Tark parv - Peter Miller

What do tickling a termite's hind leg and controlling large crowds have in common? What about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which just made its first commercial flight, and the pheromones of ants? These and many other questions are answered in National Geographic author Peter Miller's book The Smart Swarm, which compares colonies, swarms and swarms of insects, fish and birds to organizations in the business world and shows how much we can learn from the animal kingdom when it comes to decision-making and collaboration.

Research into the collective decision-making and engagement of insects, fish and birds has led to innovative solutions in aircraft engineering, intelligence services, government, robotics, construction, to name just a few fields. By observing the behavior of termites, it is possible to learn how to respond better to emergency situations: ants helped the management of Southwest Airlines to reorganize the airplane seat reservation system, migratory locusts help to design safer buildings and ensure security at mass events. Miller's book is exceptionally informative and at the same time fascinating, offering ever new surprises in how social cues and signals can culminate in both cooperation and destruction. An individual is not smart, a group, on the other hand, usually is.