Incorporating Swarm Intelligence Into Computer AI 64
An anonymous reader writes "From optimizing truck delivery routes to inspiring nerve-cell-based cognition models, ant intelligence has arrived. From the Economist: 'In 1992 Dr. Dorigo and his group began developing Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO), an algorithm that looks for solutions to a problem by simulating a group of ants wandering over an area and laying down pheromones. ACO proved good at solving travelling-salesman-type problems. Since then it has grown into a whole family of algorithms, which have been applied to many practical questions. ... Ant-like algorithms have also been applied to the problem of routing information through communication networks. Dr. Dorigo and Gianni Di Caro, another researcher at IDSIA, have developed AntNet, a routing protocol in which packets of information hop from node to node, leaving a trace that signals the "quality" of their trip as they do so. Other packets sniff the trails thus created and choose accordingly. In computer simulations and tests on small-scale networks, AntNet has been shown to outperform existing routing protocols."
IDSIA (Score:1, Insightful)
I split in their general direction.
Who/what the fuck are they, Mr. Summary Writer?
Re:Hill Climbing (Score:5, Insightful)
It just sounds like the classic hill climbing algorithm to me.
That's because it's very similar -- with a massive stochastic component. It might be effective at routing, but I image leaving "pheromone traces" over network routes to indicate quality (latency, bandwidth, whatever) is something that will make sure security researchers have jobs for a long, long time.
So, basically an adaptive traceroute? (Score:3, Insightful)
Kinda sounds like an adaptive traceroute. Perhaps traceroute was antlike before it became in vogue :)
Re:Swarm UDP? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not sure I understand your post.
UDP packet order is already unreliable. You have to build in your own sequencing and error-correction logic at the application level (if you need it).
Again, UDP does not fit this description. Are you sure you're not confusing TCP and UDP?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Datagram_Protocol#Comparison_of_UDP_and_TCP [wikipedia.org]
Re:Hill Climbing (Score:2, Insightful)
but I image leaving "pheromone traces" over network routes to indicate quality (latency, bandwidth, whatever) is something that will make sure security researchers have jobs for a long, long time.
Why? I don't see why you'd need uniquely identifiable information left behind in the "pheromone". Hopefully a decent spec would also be sensitive to privacy concerns and would simply have an "off" bit as well.
Economist Article (Score:3, Insightful)
Why are we reposting an economist article? I would think SlashDot could come up with an article that goes somewhat deeper than this.