[ExI] ants again

[Anders Sandberg]

Fascinating experiments, Spike!

I think the pheromone trails lack direction information, although I 
would guess there is a trail pheromone indicating which way towards food 
and a nest pheromone indicating which way towards the nest (I have not 
seen anything about a nest pheromone in the literature, maybe I am wrong 
about it). So if you could paint two separate trails with them you would 
get one-way trails. The kielbasa model looks like it is close to real 
ant simulations I have read.

I wonder what I can do with the ladybugs who are planning to winter in 
my bathroom window. Just this morning I met three (one was crawling up 
my leg). Unlike ants they are not social; their mindset is more like a 
trundling predatory tank looking for aphids. Which of course suggests 
all sorts of fun interactions with an ant-trail experiment... (we need 
somebody else to start training aphids)

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute 
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University