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Thesis List and Presentation
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Julie Kim
ow Group Behaviour and Social Network Systems are related to Ants and Bees and what we should learn from them
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Introduction
A. Problem
People, especially nowadays, are likely to be in Human Chauvinism. Human Chauvinism means that human pretends to be the most superior existence in the world. In similar, the word Supreme Creature denotes humans. They are charmed by their technologies and science they developed. And insist that they are different from other creatures like cows and pigs. Actually, that can be the truth. But as there is a result, a being of cause is so natural. However, they never think of other things that would have inspired or affected them to achieve all those things. As the phenomenon goes along, human may not attempt to imitate and learn from animals and plants. And if people do not put a stop to a vicious circle of conceit, they will never make something fresh and new again.
1. Stereotype
Animals (or plants) cannot be more superior than us in any ways! This is the most common fixed idea which people easily have. But until now, there have been continously some examples where inventors were inspired by animals or plants and invented things by imitating them. For example, insects are being ignored and underestimated by their abilities. However, their group behaviors contributed a lot to the development of robots.
Fortunately, the industry using systems and principles of insects’ society is being expanded today. But still to humans, insects are so weak. If he or she walks, lots of insects die just because of one’s feet. This doesn’t happen only with insects but also with plants and other animals. Most of them are used as food. Plants easily die when we let them dry or twist them. Animals are sometimes mistreated and or we shoot them. That’s why humans start to have self-superiority and stereotype on non-human things. But unlike their thought, animals, especially insects, also have strengths, human should learn from.
2. Previous studies and direction
There have been many studies on how insects (including other organisms) are providing benefits to human life by extraordinary methods on ordinary things to them compared to other topics. Their excellence has been proved by scientists, experts particularly by Peter Miller. Ants’ amazing form of ordering in ranks, but don’t have any commander, is often used for study of computers and mechanical engineering. Bees’ features of making decisions is just about to change how common companies are actually doing. But not many studies provided the ways how to apply these strengths of animals to actual human life. Animals that I am going to cover in this thesis have one common characteristic. They use ?Group Intelligence“. Especially, ants are familiar with group behavior. Animals raise strong power using this extraordinary intellect and affect science of cooperation. This will be the point that the thesis will focus on.
B. Question
Then, now it’s time to take off the veil on true colours of smart superior animals. But prior to it, checking some important key points is necessary.
1. Relationship between human and animal
Relationships between human and animal which I am going to use as an example of the thesis is divided into three: symbiotic, parasitic and natural enemy relationships. And symbiotic relationship is the most beneficial to each. Like human is developing civilization using how animals’ are doing and animals are acknowledged their true values. If so, which amazing skills should we learn from animals? Those skills will all be related with ?Group Intelligence“ which I previously stated.
2. Example of expanding non-human industry
These days, the world is charmed with insect industry boom which is expanding and diffusing. Unlike human using so much resources paying no price, insects are completing their roles appropriately in organic relationships with the nature . Actually, an insect is the owner of surprising individual skills that human, who has the highest intellect, cannot mimic. A group of ants transport preys, several times bigger than themselves, being in a ship-shape. Bees make a perfect construction of hexagons with limited resources, and spiders spin a web in fascinating shapes. Insects of various kinds, of various use, play an active part in industries such as pets, industrial engineering, prevention of breeding and extermination for production of environment-friendly agricultural products, theme parks and so on. In the U.S., scientists and experts are getting great results from biomimetic skills using insects’ behaviors and roles as well as Japan. Using insects industrial technological is positive. Insects sense ultraviolet rays and ultrasonic waves that human cannot see and apply to behaviors . They also can assort the kind of a chemical compound only with odor of one molecule of a compound.
This kind of insects’ sensorial ability provides new idea to the invention of cutting-edge sensor. Moths’ antenna receptor is the best biosensor. Abroad, like in the U.S. and in Europe, an attempt to inflect insects as a biosensor to detect drugs or other specific substances is active. For a real example, the US conducted an experiment to detect an explosive using bees and moths at war in Iraq. In the experiment, a team from the U.S. finally found a bomb covered with sugar with bees and moths which were trained enough. If the mechanism where flies change their course in air in an instant is adopted to aerospace planes, sizable effect would be expected. And the Georgia Institute of Technology in the U.S. is now developing the Entomopter, which is an insect spy aircraft as one of the research projects of the Ministry of National Defense . This aircraft is 25 centimeters long and weighs 15 grams. It can now fly for 15 seconds. Not only for this, industry of insects can be combined with the cutting-edge bio technology also.
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