Ant colonies embody all of the most important aspects of biological organization.
In simple terms they are more than the sum of their parts and they are robust flexible systems that are capable of self repair. The fundamental advantage of ant colonies as experimental biological materials is that they can be quickly taken apart and rapidly and easily put together again. This is the reason why we study ant colonies rather than natural neural networks which exhibit similar capabilities but can be experimentally intractable. Our recent studies have begun to demonstrate the algorithmic basis of the self organization of ant colonies. Our focus is on the simple rules of interaction among worker ants that generate complexity and sophistication at the level of the colony.