When Geekigirl sent me this link about computer modeling of bird flocks and its potential impact on robotics, my first thought was: Pfffffffft, don’t waste my time.
You see, I thought they’d already done that with boids. Apparently not. Or maybe they did. I sure thought they did. (Wonder where I got that idea– Mr. Steven Levy.) Yet this article claims there were problems with the boids; problems I was not made aware of.
This new model apparently corrects them, thus making years of my cocktail banter about boids and my pillow talk about computer modeling of biological behaviors, not just inappropriate but wrong. Or maybe I was just ahead of my time. Anyway, they can do it now, so maybe I was always right and reality was wrong. I don’t know.
Where am I?
Well, according to this new model, I would know where I am if I just had seven other birds, no matter their distance, under my control. It uses simple rules and produces great results. So pick your friends carefully, I suppose. And only have seven.
