.
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也明白自己在生产线上处于什么位置。
10:34
And instead I wanted to ask, "How are the different task groups interdependent?"
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相反，我想问的是：不同的工作种类之间是怎么相互联系的呢？
10:38
So I did experiments where I changed one thing.
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所以我做了个实验，只改变了（关系网中的）一个元素。
10:40
So for example, I created more work for the nest maintenance workers
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比如说，我把一捆牙签放在蚁穴入口处，
10:44
by putting out a pile of toothpicks near the nest entrance,
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给负责维修的蚂蚁更多工作。
10:48
early in the morning when the nest maintenance workers are first active.
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每天一大早负责维修的蚂蚁是最早开始活动起来的。
10:52
This is what it looks like about 20 minutes later.
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这张图展示的是20分钟之后的情况，
10:54
Here it is about 40 minutes later.
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这是大约40分钟之后。
10:56
And the nest maintenance workers just take all the toothpicks
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这些蚂蚁把所有牙签都搬到
10:58
to the outer edge of the nest mound and leave them there.
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离蚁穴较远的地方。
11:01
And what I wanted to know was, "OK,
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然后我想要知道的是：好
11:04
here's a situation where extra nest maintenance workers were recruited --
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这种情况下蚁群需要用更多负责维修的蚂蚁
11:07
is this going to have any effect on the workers performing other tasks?"
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这是否会对作其他工作的蚂蚁有影响呢？
11:11
Then we repeated all those experiments with the ants marked.
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下一步我们拿那些标记的蚂蚁做这个实验，
11:15
So here's some blue nest maintenance workers.
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这是一些蓝色的负责维修的蚂蚁，
11:18
And lately we've gotten more sophisticated
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接着我们做得更复杂一点，
11:20
and we have this three-color system.
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我们用三种不同颜色来标记蚂蚁，
11:22
And we can mark them individually so we know which ant is which.
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这样我们可以把每一只蚂蚁都单独标记出来，这样我们就知道哪只是哪只了。
11:25
We started out with model airplane paint
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我们开始用飞机模型的涂料
11:27
and then we found these wonderful little Japanese markers,
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然后找到这些不错的小型日产标记笔。
11:29
and they work really well.
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结果显示这些工具非常好用。
11:31
And so just to summarize the result,
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在此我只总结一下实验的结果，
11:33
well it turns out that yes, the different tasks are interdependent.
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那就是的确不同的工作的相互有联系的。
11:36
So, if I change the numbers performing one task,
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所以如果你改变了作一类工作的蚂蚁数量，
11:39
it changes the numbers performing another.
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就改变了作另一类工作的蚂蚁数量。
11:41
So for example, if I make a mess
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比如说，如果你（把巢）弄乱，
11:43
that the nest maintenance workers have to clean up,
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负责维修的蚂蚁就要清扫干净，
11:45
then I see fewer ants out foraging.
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我就发现出去觅食的蚂蚁变少了。
11:47
And this was true for all the pair-wise combinations of tasks.
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这个（此消彼长的）结论适用于所有成对组合的工作。
11:50
And the second result, which was surprising to a lot of people,
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（我们）得出的第二个结论可能会让很多人吃惊，就是
11:55
was that ants actually switch tasks.
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蚂蚁其实在交换着工作。
11:57
The same ant doesn't do the same task over and over its whole life.
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一只蚂蚁不会一生一世只做同一项工作。
12:01
So for example, if I put out extra food, everybody else --
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比如说，如果我放点食物在那边，（不光是迷失的蚂蚁，）其他蚂蚁——
12:04
the midden workers stop doing midden work and go get the food,
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原来只负责垃圾的蚂蚁停止手头的工作，出来搬走食物
12:06
they become foragers.
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它们成了觅食的蚂蚁啦。
12:08
The nest maintenance workers become foragers.
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负责维修的蚂蚁也成了觅食的蚂蚁。
12:10
The patrollers become foragers.
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巡逻的蚂蚁也是。
12:12
But not every transition is possible. And this shows how it works.
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但不是任何（两个工作）都能互变的。这张图显示着（蚁群）如何转变（他们的工作）。
12:16
Like I just said, if there is more food to collect, the patrollers, the midden workers,
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正如我说的，如果有更多的食物要搬，那些巡逻的蚂蚁，负责垃圾的蚂蚁
12:20
the nest maintenance workers will all change to forage.
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负责维修的蚂蚁都可以成为觅食蚂蚁。
12:22
If there's more patrolling to do --
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如果有更多巡逻的任务要做
12:24
so I created a disturbance, so extra patrollers were needed --
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比如我给它们制造了点麻烦，所以需要更多的巡逻蚂蚁，
12:28
the nest maintenance workers will switch to patrol.
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负责维修的蚂蚁可以转变为巡逻蚂蚁。
12:30
But if more nest maintenance work is needed --
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但如果需要更多的负责维修的蚂蚁，
12:33
for example, if I put out a bunch of toothpicks --
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比如说我放了一捆牙签——
12:35
then nobody will ever switch back to nest maintenance,
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没有其他有工作的蚂蚁会回来为负责维修的蚂蚁，
12:38
they have to get nest maintenance workers from inside the nest.
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它们必须从蚁穴里面把负责维修的蚂蚁叫出来。
12:41
So foraging acts as a sink, and the ants inside the nest act as a source.
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所以觅食谁都可以做，而在巢里面工作的蚂蚁就是人力储备。
12:48
And finally, it looks like each ant is deciding
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最后，看起来似乎每只蚂蚁都
12:50
moment to moment whether to be active or not.
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每时每刻都在作决定该去做什么事。
12:53
So, for example, when there's extra nest maintenance work to do,
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比如说，如果需要做维修工作，
12:57
it's not that the foragers switch over. I know that they don't do that.
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觅食的蚂蚁不会转变。我知道它们不会这样做。
13:01
But the foragers somehow decide not to come out.
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但觅食的蚂蚁是因为某种原因能下决定不来帮忙。
13:03
And here was the most intriguing result: the task allocation.
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于是就产生了最神奇的结果：任务分配。
13:07
This process changes with colony age, and it changes like this.
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这个过程随着蚁群年龄的增长而像这样变化。
13:11
When I do these experiments with older colonies --
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当我对比较年长的蚁群做实验时——
13:14
so ones that are five years or older --
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那些生存五年或更长的蚁群——
13:16
they're much more consistent from one time to another
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它们从一种情况到另一种情况的转变更稳定，
13:19
and much more homeostatic. The worse things get,
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更能自我平衡。遇到的事越糟糕，
13:21
the more I hassle them, the more they act like undisturbed colonies.
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我越打扰它们，他们越表现得不被打扰一样。
13:24
Whereas the young, small colonies --
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然后那些比较年轻的小蚁群——
13:26
the two-year-old colonies of just 2,000 ants -- are much more variable.
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只有两千只蚂蚁的两年蚁群——显得更多变。
13:30
And the amazing thing about this is that an ant lives only a year.
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更令人惊奇的是，蚂蚁只活一年。
13:35
It could be this year, or this year.
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可能是这一年或是那一年。
13:37
So, the ants in the older colony that seem to be more stable
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所以，在年长的蚁群中那些更稳重的蚂蚁们，
13:41
are not any older than the ants in the younger colony.
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并不比年轻的蚁群中的蚂蚁们老多少。
13:44
It's not due to the experience of older, wiser ants.
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（所以）这不是因为较老的蚂蚁有经验，更聪明，
13:47
Instead, something about the organization
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而是因为当蚁群变老时，
13:49
must be changing as the colony gets older.
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整个组织里有什么别的东西变化了。
13:52
And the obvious thing that's changing is its size.
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而变化最大的就是蚁群的规模。
13:55
So since I've had this result, I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out
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自从我得出了这个结论，我用了很长时间尝试着去弄明白
14:01
what kinds of decision rules -- very simple, local, probably olfactory, chemical
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蚂蚁们用的是一种什么规律来作决定的——（这种规律必须是）简单的，小范围内的，极有可能是用嗅觉或化学信息传导的。
14:07
rules could an ant could be using, since no ant can assess the global situation --
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既然没有蚂蚁可以纵观全局，每一只蚂蚁都在使用这个规律——
14:12
that would have the outcome that I see,
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这样才会导致我所看到的现象，
14:15
these predictable dynamics, in who does what task.
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这些可预测的变化，关于哪只蚂蚁做什么工作，
14:18
And it would change as the colony gets larger.
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而且这个规律还会随蚁群的壮大而发生变化。
14:21
And what I've found out is that ants are using a network of antennal contact.
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更进一步，我发现蚂蚁正在用触觉网络。
14:28
So anybody who's ever looked at ants has seen them touch antennae.
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看到过蚂蚁的人可以会看到它们触碰着触角，
14:31
They smell with their antennae.
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它们靠触角来嗅。
14:33
When one ant touches another, it's smelling it,
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当一只蚂蚁用触角在接触另一只蚂蚁，就说明它在嗅它。
14:35
and it can tell, for example, whether the other ant is a nest mate
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并且蚂蚁可以分辨气味。比如说，对方是不是同一个蚁穴的。
14:39
because ants cover themselves and each other, through grooming,
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因为蚂蚁区分其他蚂蚁是通过
14:43
with a layer of grease, which carries a colony-specific odor.
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涂抹一层带有蚁穴特殊气味的油脂。
14:47
And what we're learning is that an ant uses the pattern of its antennal contacts,
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于是我们就知道蚂蚁是通过分析它用触角接触过的
14:52
the rate at which it meets ants of other tasks, in deciding what to do.
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其它工种的蚂蚁的几率和频率，来决定做它自己该作什么。
14:57
And so what the message is, is not any message
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所以蚂蚁间传递的信息，并不是一般的（无关紧要的）信息，
15:00
that they transmit from one ant to another, but the pattern.
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它们相互传达的，其实是概率。
15:04
The pattern itself is the message.
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概率本身就是信息。
15:06
And I'll tell you a little bit more about that.
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我想稍微详细地再讲解一下（这个概率的问题）。
15:08
But first you might be wondering:
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但首先你们可能想知道，
15:10
how is it that an ant can tell, for example, I'm a forager.
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蚂蚁是怎么分辨（其他工种的）——比如说，我是觅食蚂蚁，
15:15
I expect to meet another forager every so often.
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我预料到我会经常碰到其他觅食蚂蚁，
15:17
But if instead I start to meet a higher number of nest maintenance workers,
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但如果我碰到更多的是负责维修的蚂蚁，
15:21
I'm less likely to forage.
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我就不太乐意去觅食。
15:23
So it has to know the difference between
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所以它必须知道
15:25
a forager and a nest maintenance worker.
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觅食蚂蚁与负责维修的蚂蚁的区别。
15:27
And we've learned that, in this species --
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我们已经知道，在蚂蚁这类生物——
15:30
and I suspect in others as well --
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我怀疑对其它生物也是这样-——
15:33
these hydrocarbons, this layer of grease on the outside of ants,
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这些碳氢化合物，这层涂在蚂蚁外表的油脂，
15:37
is different as ants perform different tasks.
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会因不同的工种而不同。
15:40
And we've done experiments that show that
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我们做的实验表明，
15:42
that's because the longer an ant stays outside,
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那是因为在蚁穴外面待的时间越长，
15:44
the more these simple hydrocarbons on its surface change,
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这层碳氢化合物的表面变化越大，
15:48
and so they come to smell different by doing different tasks.
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所以它们就因不同的工种而有不同的气味。
15:51
And they can use that task-specific odor in cuticular hydrocarbons --
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于是它们就可以利用这种在表层的由于工种不同而不同的气味——
15:55
they can use that in their brief antennal contacts to somehow
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它们在短暂的触角接触之后可以利用这些气味
15:59
keep track of the rate at which they're meeting ants of certain tasks.
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对碰见其他工种的蚂蚁的频率做到心中有数。
16:03
And we've just recently demonstrated this
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我们最近展示了这个原理。
16:06
by putting extract of hydrocarbons on little glass beads,
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我们把浓缩的碳氢化合物涂在小型玻璃珠上，
16:10
and dropping the beads gently down into the nest entrance at the right rate.
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以正确的频率轻轻地丢在蚁穴入口，
16:14
And it turns out that ants will respond to the right rate of contact
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结果是蚂蚁会以正确的频率去接触
16:18
with a glass bead with hydrocarbon extract on it,
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这些涂有浓缩碳氢化合物的小型玻璃珠，
16:21
as they would to contact with real ants.
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就好像它们与真的蚂蚁接触一样。
16:26
So I want now to show you a bit of film --
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所以我想给你们看一小段视频——
16:33
and this will start out, first of all, showing you the nest entrance.
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一开始，你们看到的是蚁穴的入口
16:38
So the idea is that ants are coming in and out of the nest entrance.
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蚂蚁在入口进进出出。
16:41
They've gone out to do different tasks, and the rate at which they meet
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它们去做不同的工作，当它们进出入口的时候，
16:46
as they come in and out of the nest entrance determines, or influences,
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它们接触的频率决定了，或影响了
16:50
each ant's decision about whether to go out, and which task to perform.
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每只蚂蚁关于是否出去，去做什么工作的决定。
16:54
This is taken through a fiber optics microscope. It's down inside the nest.
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这是由光纤显微镜拍摄的。这是在蚁穴里面。
16:58
In the beginning you see the ants
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一开始你可以看到蚂蚁们
17:00
just kind of engaging with the fiber optics microscope.
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似乎在玩光纤显微镜，
17:02
But the idea is that the ants are in there,
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但关键是这些蚂蚁呆在那里，
17:06
and each ant is experiencing a certain flow of ants past it --
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每一只都会“感觉”其他蚂蚁们经过——
17:11
a stream of contacts with other ants.
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通过与其他蚂蚁一系列的接触。
17:14
And the pattern of these interactions determines
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而这些交流的频率就决定了
17:17
whether the ant comes back out, and what it does when it comes back out.
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（这些呆在显微镜前的）蚂蚁是否出来，出来后做什么。
17:22
You can also see this in the ants just outside the nest entrance like these.
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你可以看到这些在蚁穴入口的蚂蚁也是这样。
17:29
Each ant, then, as it comes back in, is contacting other ants.
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每只蚂蚁，当它回来时，都在接触其它蚂蚁。
17:33
And the ants that are waiting just inside the nest entrance
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那些等在蚁穴入口里面的蚂蚁，
17:36
to decide whether to go out on their next trip,
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为了决定是否要再出去，
17:39
are contacting the ants coming in.
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正在和进来的蚂蚁接触。
17:41
So, what's interesting about this system is that it's messy.
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所以，这个系统最有趣的地方是乱中有序。
17:45
It's variable. It's noisy. And, in particular, in two ways.
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这是多变的，而且有很多干扰。特别在两个方面：
17:50
The first is that the experience of the ant -- of each ant -- can't be very predictable.
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一是蚂蚁们的体验——每只蚂蚁的体验——是是没法精确预测的。
17:55
Because the rate at which ants come back depends on
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因为蚂蚁回来的频率决定于
17:58
all the little things that happen to an ant as it goes out and does its task outside.
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每只蚂蚁在出去工作时所发生的小事。
18:03
And the second thing is that an ant's ability to assess this pattern
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二是蚂蚁评估这种几率的能力
18:08
must be very crude because no ant can do any sophisticated counting.
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肯定是很粗糙的，因为没有蚂蚁可以做精确的计算。
18:15
So, we do a lot of simulation and modeling, and also experimental work,
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所以我们做了很多模拟试验的工作
18:19
to try to figure out how those two kinds of noise combine to,
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去弄明白当这两个干扰共同作用，来
18:25
in the aggregate, produce the predictable behavior of ant colonies.
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作为一个整体，导致蚁群可预测的行为。
18:31
Again, I don't want to say that this kind of haphazard pattern of interactions
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同时，我不认为这类偶然的交流方式，
18:36
produces a factory that works with the precision and efficiency of clockwork.
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可以建起工厂里一样机械化的精确度和效率。
18:43
In fact, if you watch ants at all, you end up trying to help them
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事实上，如果你看着这些蚂蚁，你最终会想去帮它们。
18:46
because they never seem to be doing anything
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因为无论它们做什么，总是看起来
18:48
exactly the way that you think that they ought to be doing it.
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和你觉得应该他们应该用的方式有出入。
18:51
So it's not really that out of these haphazard contacts, perfection arises.
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所以由于这些偶然的接触，这种机制是不完美的。
18:58
But it works pretty well.
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但它却运行良好。
19:00
Ants have been around for several hundred million years.
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蚂蚁已经生存了几亿年了
19:03
They cover the earth, except for Antarctica.
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除了南极洲，它们到处都有。
19:06
Something that they're doing is clearly successful enough
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它们这种偶然接触的沟通方式
19:10
that this pattern of haphazard contacts, in the aggregate,
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总体来说， 必定是非常成功的，才能
19:13
produces something that allows ants to make a lot more ants.
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使蚂蚁的数量变得更多。
19:17
And one of the things that we're studying is how natural selection
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另一件我们要研究的是自然选择
19:20
might be acting now to shape this use of interaction patterns --
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如何改变蚂蚁的这种交流方式——
19:27
this network of interaction patterns --
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这种交流的网络——
19:29
to perhaps increase the foraging efficiency of ant colonies.
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去提高蚁群觅食的效率。
19:34
So the one thing, though, that I want you to remember about this
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但有件事我想大家要记住的是
19:37
is that these patterns of interactions
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这些交流的方式，
19:40
are something that you'd expect to be closely connected to colony size.
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是与蚁群的规模密切相关的。
19:45
The simplest idea is that when an ant is in a small colony --
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最简单的解释是当一只蚂蚁在小的蚁群中——
19:50
and an ant in a large colony can use the same rule,
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当然在大的蚁群的蚂蚁同样的规则也适用
19:54
like "I expect to meet another forager every three seconds."
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会说：“我想我每三秒钟就会碰见另一只觅食蚂蚁。”
19:58
But in a small colony, it's likely to meet fewer foragers,
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但在小的蚁群中，这只蚂蚁碰到觅食蚂蚁的可能性较小，
20:01
just because there are fewer other foragers there to meet.
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仅仅因为觅食蚂蚁少，所以不常碰到。
20:05
So this is the kind of rule that, as the colony develops and gets older and larger,
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所以当蚁群发展地越大，变得越老，
20:11
will produce different behavior in an old colony and a small young one.
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这个规则会在大小蚁群身上有不同的结果。
20:16
Thank you.
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谢谢各位。
20:18
(Applause)
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鼓掌
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Deborah Gordon - EcologistBy studying how ant colonies work without any one leader, Deborah Gordon has identified striking similarities in how ant colonies, brains, cells and computer networks regulate themselves.
Why you should listen
Ecologist Deborah M. Gordon has learned that ant colonies can work without central control by using simple interactions like how often the insects touch antennae. Contrary to the notion that colonies are organized by efficient ants, she has instead discovered that evolution has produced “noisy” systems that tolerate accident and respond flexibly to the environment. When conditions are tough, natural selection favors colonies that conserve resources.
Her studies of ant colonies have led her and her Stanford colleagues to the discovery of the “Anternet,” which regulates foraging in ants in the same way the internet regulates data traffic. But as she said to Wired in 2013, "Insect behavior mimicking human networks ... is actually not what’s most interesting about ant networks. What’s far more interesting are the parallels in the other direction: What have the ants worked out that we humans haven’t thought of yet?" Her latest exploration: How do ants behave in space?
Deborah Gordon | Speaker | TED.com