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Cockroaches Make Group Decisions?

The Discovery Channel is reporting a recent study indicates that cockroaches govern themselves using simple group consultations before anything that affects the entire group. From the article: " The research determined that cockroach decision-making follows a predictable pattern that could explain group dynamics of other insects and animals, such as ants, spiders, fish and even cows. Cockroaches, Blattella Germanica, are silent creatures, save perhaps for the sound of them scurrying over a counter top. They therefore must communicate without vocalizing.

212 comments

  1. Kafkaesque by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not only can they communicate, but they also have a staunch work ethic. They've been known to make every attempt to get to work on time regardless of whatever transformations may happen to them over night.

    Poor Gregor, no matter how hard he released pheromones, his parents just wouldn't listen ... er ... smell to him.

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Kafkaesque by Cornflake917 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Cockroaches are able to make group decisions without a leader. With a staunch work ethic, they would be a perfect candidate for communism. The huge population of Ants have been communist for quite some time. We can't let this spread into a domino effect! We must destory all cockroaches before communism spreads to all the other insects!

    2. Re:Kafkaesque by Flunitrazepam · · Score: 1

      Kafk0wnage!

      --
      1) Your analysis is based on bad assumptions so your result is way off. 2) You're a sick bastard for fucking a horse.
    3. Re:Kafkaesque by grogdamighty · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Aren't ants monarchists? They have a queen...

      --
      My other sig is funny.
    4. Re:Kafkaesque by clydemaxwell · · Score: 1

      I am o-k with the destruction of all cockroaches, everywhere.

      --
      Browsing with classic discussion, noscript, at -1 and nested
      no hidden comments and I only mod UP
    5. Re:Kafkaesque by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Funny
      "he Discovery Channel is reporting a recent study indicates that cockroaches govern themselves using simple group consultations before anything that affects the entire group."

      Sounds like the management at about every company I've ever worked for....

      cockroach, manager

      potatO, potAto....

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    6. Re:Kafkaesque by Cornflake917 · · Score: 2, Funny

      They have a monarchist government, but a communist economy...or something. Either way we should destroy ants too. Preferably with magnifying glasses.

    7. Re:Kafkaesque by Ansonmont · · Score: 2, Funny

      Please stop sullying the name of cockroaches everywhere by associating it with "manager," which, by association, leads to the subspecies "project manager." Otherwise known as "overhead."

    8. Re:Kafkaesque by 3-State+Bit · · Score: 1

      Mr. President, we cannot allow a mineshaft gap!

    9. Re:Kafkaesque by rockypg · · Score: 1

      umm.. Gregor wasn't really a cockroach . Just that english speakers thought he was.

    10. Re:Kafkaesque by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Duh. "Cockroach" can be used figuratively just as well as "vermin." Example: That sleazy cockroach tried to pimp out his daughter. (Cf. the literal "Lawyers sure are cockroaches!")

    11. Re:Kafkaesque by Dabido · · Score: 1

      As a CEO I agree.

      I have heaps of cockroaches working for me, and not one of them is incompetent enough to get promoted into management positions!!!!

      --
      Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)
    12. Re:Kafkaesque by pilybaby · · Score: 1

      They're the same as all other animals in that they cooperate based on the rules on kin selection. But with ants it's a bit weird in that the females are more closely related to the queen than the males or something like that which makes them appear "communist" or more altruistic than other specias.

      They have a weird split of "amount of relatedness" between the workers / soldiers and the queen. Perhaps it was that that the workers are more closly related to their brothers and sisters than the queen - I think that might have been it.

    13. Re:Kafkaesque by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And to think they wanted to put hissing cockroaches in charge of robots. HISSING cockroaches, goddammit.

    14. Re:Kafkaesque by mgblst · · Score: 1

      I used to destroy ants with my brothers basketball. He never could figure out what that funny smell was.

      Not quite sure why they annoyed me so much.

  2. As Einstein once said... by brian0918 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Imagination is more important than knowledge.

    1. Re:As Einstein once said... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What exactly does this quote have to do with the article?

  3. nothing to hear here, move along by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Similar to group dynamics at a mime conference.

    1. Re:nothing to hear here, move along by lbrandy · · Score: 5, Funny

      And similiar to the Republican-dominated Congress.

      You realize the article was about how cockroaches get together, communicate effectively, and do what is good for the entire group, right? That means you either completely mistrolled for the slashdot groupthink, or you are the bravest Republican in the history of slashdot. Either way, I fear a karma-punishment in your future.

    2. Re:nothing to hear here, move along by winkydink · · Score: 3, Funny

      Correct. And don't forget that the metaphor for a Democrat-controlled Congress is pigs at a trough. They do vocalize.

      --

      "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

    3. Re:nothing to hear here, move along by vertinox · · Score: 1

      That means you either completely mistrolled for the slashdot groupthink, or you are the bravest Republican in the history of slashdot.

      Hrm? Republicans are the majority in congress? All that irresponsible budget spending and big government had me fooled for a bit.

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    4. Re:nothing to hear here, move along by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't be fooled. Irresponsible budget spending and big government have been what Republicans have been all about (rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding) for the last 30 years.

    5. Re:nothing to hear here, move along by javamann · · Score: 1

      And let's not forget about the budget surplus under Clinton.

    6. Re:nothing to hear here, move along by G)-(ostly · · Score: 1

      You realize the article was about how cockroaches get together, communicate effectively, and do what is good for the entire group, right?

      Yes, and Congress typically gets together, communicates effectively, and does what's best for the entire... Congress.

      So, yes, they're just like cockroaches: as a group, they generally do what's best for themselves. Note that the article didn't indicate that the behavior generally benefited other cockroaches outside the clique.

      In fact, the only exception I take to the OP is that it singles out the current Republican congresses self-interest and corruption when one need go back only to the beginning of Clinton's term to find an equally degraded Democratic congress.

      In fact, the current congressional makeup is primarily a backlash from the corruption of the previous democratic congress, just like it seems likely that the democrats will now take over again as a result of all the republican corruption over the last six to eight years.

      I guess that at least American voters aren't like cockroaches then. They rarely do what's best for the group...

    7. Re:nothing to hear here, move along by G)-(ostly · · Score: 1

      Which was primarily the work of a fresh Republican congress.

      Furthermore, note that the surpluses were projected and largely relied on a non-finalized tobacco deal with the promise that the funds would be found elsewhere if it fell through.

      Maybe people like Bush wouldn't get elected if the opposition could at least pretend to have a clue.

    8. Re:nothing to hear here, move along by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's funny, because the overall federal deficit experienced a net increase under Clinton's watch, as this graph shows clearly.

      It's amazing there are still people who think the US government was firmly in the black until the Great Satan Bush, from whom all evil springs, took office.

    9. Re:nothing to hear here, move along by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Ummmm, no, sorry.

      That graph you pointed to shows the US national debt, not the deficit. The debt will go up as long as there's a deficit. If last year's deficit was 1000 times bigger than this year's, the debt goes up (because we're still in deficit) but the deficit goes down, get it?

      Now, I agree that deficit financing is wrong but that previous graph showing the deficit (not the debt) clearly demonstrates that every Democratic president since Carter managed to DEcrease the spending deficit during his term. Every Republican president over that same interval managed to INcrease the spending deficit.

      If you have evidence to the contrary, please post that instead of your lame attempts to obfuscate reality.

    10. Re:nothing to hear here, move along by shawb · · Score: 1

      And not to mention... that graph does indeed show that the actual debt, when corrected for inflation, declined during the clinton years... which means a net surplus for that time. Now, I'm not giving full credit to Clinton on this, a lot of it being a strong economy at the time (and therefore higher taxes) due in large to the dot.com era tech bubble. But then again, the econmy was pretty strong in the 80's under Reagan, and look what the debt did during that time.

      Really makes sense considering that FULLY HALF of the current budget is in military related expenses. I mean... of course the united states has to spend more on its military than the rest of the world... combined.

      --
      I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
  4. This explains... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...politicians, pollsters, and focus groups. Seems many species of roaches act this way.

  5. That explains it! by nemik · · Score: 4, Funny

    That explains all those committees and cabinets then that politicians constantly set up. Only cockroaches are obviously much more effective in their efforts.

    1. Re:That explains it! by Jaqui · · Score: 1

      ~lol~
      Too True!!

      --
      J. Henager: If the average user can put a CD in and boot the system and follow the prompts, he can install and use Linux
    2. Re:That explains it! by kminchau · · Score: 1
      That's also why it is so hard to get rid of politicians, they don't just die...
      The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'.
      -Larry Hardiman
      --
      "Never underestimate the power of the Slashdot!"
  6. brainspawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Feeling/"reading" electric currents?

  7. X-Files by Dante+Shamest · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Cockroaches are interesting enough to have been the focus of one X-Files episode, War of the Coprophages

    In the X-Files episode "War of The Coprophages" cockroaches are seen to group together to murder people. The character Dr. Berenbaum (based on the University of Illinois entomologist) suggests that it is actually swarms of flying cockroaches that are responsible for most UFO sightings (they generate an electro-static field which can be illuminated dependent on atmospheric conditions). In one of the scenes, a cockroach that escaped can be seen crawling over the camera, making it appear that the viewer's television has become infested. Though the shot was not planned, the producers decided to leave it in the episode.

    1. Re:X-Files by Cornflake917 · · Score: 1

      In one of the scenes, a cockroach that escaped can be seen crawling over the camera, making it appear that the viewer's television has become infested. Though the shot was not planned, the producers decided to leave it in the episode.

      Ahh man, I loved that episode. But I'm pretty sure the cockroach crawling over the camera wasn't an accident. First of all, it wasn't crawling over the camera. If I remember correctly, the back of the cockroach was facing towards the viewer. They made it look like a cockroach was actually on your TV screen. It actually fooled my mom! My guess is that it was a prank similar to what we saw Jim Carrey do in "The man on the moon" (I forget the comedians name who did it in real life, as I was too young) in which he made the broadcast fuzzy on purpose so people would try adjust their TV's it even though there was nothing wrong.

    2. Re:X-Files by Zzesers92 · · Score: 1
      (I forget the comedians name who did it in real life, as I was too young)

      His name was Andy Kaufman [IMDB], probably best known for his roles on SNL and Taxi.

    3. Re:X-Files by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought this was a pest control comercial. I remember there being some controversy because the roach crawling across the screen scared people

  8. Nature's middle-management. by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cockroaches have regular staff meetings in order to create synergy, redefine their core competencies, implement new strategems, and satisfy shareholders.

    Termites can do it too, but they hold theirs inside a plank of wood, hence the term "board meeting."

    1. Re:Nature's middle-management. by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 1

      You owe me a new keyboard.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    2. Re:Nature's middle-management. by Programmer_In_Traini · · Score: 1

      good one :) ... board meeting... lol... im still laughing, man must i be tired!

      --
      If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel. - Will Kommen
    3. Re:Nature's middle-management. by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 1

      Notice: No paradigms were shifted during the composition of the preceding post.

    4. Re:Nature's middle-management. by antiMStroll · · Score: 1, Funny
      "Cockroaches have regular staff meetings in order to create synergy, redefine their core competencies, implement new strategems, and satisfy shareholders."

      In my experience those aren't sure signifiers of intelligence at work.

    5. Re:Nature's middle-management. by ScottCooperDotNet · · Score: 1

      Which is why I tagged this article "microsoft".

    6. Re:Nature's middle-management. by ByteSlicer · · Score: 1

      Lol. Termites evolved from roaches by the way.

    7. Re:Nature's middle-management. by Elminst · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Thank you. I was wondering why the heck someone tagged this "microsoft" :)

      --
      No unauthorized use. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.
    8. Re:Nature's middle-management. by aztec+rain+god · · Score: 1

      Is Vista cockroach-ready yet?

      --
      Sig cannot be found.
    9. Re:Nature's middle-management. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow. Way to not to not get the hacky joke.

    10. Re:Nature's middle-management. by bar-agent · · Score: 1

      So, middle management will survive the nuclear holocaust as well?!

      Dammit, what's the point, then?

      --
      i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
  9. Roach Intelligence by linguizic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is new to our understanding of roaches, but the article doesn't realy go in to what's amazing about this. Ants are pretty well understood, an ant colony is an aggregated indirect fitness machine. Since all the female offspring of the queen are related to eachother by 3/4 (why? because they're way cool!!), and the worker caste is sterile, they promote the fitness of their sisters who will become queens themselves and leave the colony, reproduce, and therefore replicate their sister's genes. This genetic system is called haplodiploidy. Roaches on the other hand, are diploids like you and I. The genetic incentive for the cooperation that we see in ants is just not there in roaches. Instead, what the roaches are doing is more similar to reciprocal altruism.

    from the article: After much "consultation," through antenna probing, touching and more, the cockroaches divided themselves up perfectly within the shelters. For example, if 50 insects were placed in a dish with three shelters, each with a capacity for 40 bugs, 25 roaches huddled together in the first shelter, 25 gathered in the second shelter, and the third was left vacant.

    A completely selfish roach would say "screw you, I'm not going to that other house, I want to stay where everybody else is!". But because other roaches are willing to go to the second house so is any extraordinarily selfish roach. So this is an evolutionarily stable strategy. This challenges how smart we think roaches are. They are truly making decisions. It's not that some of the roaches are genetically predisposed to being the roach who decides not to stay with everyone else while other's lack that genetic predisposition. If this were the case the numbers of each group when they divide would never be even.

    --
    Does this sig remind you of Agatha Christie?
    1. Re:Roach Intelligence by gnovos · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Wouldn't this just be a simple case of emergent behavior? Like, the roach has a simple rule that they follow over and over again, and when the house gets too big that rule proells them to the next house. Like somethign along the lines of:

      1) Stay in shelter
      2) Count other roaches nearby
      3) If otherCount > X move to the next house.

      I have heard ants follow this kind of "reasoning" and thus perform very complext tasks.

      1) Gather Food
      2) If gatherFoodSmell becomes too strong then hunt for food
      3) If fellowHunters smell becomes too strong then make tunnel repairs

      etc...

      --
      "Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
    2. Re:Roach Intelligence by harrkev · · Score: 4, Insightful
      2) Count other roaches nearby
      Therein lies the problem -- roaches can't "count" in any normal sense of the word. The fact that (according to TFA) roaches split themselves into two populations of 25 is amazing.

      Of course the article was rather lacking in details. Was it always 25, or was it sometimes a 27/23 split?
      --
      "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
    3. Re:Roach Intelligence by thePig · · Score: 1

      I have not read the actual paper, but from the article, I am not very sure whether this can be considered as group decisions.

      Cant it be considered this way?
      The cockroaches want to be together - being social insects. But they cant be together when there is not enough space. So when the space is getting less and less, they move to the next shelter.
      Now individual roaches move out, and some of the roaches in the first shelter move out just cheking the other areas (exploration being one of the primary tenets of survival).
      If they see that other shelter has enough roaches, but there is enough space, then they join that area.
      Now since both the shelters have enough roaches and enough space too, roaches dont go to the third area.

      *My problem with the group decision idea is in believing that roaches can count.

      Now I would be the one with pie in the face, if the roaches had discussions (sic) and then went to each of the shelters, than going to the shelters first and then discussing (sic).

      --
      rajmohan_h@yahoo.com
    4. Re:Roach Intelligence by linguizic · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It couldn't be like you describe. All the roaches gather outside the houses and feel around at eachother for a while and then divide and go into the 2 different houses. This requires communication and desicion making. It would be a completely different story if they all tried to cram into one house, and then the ones who couln't fit tried to cram into the other. But that's not what seems to be happening here.

      One of the things that this suggests to me is that roaches have good spatial reasoning. If they can make the decision to break up into 2 groups before trying to cram everybody into one of the houses, then they must be able to judge spatial relationships quite well. How many humans can look at a room and say "you could fit 25 humans into that room"?

      --
      Does this sig remind you of Agatha Christie?
    5. Re:Roach Intelligence by dmarcoot · · Score: 0

      So does this mean roaches are smart enough to avoid poisons and find food as a group?

    6. Re:Roach Intelligence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      My problem with the group decision idea is in believing that roaches can count.

      A thinking bug? I find the idea offensive!

    7. Re:Roach Intelligence by shdragon · · Score: 1

      Excellent post! If more people could contribute posts like yours, /. would be a much better place.

      --
      "...we dont care about the economics; we just want to be able to hack great stuff."
    8. Re:Roach Intelligence by carlmenezes · · Score: 1

      Yeah. That's a thinking bug right there! :)

      --
      Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
    9. Re:Roach Intelligence by Kanasta · · Score: 1

      Not only can they survive a nuclear war, but they can count and divide?!

      Well, seems they can only divide by 2 now, wonder how long till they learn to divide by 3!

    10. Re:Roach Intelligence by intangible · · Score: 1

      How many roaches does it take to make a transister?

    11. Re:Roach Intelligence by Mignon · · Score: 1

      Hmm, haven't read the article or even all the comments, but I think a simpler rule that could account for this behavior would be to just go into the opposite shelter as the roach in front of you. But I'm probably thinking too much like a programmer.

    12. Re:Roach Intelligence by David+Gould · · Score: 1


        Therein lies the problem -- roaches can't "count" in any normal sense of the word.

      It's not even just that -- the GP omitted the all-important Step 0: Determine an appropriate value for X . I.e., how do they decide how many should go to each shelter?

      Was it always 25, or was it sometimes a 27/23 split?

      It doesn't matter if they formed exactly equal groups, because that would not even necessarily be the optimal solution unless the shelters are assumed to be exactly equal in capacity. They were, in this experiment, but this would be unlikely in a real-world setting. So if I were grading the roaches' performance, I wouldn't deduct any points if their estimate was only precise enough to support a decision like: "These shelters have approximately equal capacity, so we should divide into approximately equal groups."

      In fact, I'd be more impressed by evidence that their "reasoning" was as above, because that indicates greater adaptability and a more dynamic decision process. By contrast, the closer they get to always exactly equal groups, the more I'd suspect that the decision process was something "hard-coded", like "Hmm, this shelter's not big enough for all of us... Ooh, there's another one over there -- half of us should go there." (Less impressive, since the solution doesn't account for the relative sizes of the shelters)

      The next experiment I'd like to see is, what if there were two shelters with capacities of 30 and 40? Would the split be (on average close to) 21/29 (the closest integer solution to reflect the 3:4 proportion, so the shelters would be equally crowded)? Is that really the "best" solution, or would it be better for them to balance the benefit of (near-)equal crowdedness against that of (near-)equal group size, and split the difference to get 23/27? If so, could they be so smart as to actually do that? Or would they still go for 25/25?

      Wow, now I want to try this experiment myself. Anyone know where I can find some cockroaches?

      --
      David Gould
      main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
  10. Of course they communicate... by zappepcs · · Score: 0

    Who do you think is always trying to get us to push the buttons and release the nuclear weapons? Only cockroaches will survive, right? As I understand it, there are two disguised cockroaches currently on the board at Cyberdyne Systems of California. Not that I'm trying to start a conspiracy, but they ARE attracted to warm weather, and have you ever noticed how you never see cockroaches in the data center? That's because they are in the cabinets, in the PC's silently absorbing data as the ones and zeros whiz by. Oh yeah buddy, they communicate alrighty! Come to think of it, the guys who do back-ups sort of shuffle around the data center like cockroaches under the kitchen cabinets.... hmmmmm

    1. Re:Of course they communicate... by Mr+Guy · · Score: 4, Funny

      So you are saying our Nuclear program...is bugged?

    2. Re:Of course they communicate... by Hassman · · Score: 1

      You're my hero.

      --
      -Mark
      Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
    3. Re:Of course they communicate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've noticed several in the Whitehouse as well...

  11. Intelligence by thewiz · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's interesting to see other animals, and now possibly insects, demonstrate intelligent behaviour and communicate with each other. Wether they use body language, chemical emmissions, or sign language with their antenna, I'd say it looks like we keep finding intelligent life on our own planet.

    But, if I find one in my house I'm still going to squish it.

    --
    If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
    1. Re:Intelligence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But, if I find one in my house I'm still going to squish it.

      Or you could capture it in a cup and put it outside.

      Yes, yes, I know...caring about other forms of life makes you "weak" whereas effecient cruelty is a sign of strength.

      I don't know why I posted this.

    2. Re:Intelligence by Khammurabi · · Score: 1
      It's interesting to see other animals, and now possibly insects, demonstrate intelligent behaviour and communicate with each other.
      Now if we could only get humans to follow their example.
    3. Re:Intelligence by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 3, Funny

      I know a few people who communicate with chemical emissions. It isn't a sign of intelligence.

      --
      Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
    4. Re:Intelligence by Cornflake917 · · Score: 1

      Hey man, peeing your name in the snow isn't as easy you think!

    5. Re:Intelligence by mgblst · · Score: 1

      The more we look around at nature, the more intelligent we find that it is. However, the more time I spend looking around at humanity, the dumber I find that we are.

  12. Smarter then many humans? by truthsearch · · Score: 4, Funny

    cockroach decision-making follows a predictable pattern

    So some of my past managers really were dumber than cockroaches? I knew it! Thank you /. for validating what I knew all along.

    1. Re:Smarter then many humans? by Mistshadow2k4 · · Score: 1

      Thank you for the link. :) This is funny stuff and with a lot less racism and fat chick jokes than bash.org.

      --
      I dream of a better world... one in which chickens can cross roads without their motives being questioned.
    2. Re:Smarter then many humans? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Are predictable pattern really smart? If the patterns are so predictable, an opponent (i.e. an animal that eats cockroaches, or, alternatively, an animal that just doesn't want to have them in its kitchen...) could take advantage of this to eat/squish them more easily.

      The really smart creature behaves unpredictably, so as not to be second-guessed.

  13. I knew it! by Pranjal · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I always wondered why Balmer and Gates made group decisions in most cases. Now I know why! :p

  14. Cockroaches are intelligent now, eh? Well, by TechnoGuyRob · · Score: 1, Funny

    I, for one, welcome our new silent Big Brother cockroach overlords.

  15. So that's why he went down. by dada21 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Poor Scarface. He didn't realize those cockroaches he was going to bury were colluding together against him.

    Words of wisdom, I guess.

  16. That explains... by Nicolay77 · · Score: 1

    Why I feel like a cockroach after a meeting. :P

    --
    We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
  17. I, for one ... by eck011219 · · Score: 1

    ... welcome our new organizational management overlords.

    --
    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
  18. Uh. by NoMoreNicksLeft · · Score: 1

    No Politics topic?

  19. Is this still a matter of debate? by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 1

    They therefore must communicate without vocalizing.

    Is this still a matter of debate?

    When I was studying Entomology 15 years ago (egad!), the the leading theory for insect communication is that that they communicated primarily using scents and vibrations on the ground in the air. They can hear, but not necessarily vocalize.

    This has been studied extensively in ants & termites -- As far as I know, this is still the leading theory.

    It's hard to prove, because "smells" are hard to detect.

    1. Re:Is this still a matter of debate? by Kohath · · Score: 1

      "smells" are hard to detect

      Not that hard.

    2. Re:Is this still a matter of debate? by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 1

      I guess I should say, hard to detect & measure with a machine-- for some sort of quantitative scientific analysis.

      *ptttpppthhhhtpt*

    3. Re:Is this still a matter of debate? by Gibberlins · · Score: 1

      Bees are thought to communicate by using "dances". They fly around in certain patterns that other bees can recognize. In particular, their dances can tell other bees where to go look for food. How they perfrom the dance can give an indication of the direction and distance of the food. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_learning_and_comm unication.

    4. Re:Is this still a matter of debate? by Zerbs · · Score: 2, Funny

      Haven't you ever seen Joe's Appartment? Of course roaches can vocalize, they just usually choose not to!

      --
      "22 astronauts were born in Ohio. What is it about your state that makes people want to flee the Earth?" Stephen Colbert
  20. Group Intelligence... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Is that why I keep finding my Raid cans with the nozzle broken off? Damn bugs!

  21. More pictures by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 4, Funny

    As the article is scarce on pics, here some more pictures of the cockroaches meeting up before making decisions. :)

    1. Re:More pictures by RxScram · · Score: 1

      Why do people always give cockroaches such an unfair "lifeform" to compare against? Cockroaches actually serve a useful ecological niche.

    2. Re:More pictures by pedalman · · Score: 1
      --
      Friends don't let friends line-dance.
    3. Re:More pictures by mgblst · · Score: 1

      Didn't know that lawyers wore kilts?

  22. Atoms are democratic too by Expert+Determination · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Researchers in Kentucky performed the following experiment: they placed a carboard divide with a small hole in it across the middle of a shoe box so as to split it into to halves of equal size. Amazingly it was found that the same amount of air ended up in both halves. "I reckon this proves that atoms have notions of fairness, democracy and property," said the leading researcher of the group, "they were able to divide themselves up equally between the partitions.". They found that similar results were obtained with a variety of different partitioning scheme - whatever scheme was chosen the atoms always divided themselves up fairly so that each atom had the same amount of space.

    Even more significantly the researchers showed that this equilibrium was dynamic. If a bunch of atoms drifted from one partition to another then another bunch would go back the other way. It's not always the same atoms that stay in any particular partition. This demonstrates that the atoms are actually smart enough to be able to count how many atoms are leaving and entering a partition at any time.

    "This could revolutionize thinking about atoms," claimed the researcher.

    --
    "The White House is not an intelligence-gathering agency," -- Scott McClellan, Whitehouse spokesman.
    1. Re:Atoms are democratic too by amliebsch · · Score: 5, Funny

      Anthropomorphizations do not like to be mocked.

      --
      If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
    2. Re:Atoms are democratic too by linguizic · · Score: 1

      You know here in Mississippi where I live, atoms work a different way. Our air doesn't divide itself equally, instead all the oxygen atoms move to the nicer box while forcing the more numerous nitrogen atoms to stuff themselves intto the broken down old box. But you know, every atom's happy with this arrangement, they don't know no better.

      --
      Does this sig remind you of Agatha Christie?
    3. Re:Atoms are democratic too by Charles+Dodgeson · · Score: 1
      Exaclty. It is hardly news that social insects communicate with each other and that they do so by interacting with each other. And just because all participate in the decision doesn't mean that it is democratic. I suspect that the actual scientific paper behind TFA has more to say. That is, I suspect that there is a proposed algorithm that individual roaches follow that lead to the group behavior. But from TFA there is no news here.

      What is often said about computers applies to cockroaches as well: Don't anthropomorphize them; they hate it when you do that.

      --
      Prime numbers are exactly what Alan Greenspan says they are -S. Minsky
    4. Re:Atoms are democratic too by oever · · Score: 1

      Researchers in Kentucky performed the following experiment: they dissolved soap and oil in water creating an emulsion. Amazingly it was found that the similar amounts of soap molecules ended up around groups of oil molecules. "I reckon this proves that soap molecules have notions of fairness, democracy and property," said the leading researcher of the group, "they were able to divide themselves up equally around the groups of oil molecules.". They found that similar results were obtained with a variety of ratios of soap to oil - whatever scheme was chosen the molecules always divided themselves up fairly so that each oil droplet had the similar amounts of soap.

      Even more significantly the researchers showed that this equilibrium was dynamic. If two droplets merged, soap molecules would leave the new droplet to migrate to another droplet It's not always the same soap molecules that stay on any particular droplet. This demonstrates that soap is actually smart enough to be able to spread its cleansing ability equaly among the oil.

      "This could revolutionize thinking about soaps," claimed the researcher.

      --
      DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
    5. Re:Atoms are democratic too by mjm1231 · · Score: 1

      Bad analogy. Try your experiment with three partitions. If half the atoms end up in each of two partitions while a third remains empty, write back.

      --
      Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
    6. Re:Atoms are democratic too by eluusive · · Score: 1

      Is this a trick question? Obviously you put the two dividers directly next to each other. Duh!

    7. Re:Atoms are democratic too by miskatonic+alumnus · · Score: 1

      So what you are saying is that the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics applies to roach distribution? Interesting. I guess that implies that all available space in the universe will ultimately be populated by roaches.

    8. Re:Atoms are democratic too by idontgno · · Score: 1
      So what you are saying is that the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics applies to roach distribution? Interesting. I guess that implies that all available space in the universe will ultimately be populated by roaches.

      Yes, it's called "Roach Death". There's a related term involving a proliferation of insects of a different family, Formicidae: Ant-ropy.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  23. Stupid eyes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cockroaches, Battlestar Galactica, are silent creatures

  24. I could have told you that... by butterwise · · Score: 0

    Just look at Moussaoui's lawyers...

    --
    If a baby duck is a "duckling," why would anyone want to eat "dumplings?"
  25. The Japanese by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sounds like the Japanese.

  26. bogus experiment :-D by swschrad · · Score: 1

    if it wasn't, I would not be out of gas in my car after driving PAST a gas station, for if atoms truly want to be free, I'd have suddenly gained a half tank of fuel.

    unless, of course, the atoms are taking orders from the cockroaches. we don't get along.

    --
    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  27. A lttle more information would be nice by Irish_Samurai · · Score: 1

    I would have liked to have seen how these groups split up. Mark half, those in the same community group, with some sort of colored agent for distinction purposes. Also attach numbers to their backs for singular ID.

    Are certain roaches more active than others in the "communicating" phase? Do they exhibit "Leadership?" Do the roaches split themselves based on swarm? Is there a consistent distribution of the numbers inside the shelters?

    1. Re:A lttle more information would be nice by Colonel+Angus · · Score: 1

      Or I'd like to see, once they've split up in halves, have them marked. Remove the shelters, put them all back together again and put the shelters back in. See if they split up similarly each time or if the divisions are sufficiently random.

  28. Of course... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    recent study indicates that cockroaches govern themselves using simple group consultations

    Of course, how else are MCSE and A+ cert morons supposed to figure out something simple like setting up a file server? You think any single one of them is capable on their own? heh

  29. Cockroach Decisions by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 5, Funny
    Will cockroaches out-survive humans?

    CR1: Is that the sound of a light-switch I hear?
    CR2: Yes!
    CR3: What should we do?
    CR4: Run!
    CR5: Do I have a second?

    Maybe not!

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  30. Blattella Germanica by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did anyon else read Battlestar Galactica?

    1. Re:Blattella Germanica by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 1

      Ah, so that explains why Cylons keep attacking my kitchen cupboards...

      --
      Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
  31. Obviously... by neersign · · Score: 1
    Cockroaches, Blattella Germanica, are silent creatures...They therefore must communicate without vocalizing.

    that is a powerful deduction. I don't know if i would have ever drawn that conclusion, but I guess that's why I don't study insects.

  32. Of Course not... by alamandrax · · Score: 1

    You can't hear it because they're texting!

    --
    'tis but a scratch.
  33. Yes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Now that scientists have discovered that they work as a team, exhibiting insect-scale qualities of cooperation, loyalty and team spirit, we can use this knowledge to build more effective roach traps!

    Actually that was quite an amazing article. On a tangentially related subject, a mosquito researcher once explained to me how mozzies find blood: when they get a wiff of CO2, they simply angle themselves into the wind and go forward.

    Bugs are pretty smart for things without brains.

    ---------
    Contact management, phone backup, sales automation

  34. Cockroaches Make Group Decisions? by vertinox · · Score: 1

    Well, how else are politicians going to get their laws passed?

    --
    "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
    -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
  35. So, for people.... by TheDarkener · · Score: 1

    Instead of using EGroupware or PHPGroupware, we should just start using using silent communications like cockroaches...
     
    "...So does that mean I'm #1, or ....HEY!"

    --
    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
  36. A cleaned-up copy of the story by Dekortage · · Score: 2, Funny

    Congresspeople Make Group Decisions

    March 30, 2006 — Congresspeople govern themselves in a very simple democracy where each insect has equal standing and group consultations precede decisions that affect the entire group, indicates a new study.

    The research determined that congressperson decision-making follows a predictable pattern that could explain group dynamics of other insects and animals, such as ants, spiders, fish and even cows.

    "Congresspeople use chemical and tactile communication with each other," said José Halloy, who co-authored the research, which is outlined in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "They can also use vision."

    Halloy, a scientist in the Department of Social Ecology at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium, added, "When they encounter each other they recognize if they belong to the same colony thanks to their antennas that are 'nooses,' that is, sophisticated olfactory organs that are very sensitive."

    Halloy tested congressperson group behavior by placing the insects in a dish that contained three shelters. The test was to see how the Congresspeople would divide themselves into the shelters.

    After much "consultation," through antenna probing, touching and more, the Congresspeople divided themselves up perfectly within the shelters. For example, if 50 insects were placed in a dish with three shelters, each with a capacity for 40 bugs, 25 congresspeople huddled together in the first shelter, 25 gathered in the second shelter, and the third was left vacant.

    When the researchers altered this setup so that it had three shelters with a capacity for more than 50 insects, all of the Congresspeople moved into the first "house."

    Halloy and his colleagues found that a balance existed between cooperation and competition for resources.

    He explained to Discovery News, "Congresspeople are gregarious insects (that) benefit from living in groups. It increases their reproductive opportunities, (promotes) sharing of resources like shelter or food, prevents desiccation by aggregating more in dry environments, etc. So what we show is that these behavioral models allow them to optimize group size."

    The models are so predictable that they could explain other insect and animal group behaviors, such as how some fish and bugs divide themselves up so neatly into subgroups, and how certain herding animals make simple decisions that do not involve leadership.

    David Sumpter, an Oxford University zoologist, told Discovery News that the new study "is an excellent paper."

    Sumpter continued, "It is important because it looks both at the mechanisms underlying decision-making by animals and how those mechanisms produce a distribution of animals amongst resource sites that optimizes their individual fitness. Much previous research has concentrated on either mechanisms or optimality at the expense of the other."

    For congresspeople, it seems, cooperation comes naturally.

    --
    $nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
  37. In another study.... by grumpyman · · Score: 2, Funny

    Researchers find that unlike roaches, human make a single group decision on who will make all the group decisions every 4 years.

  38. Biological spelling flame... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It should be Blattella germanica, not Blattella Germanica (the linked article gets it right). The specific epithet (the "germanica" part) is not capitalized in a binomen. Likewise, Homo Sapiens, Tyrannosaurus Rex, or the abbreviation T. Rex would be wrong. They should be Homo sapiens and Tyrannosaurus rex or T. rex. Well, unless you are talking about the band for the last one.

    1. Re:Biological spelling flame... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah Homo because you're a FAG!!!

    2. Re:Biological spelling flame... by mapmaker · · Score: 5, Funny

      What are you talking about? Blattella Germanica totally deserves both capital letters!! It's the best science fiction show since Babylon 5, even if they did make Starbuck a girl!!

      Why are you looking at me like that?

    3. Re:Biological spelling flame... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm really glad I'm not the only one who read it that way.

  39. History will tell .... by proudlyindian · · Score: 3, Funny

    that the last girl who ever visited slashdot was on 4th April who read Roaches who make group decisions

    1. Re:History will tell .... by morie · · Score: 1

      OMG!!! Roaches!!!

      --
      Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
  40. Wow, that's cool, but... by iamlucky13 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What happens when you divide your shoebox into three sections? Do the molecules in the air divide themselves evenly between two of the sections, but leave the third empty? I think you missed a few details from the article. I don't think this is incredibly revolutionary, but it is still interesting. The roaches seem to attempt to maintain large but evenly sized groups. Instead of the bugs all distributing evenly among the shelters or squeezing as many as would fit into one shelter then all the rest into the second, they struck a balance between group size and eveness.

    1. Re:Wow, that's cool, but... by oever · · Score: 1
      --
      DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
    2. Re:Wow, that's cool, but... by ergo98 · · Score: 1

      What happens when you divide your shoebox into three sections? Do the molecules in the air divide themselves evenly between two of the sections, but leave the third empty? I think you missed a few details from the article.

      Not to mention that for his shoebox example, the air would have to cluster into two small areas comprising probably less than 5% of the total surface area. I suspect that the poster simply jumped the gun without a clue of what the article was talking about, immediately dismissing it. They missed the fact that it's pretty amazing. Most amazing was how they separated into equal groups, but still preferred larger groups to smaller groups (e.g. with three houses, they still stayed in just two in equal sized groups).

    3. Re:Wow, that's cool, but... by Expert+Determination · · Score: 0
      I suspect that the poster simply jumped the gun without a clue of what the article was talking about
      Try suspecting again.

      Most amazing was how they separated into equal groups, but still preferred larger groups to smaller groups
      You're easily amazed. This cockroach behavior is trivial by comparison. It's explained by the simplest of models: "Find a place to hide. Given a choice of places to hide, pick one with more cockroaches. if I don't fit in a place to hide, find somewhere else." The last rule is implicit in the first anyway so it's even simpler than I said. Ant, termite or bee behavior is a few orders of magnitude less trivial.
      --
      "The White House is not an intelligence-gathering agency," -- Scott McClellan, Whitehouse spokesman.
    4. Re:Wow, that's cool, but... by ngm · · Score: 1
      This cockroach behavior is trivial by comparison. It's explained by the simplest of models: "Find a place to hide. Given a choice of places to hide, pick one with more cockroaches. if I don't fit in a place to hide, find somewhere else." The last rule is implicit in the first anyway so it's even simpler than I said. Ant, termite or bee behavior is a few orders of magnitude less trivial.


      Oh? Really!? Because I'm pretty sure that that algorithm would result in a 40/10/0 split, which if you RTFA isn't what they found...

      3 shelters, 50 cockroaches:
      shelter capacity 40, 25/25/0 split
      shelter capacity 50, 50/0/0 split
    5. Re:Wow, that's cool, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not quite that simple.

      If they followed your algorithim you would end up with 40 cockroaches in the frist selter, and 10 in the next.

      And it's not a simple as going for the smallest group or you'd end up with a 16-17-17 split.

      They're probably still following an algorithim, but it has to be more complex than what you described.

    6. Re:Wow, that's cool, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pointless and redundant post. Thx for wasting the bandwidth x 2

    7. Re:Wow, that's cool, but... by merigold77 · · Score: 1

      How about this:

      Find all easily available places to hide. If all places are empty, stay in one of them randomly. If a place is full already, it does not count as a place to hide.

      If more than one place already has a hiding cockroach, stay in whichever one has fewest.

      Occasionally venture out and then start the algorithm over from scratch, not remembering your previous hiding place.

      *that* should result in the observed Cockroach behavior and is still small.

      --
      Writing is the only socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. (E. L. Doctorow)
    8. Re:Wow, that's cool, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That would work if you ignore concurrency.

      But it falls apart if two cochroaches randomly pick different empty hiding places.

    9. Re:Wow, that's cool, but... by merigold77 · · Score: 1

      Assume the roaches are fairly indecisive and if there are more than one empty shelter it will be rare for a roach to give up trying to find an inhabited shelter with room and actually enter an empty shelter. This would account for all the milling about and touching/smelling each other that was supposedly communication.

      Once a roach finally gives in and goes into an empty shelter, and the other roaches see that it wasn't a trap and the roach is okay in there, they kind of all follow suit into it.

      So the rules become more like:

      - look for a shelter that has room that has cockroachers in it (SAFE FOR ME).
      - if you can't find one look for all possible shelters that are empty. Once you're really, really sure there's no SAFE shelter, try out one of these dangerous shelters.
      - periodically exit, for a look around/search for food/to excrete/etc, then repeat algorithm.

      That would account for so few (50) not having the concurrency issues. I bet if they had oh say.... 10,000 roaches and 250 50-roach spots it would not be quite so mathematically perfect as to say that the concurrency had not occurred a few times.

      --
      Writing is the only socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. (E. L. Doctorow)
    10. Re:Wow, that's cool, but... by morie · · Score: 1

      - look for a shelter that has room that has cockroachers in it (SAFE FOR ME).
      - if more inhabited/safe shelters are found, take the least crowded one.
      - if you can't find one look for all possible shelters that are empty. Once you're really, really sure there's no SAFE shelter, try out one of these dangerous shelters.
      - periodically exit, for a look around/search for food/to excrete/etc, then repeat algorithm.

      This should account for the described behaviour

      --
      Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
    11. Re:Wow, that's cool, but... by morie · · Score: 1

      Come to think of it, it doesn't, since this (and the previous set of 3 rules) would still result in 40-10-0

      Damn, these roaches really start to seem intelligent to have cracked this thing already :-)

      --
      Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
  41. Religious Cult by smoon · · Score: 1

    Now if we could just get them involved with a religious cult that would inspire them to all commit mass suicide... Roach kool-aid anyone?

    --
    "But actually trying to use m4 as a general-purpose langage would be deeply perverse" --ESR
  42. Re:Already and example of this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hm, that's an interesting site they have a lot of interesting information I've never seen before. I"m sure you meant to flame that site but you turned me on to it.

  43. huh by minus_273 · · Score: 1

    correct me if i am wrong, but isnt a cokroach Periplaneta americana?

    --
    The war with islam is a war on the beast
    The war on terror is a war for peace
    1. Re:huh by jamrock · · Score: 2, Informative

      There are over 3,500 species of cockroach, of which Periplaneta americana, the American cockroach, and Blatella germanica, the German cockroach (the species to which TFA refers), are merely the most familiar to homeowners in North America. There are thousands of tropical species which inhabit rainforests, many of them much larger than the largest roaches you'll encounter in a dumpster. In fact the Madgascar Hissing Cockroach, which grows to about 3 inches in length, is a popular pet. And no, they aren't dirty, disease-ridden pests; they're quite fastidious about their grooming. Only roaches which inhabit garbage and sewers (American and German cockroaches typically) can be considered carriers of disease. Generally speaking, cockroaches are remarkably adaptive and hardy insects, and are of considerable interest to entomologists.

    2. Re:huh by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Yes but did the German cockroaches conquer any nearby Polish or French cockroach colonies?

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    3. Re:huh by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 1

      It would explain why there's no such thing as a Jewish cockroach...

      --
      Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
    4. Re:huh by jamrock · · Score: 1

      LOL! No, but they've managed to establish an extensive global empire by annexing large segments of metropolitan areas worldwide. Slashdotters joke about "our cockroach overlords" but that's much closer to the truth than people realize.

  44. The price of tea in China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is th price of Tea in China right now?

  45. Already seen in real life by jaymzter · · Score: 0, Troll

    They could just as well have studied the United Nations to find that out. /. doesn't scare me enough to post anonymously.

    --
    If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
  46. Absolutely! by mbadolato · · Score: 1

    cockroaches govern themselves using simple group consultations before anything that affects the entire group

    I've seen them make this decision, repeatedly! My wife walks around outside wearing sandals during the warm summer months, and you can clearly hear one the roaches (sight unseen) go "hey check out the blonde chick with her toes hanging out! Lets go make her scream bloody murder!!!" and then 2 or three come out of nowhere and run over towards her general direction and do exactly that.

    No science needed; it's a routine observation :)

  47. i have seen the inside workings .. by deviceb · · Score: 1

    2 pieces of cerial hit the floor, one a cheerio, the other a peanut butter captin-crunch.. the teams deliberates.. even though the CC is further from the hole in the wall and may cause more loss, in the end its worth more than the cheerio.

    --
    Kill your TV
  48. 2 out of 3 Roaches Prefer Luxury Accomodations by digitaldc · · Score: 1

    After much "consultation," through antenna probing, touching and more, the cockroaches divided themselves up perfectly within the shelters. For example, if 50 insects were placed in a dish with three shelters, each with a capacity for 40 bugs, 25 roaches huddled together in the first shelter, 25 gathered in the second shelter, and the third was left vacant.

    Now from this, we can deduce that the cockroaches, after armageddon, will choose to live in mansions and luxury apartments, and stay clear of public housing.

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
  49. Welll..... by ch-chuck · · Score: 1

    there was this one roach, strutting across the counter alone, singing, "I've got to be meeeeeee - I've got to be ..." .

    --
    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  50. I knew it ! by Joebert · · Score: 1

    I knew thoose little bastards were smarter than they let on to be !

    I watched roaches in my house, err lab, for 6 months with no funding & all I could determine was that they don't walk backwards but they can turn on a dime (literally).

    I'd try to cook somthing on the stove, err, bunson burner, one would sit on the ceiling looking like it was watching me then when I would look over at the fly swatter, that one & its' buddies would dive-bomb my lunch, err, experiment before I could get to the swatter. Like little raptors.

    --
    Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  51. Seems to be working on /. by HotBBQ · · Score: 1

    The mod system works, right?

  52. The point is? by ChanKane · · Score: 1

    Group consultations? Decision making? (MBA major?) Fancy words used in context of a roach , but what is the point? Roaches have attenae's like every other bug (and silent like every other bug) and EVERYONE knows they communicate via radio waves.... duh....

  53. Cockroaches Make Group Decisions? by fobbman · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Yes, especially when they join forces and become what is called a "law firm".

  54. Computing? by DahGhostfacedFiddlah · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Given an appropriately-complex apparatus, could one devise a device to utilize the computing power of cockroaches for opimization problems?

    The potential of this cock-puter is mind-blowing...

    1. Re:Computing? by Winlin · · Score: 1

      Imagine a Beowulf cluster of....on second thought, I've seen one: the last time I flipped on the kitchen light in my old apartment.

    2. Re:Computing? by Zerbs · · Score: 1

      But then we would have to rewrite all of our code to allow for parallel processing. Can't we find one really big and smart cockroach instead?

      --
      "22 astronauts were born in Ohio. What is it about your state that makes people want to flee the Earth?" Stephen Colbert
    3. Re:Computing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm so glad you went the other way with that one.

      I was so expecting something different.

  55. Evolution Complete! by the_REAL_sam · · Score: 1


    In the prophetic words of starcraft, Evolution Complete!

    =\

    --
    "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." -Jesus Christ The Lord's Prayer
  56. Perhaps they've evolved protection vs sound by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    After all these years of humans cranking out 90+ db sounds, and setting our volume to 11, maybe they decided not to worry so much about that bit, and concentrate on just replacing us.

    Their cunning plot to remove the world's pirate fish and create global warming is working really well, don't you think?

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  57. All in favor... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're telling me, they voted me out of my own apartment.

  58. Just great... by lbmouse · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can just hear my boss now, "Why can't you guys agree upon a plan of action! Hell! Even cockroaches can make group decisions!!"

  59. Political Hoodlums Make Group Decisions: +1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


    Yes, especially when they join forces and become what is called Al-Qaeda Operations, how may I direct your call?

    Cheers,
    K. Trout

  60. True genius at work by Clazzy · · Score: 1

    Cockroaches, Blattella Germanica, are silent creatures, save perhaps for the sound of them scurrying over a counter top. They therefore must communicate without vocalizing.

    I never would have guessed that! Thank God for these clever scientists!

    --
    If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate.
  61. Roach Intelligence - and math skills by Jtheletter · · Score: 4, Interesting
    For example, if 50 insects were placed in a dish with three shelters, each with a capacity for 40 bugs, 25 roaches huddled together in the first shelter, 25 gathered in the second shelter, and the third was left vacant.

    OK, so now let's do this experiment again, this time with 51 roaches. Will there be 17 in each of the three shelters? What if we reduce shelter capacity to 30 roaches? or 25?

    As another poster has suggested this may have less to do with intelligent decisions and more to do with scripted behavior: if roach population here is above X, branch to new location. The threshold X may be set by a number of factors such as total perceived population, observed population in the current shelter, etc. Tweaking shelter size, number of roaches, and other conditions in a controlled way may reveal the decision motivators and help to discern if there is some consensus at work or if it's just a survival script. Just as roaches avoid light because they have evolved to recognize it leaves them detectable and therefore vulnerable, they may scorn large groupings to avoid being wiped out by the loss of a single population center.

    --
    -- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
    1. Re:Roach Intelligence - and math skills by E-Rock · · Score: 1

      Except that they didn't divide themselves up that way. When they were given shelters that wouldn't fit all of them (which they figured out before they crammed in) they split up into multiple groups, but kept the group size as large as possible and even. When they were given multiple shelters that could fit them all they all stayed together.

      I'm sure that it all boils down to a biological analog of a script, but couldn't the same be said of a lot of human behavior?

    2. Re:Roach Intelligence - and math skills by noidentity · · Score: 1

      "OK, so now let's do this experiment again, this time with 51 roaches. Will there be 17 in each of the three shelters?"

      Or will they go POP in a fit of indecision, like a nuked game of Lemmings when you get stuck? Must try this soon...

    3. Re:Roach Intelligence - and math skills by bar-agent · · Score: 1

      OK, so now let's do this experiment again, this time with 51 roaches.

      They probably stand around, looking at each other. At one point a few of them turn to one of the other roaches and say, "Sorry, Lenny, you drew the short straw." Then they bite off his head so they can divvy themselves up evenly.

      --
      i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
    4. Re:Roach Intelligence - and math skills by Jtheletter · · Score: 1
      Hehehe, I think I like your solution best. Although since a roach body can live for something like 2 weeks before it dies this is probably not the most effective form of murder available to the roach community. Perhaps they will hold a ceremonial squishing?

      Cut to scene of roach mob standing next to giant shoe-box propped up and ringed by books, reminiscent of the classic KingKong tribal scene. Roach mob is chanting "Shoe! Shoe! Shoe!" Before the box a lone shaking roach is tied spreadeagle by all his legs to toothbrush pillars, the shoebox lid is slowly drawn open by a bridled centipede to reveal the sole of a large workboot, roaches scream in horror and flee as shoe tips forward and crushes the fated roach 51. [FIN]

      Joe's Apartment eat your heart out!

      --
      -- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
  62. Still, they've got nothing on... by DeafByBeheading · · Score: 1

    ...cranium rats...

    --
    Telltale Games: Bone, Sam and Max
  63. Obligatory Futurama Quote by thedletterman · · Score: 1

    Now, we all know telescopes allow us to see distant objects. But what if we want to smell distant objects? Well now we can! Thanks to my new invention ... the Smellescope. The odour travels past this coffee stain here, around the olive pit and into this cigar burn. And this appears to be a doodle of myself as a cowboy. But the Smellescope is brilliant, I tell you! Think of the astronomical odours you'll smell thanks to me.

    --
    Any fool can criticise, condemn, and complain, and most fools do. - Benjamin Franklin
  64. Cockroach Documentary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's a documentary out there which looks at the very advanced behavior and communication of a group of cockroachs in a New York city apartment. Their capacity for human like speech and their ability to work together to acomplish monumental feats is truly amazing.

  65. we have seen this in debian by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    /me runs away

  66. I'd be nice to see the real results... by BigZaphod · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The caption for the picture in the article reads, "...the cockroaches divided themselves up perfectly." And yet the picture clearly shows at least 4 roaches that are outside of the groups. That's a strange definition of "perfectly" to me. I imagine they are often running around and so perhaps capturing a picture with them all huddled together in their groups would be difficult, but when does the scientist declare that the split was "perfect" and "complete?" Is there a time period or does "perfect" in a biological sense just mean "mostly?"

  67. Yes, you're right by Expert+Determination · · Score: 2, Insightful

    My original analogy with gases is far better than the silly rule based thing that I wrote when jumping the gun in response to your accusing me of jumping the gun.

    --
    "The White House is not an intelligence-gathering agency," -- Scott McClellan, Whitehouse spokesman.
    1. Re:Yes, you're right by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Insightful

      My original analogy with gases is far better than the silly rule based thing that I wrote when jumping the gun in response to your accusing me of jumping the gun.

      ngm wasn't the one that accused you of jumping the gun, that was ergo98. Maybe you shouldn't have jumped the gun in this reply. ;)

      You're really missing what is interesting about this, and both your analogies suck as a result. Neither fluid dynamics nor a simple selfish optimization algorithm describe this behavior. When presented with three shelters each with room for all, all the roaches inhabited one shelter, indicating a preference for large groups. When presented with three shelters with insufficient space, they split into two exactly equal sized groups and occupied two shelters. For this to happen, a potential 26th cockroach who would have fit easily into the 40-roach shelters and thus be part of a larger group decided instead to move into the smaller 24-roach group.

      So this behavior is fairly sophisticated, and does in fact involve decisions about the population as a whole and would require communication, which is briefly described as "consultation" preceding the roaches splitting into two groups.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    2. Re:Yes, you're right by ergo98 · · Score: 1

      ... when jumping the gun in response to your accusing me of jumping the gun.

      I was the one who said that, and I stick by it. Your OP has all of the hallmarks of a dismissive, never having RTFA reply, and now you're just trying to defend it using poorly thought out, misapplied analogies.

  68. Emergent behavior by Dachannien · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Obviously, a blurb on the Discovery Channel website isn't the same as going to PNAS and reading the article for oneself, but from what little info was provided there, it doesn't seem to me that actual communication is necessarily what's going on.

    In the case of parceling out a population of roaches into equal-size subpopulations, well, cockroaches stink. Er, that is, they emit chemicals into the air, and an individual cockroach may be able to detect the concentration of such a chemical as it approaches multiple sheltered areas to determine which area is occupied a little bit but not too much. The experimenter should attempt to determine what chemical accounts for such behavior and determine what concentrations are attractive or repulsive to roaches. This doesn't necessarily convey communication, because if the same chemical governs the entire behavior, then each individual cockroach isn't really conveying any information about the state of the colony in a shelter. The information results as the emergent property of having a lot of cockroaches in the same space.

    In the case of roaches determining whether a cockroach is kin or not, this may be governed by similar chemicals which vary slightly among the world population of cockroaches. The same determination is made by single-celled organisms, which respond differently to the presence of certain proteins in the cell membrane. This doesn't indicate that actual communication is taking place, but rather that one cockroach is able to detect chemicals that the other cockroach would be emitting regardless of whether the two were interacting or not.

    One has to be careful when deciding whether a phenomenon is explained by communication or not, because there may be many definitions of communication. Is it communication when one organism does something while oblivious to the reasons why it's doing it, and the results of that action later affect another organism? Does communication require the direct interaction of two organisms? Must the behaviors of both organisms - both emitting and receiving the signal - be neurally based, or can one or both actions be the result of a purely mechanical property of the organisms? Do the organisms have to be aware of the information they are sending or receiving (and there you bring in another ball of wax, because what constitutes awareness)?

    1. Re:Emergent behavior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While augmenting other's poor inferences, you should provide more explanation. If they were equalizing the smell, how come it's 25-25-0 and not 17-17-16?

    2. Re:Emergent behavior by Dachannien · · Score: 1

      If there are two influences at work - one, a tendency to go where there is some chemical, and two, a tendency to avoid going where that chemical is too strong - then it is possible for the roaches to end up not filling every shelter available, depending on what happens very early on in the experiment. That is, if a roach goes into each shelter right away, then there'll be a good chance that all three shelters will end up with some roaches in them. If a roach only goes into two of the three shelters, then it's likely that the remaining roaches will follow the chemical gradient and only end up in those two shelters. (In such a situation, if the shelters are too small, eventually the roaches would stop going into the occupied shelters and start going into the empty one.)

  69. Cockroach Staff Meeting Intercept by aldheorte · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pointy Hair Roach: "So, let's see, I wonder if the technical department can create a turn-key solution for feeding tonight?"
    Long Hair Roach: "Sure, what do you have in mind?"
    Pointy Hair Roach: "Well, let's see, we need a diversion, why don't we have a volunteer climb up into the light fixture and drop onto her sholder, which will cause her to scream, flail about, and run out of the room."
    Long Hair Roach: "Um, how do we get into to the light fixture?"
    Pointy Hair Roach: "I dunno, go license some tech from the ants for hanging from ceilings and stuff."
    Long Hair Roach: "Uh... ok."
    Pointy Hair Roach: "Right, so while the volunteer is running back and forth avoiding the fly swatter, huge feet, and general mayhem, we'll monitor progress from the counter top."
    Long Hair Roach: "So, who's going to volunteer?"

    Pointy Hair Roach: "Well, since you brought it up..."
    Long Hair Roach: "So, you want me to outsource the tech to the ants, then use it untested to scale a vertical wall, hang from a ceiling, get into a light fixture without being electrocuted - you didn't think of that, did you? And then dropping onto a human and avoiding getting crushed. Wait, what are you going to do to contribute?"
    Pointy Hair Roach: "We'll be eating the toast."

  70. U.S. Federal Deficit by Political Party by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Support for the parent statement: U.S. Federal Deficit by Political Party.

    --
    Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis. Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill Iraqis. Improvement?

  71. Hey by cubicledrone · · Score: 1

    All they need is Powerpoint and they can start applying for middle management jobs.

    Now that is such beautiful irony... I think I'm going to cry...

    --
    Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
  72. All singing, all dancing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apparently not all of them are silent

    some of them dance and sing and like Esther Williams routines!!!

    http://imdb.com/title/tt0116707/

    Ralph Roach:

    Talk? We can sing!
    Roaches: Garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage! / The garbage in the moonlight gives off a lovely smell - lovely smell / Sipping sewage with my baby in our little roach motel - please don't tell / zum zum zuma zum zum zum / doot de doot doot doot de doo doot de doot doot doot de doo doot de doot doot doot de doo doot de doot doot doodly doo / Take an ocean trip on our garbage ship with the cockroach I adore / We'll take a taste of the medical waste that washes up on shore / Oh sweetheart say you love me and crawl underneath my rug / You're one in a thousand billion baby - oh won't you be / My Bug! - won't you be my bug? / Please be my bug

  73. Re:Already and example of this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hahaha....Suuuuuuuure.

  74. Artificial intellegence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can see it now.. on the shelf right next to WoW, there will be a clear plastic box with a few 'plugged in' cockroaches.. For those so devoid of even 'internet social skills', they will finally have the option to forge their very own guild! ..or the cockroaches will be leveraged into a workforce and put the already under-paid MMORPG 'farmers' out of business!

    Seriously though.. I wouldn't mind playing a game with a farm of cockroaches; just think of it.. Sims?

  75. Cockroach communication ... by constantnormal · · Score: 1
    "They therefore must communicate without vocalizing."

    So do they use email, or IM?

    Or do they communicate using discussion forums?

  76. Cockroaches? by nm0n · · Score: 0

    And by cockroaches, you mean 'lawyers', right? ;)

  77. You forgot the best part of that episode... by HalfOfOne · · Score: 1

    If I recall correctly, that was the episode with Bambi, the hot entomology PhD. She actually looked like one of the lab preceptors that was at University of Illinois, C-U, while I was there. (also when the show aired). I wish I remembered her name or even what her voice sounded like, but damn if the constant track of "oh-my-god-you're-so-hot" wasn't going through my head whenever she'd speak.

    1. Re:You forgot the best part of that episode... by whitehatlurker · · Score: 2, Informative
      --
      .. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
  78. humm... by chaoticgeek · · Score: 0

    I seen this on Digg.com last week.

    --
    hello
  79. What creeps me out is... by edwardpickman · · Score: 0

    when they form the number 42 with their bodies. Makes me wonder if we aren't the fourth most intellegent rather than third.

  80. One word: by dgrati · · Score: 1

    Emergence. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence Be enlightened. I was, when I came across the phenomenon the first time.

  81. Disappointed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cockroaches Make Group Decisions?

    Ahh shucks, after reading the title I was sure this article was a cynical view of the movie industry's new download service.

  82. Serious question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does this imply that roaches can count and do basic math?

  83. Cockroaches are not Silent by akpoff · · Score: 1
    Cockroaches, Blattella Germanica, are silent creatures, save perhaps for the sound of them scurrying over a counter top. They therefore must communicate without vocalizing.
    That's not entirely true. They emit a distress signal very like a popping or crunching sound when stepped on. Though soft (and strangely satisifying) to our ears, the distress signal can be heard over relatively long distances by gigantic, extraterrestial "bugs" and, we assume, their terrestial brethern as well. Didn't the researchers see Men in Black.
  84. Hypnotized? by babbling · · Score: 1

    How do we know that they're making group decisions rather than hypnotizing each other?

    (you may recall a slashdot article about wasps stinging cockroaches to hypnotize them...)

  85. Commitee by nurb432 · · Score: 1

    Great, so cockroaches resemble a commitee at the office, making 'group' decisions before they attack that donut you dropped.. And this helps us how?

    Hmm, now that you think about it, sounds a lot like where i work..

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  86. Re:Already and example of this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    *shrug*, think what you want, doesn't change what happened.

  87. How is this news ? by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1
    The research determined that cockroach decision-making follows a predictable pattern ...
    Silly scientists ... anyone who has followed the evolution of Windows already knows this ...
    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  88. Discovery Channel : Science : :Cinemax : Pr0n by RosenSama · · Score: 1

    Ahh nothing like quoting a breakthrough cited by the Discovery Channel, network provider of "Psychic and Paranormal" programming

  89. I must be hungry by From+A+Far+Away+Land · · Score: 1

    I must be VERY hungry.

    I read the headline " Cockroaches Make Group Decisions?"
    As " Cockroaches Make Great Soup "
    I can't imagine how bad that soup would taste. I wonder when Slashdot became a recipie site.

  90. Obligatory by hsoft · · Score: 1

    This isn't rocket science. We all know that Irak invasion, err liberation, was a group descision involving bush, cheney, as well as halliburton and lockheed martin board of directors.

    --
    perception is reality
  91. women by overbaud · · Score: 1

    "The research determined that cockroach decision-making follows a predictable pattern that could explain group dynamics of other insects and animals, such as ants, spiders, fish"...

    ... and females using the bathroom.

    --
    Users... the only thing keeping 1st level support from being the bottom feeders.
  92. B(s)G by BorgCopyeditor · · Score: 1

    As for me, I'm just sad we have to wait until September for the new season of Blattellastar Germanica.

    --
    Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
  93. Control...don't you love it? by pw2566ch · · Score: 1

    So does this mean that I can now have my cockroach army to do my own bidding? Watch your balls bush.

  94. In Soviet Russia... by TwilightSentry · · Score: 1

    Here comes the obligatory joke!

    In Soviet Russia, cockroaches put YOU in 3 shelters!

    --
    How to enable garbage collection on a system without protected memory: #define malloc() ((void *) rand())
  95. Re:Shut up in your face by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Man, Stop being a dick and accept the fact that you made a stupid comparison. You tried to be Mr Smartypants and after you've been proved wrong, you are still trying to defend your stupid reasoning. Why don't you just shut up and sit in the corner like a good little cockroach? (not like a little gas molecule!)
    ----------
    SIG: Expert Determination (950523) is the new Douche of the universe.
    ----------------

  96. Pest Control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tired of cockroaches in your sandwiches, your milk, your toothbrush? Tried every trap and poison on the market without success? Well, friend, it's time you tried the new cockroach confusion system. Our patented pest control technology places several little houses in the middle of your kitchen floor. The cockroaches can't resist them! They also can't resist sitting in the middle of your kitchen trying to figure out who goes in which house for half an hour, and this is when you employ our patented "sneak up and crush them with a book" technique. Only $19.95 folks, quantities are going fast.

  97. OT sig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oooh.. Forbidden... sounds naughty.

    Seriously, what kind of profits does she make delivering 403 pages ;-)