Swarms of extremism (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3:Science and Tech
Prelims level: Swarm intelligence
Mains level: Function of Swarm intelligence and its effectiveness in political movements 

Context:

• Clouds of locusts have overrun western India. 
• As with COVID-19, country borders and barriers put up by proud sovereign nations have been crossed without difficulty, as the locusts have travelled from Africa to South Asia.

Swarm intelligence

Are locusts intelligent? 

• Individual locusts are not. However, their swarms are swift, focused, responsive to stimuli and dangerously effective in their depredations. 
• Biologists call this phenomenon ‘swarm intelligence’, where the individuals that make up a colony of living creatures are singularly unintelligent and are driven by programmed instinct, but their collective actions make their entire colony intelligent as an entity by itself. 
• Swarm intelligence is common amongst insects; bees, ants and locusts demonstrate it amply. Yet, it is not unknown amongst higher animals as well. 
• Migrating birds and shoals of fish display high degrees of swarm intelligence too.

How does swarm intelligence work? 

• An important point to note is that they are leaderless. 
• A queen bee is not a royal in our human sense; she is just a vast progeny-producing machine.
• It is fascinating to see how a shoal of fish, without a ‘king or queen’ fish, when attacked at one flank by a predator, almost instantly displays an avoidance reaction. 
• How did the fish furthest away from the attacked flank know that the shoal was in danger in less than a microsecond and veer away from the predator? 
• Scientists put it down to the fact that within a swarm, individuals are constantly communicating with each other through actions, signals or otherwise, in a binary manner. 
• Through binary communication, the fact that the swarm is in danger reaches all individuals in an instant and thereby, the instant response. 

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No biological curiosity:

• This phenomenon is no biological curiosity. It is the very essence of the logic behind understanding brain function, as also the design of artificial intelligence. 
• If the human brain was considered a colony of independently alive neuron cells, then it can be imagined that all its nuanced thought emerges from simple, binary synapse mediated conversations between individual neurons.
• The atomisation of complex thinking as emerging from binary signals also lies at the foundation of computer science.

What does the peculiar effectiveness of extremist political movements?

• They combine swarm intelligence with the more conventional leadership models shown by higher-level animals. 
• We see all around us, for example, the resurgence of powerful right-wing movements, all fuelled by leaders who provide the focus of attention, then upscaled by swarms of followers, engaged in binary conversations. 
• A leader signals something, whether it is the need to distort history, create a false sense of assurance in a faltering economy, fuel hate against somebody, or signal success when strategies fail.
• From then on, the swarms take over the creating of simple messages, fake news, sloganeering and hate. 
• Individuals down the ladder, shorn of individual capabilities for critical thinking, share messages, amplify them and make hashtags trend.

Is there any political future for the critical, thinking mind then?

• At first sight, liberals who are ruggedly individualistic are especially unsuited for being a part of any swarm. 
• They reject binary communications, and see their proximate supporters as competitors rather than as part of a larger, coordinated order. 
• Yet leaderless movements are not unknown in the liberal, freedom-loving world either. 
• Think Hong Kong, the Arab Spring, and you have the elements of swarm intelligence backing the flowering and upscaling of pro-freedom movements.

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General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q.1)With reference to the Depsang Plains, consider the following statements:
1. The Depsang Plains are located at the Line of Actual Control (in the Western Sector) that separates the Indian and Chinese controlled regions.
2. India controls the western portion of the plains as part of Ladakh, whereas the eastern portion is part of the Aksai Chin region, which is controlled by China and claimed by India.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer................

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Mains Questions:
Q.1) What do you mean by the Swarm intelligence? How does theSwarm Intelligence work? Is there any Swarm Intelligence effect in political movement? Illustrate with example.