Swarm-Mongering: Brainless Blobs Flock Together

I hope CR4's aren't an example of that!

Before reading the article I thought it was about the governing assembly of some - in fact any - country.

This behavior "does not possibly explain swarming behavior in fish or birds" any more than the attraction or repulsion of two magnets explains courting behavior in mammals.

The article goes on to say, "Their paper shows that shining a light on some of the fish in the school causes them to speed up, to get away from the light. But as a result, non-illuminated fish also speed up, even though, if acting purely as individuals, they would have had no reason to do so. "We show just by using simple interactions that schools can have a sense of responsiveness to the environment that individuals do not have," he (Iain Couzin of Princeton University) says."

These animals swarm as a means of ensuring their survival - a vastly different principle altogether. The non-illuminated portion of the school responds to the actions of the few illuminated fish because evolution equipped them to do so. The built-in assumption is "There's a threat, let us respond likewise and in a manner that eons of evolution has proved as being the one which ensures the highest rate of survival for all."

(sigh)