Recently engineers have taken notice of the insects' impressive use of collaboration and have started finding ways to apply it to problems in the world of humans. That might be the reason why they've got a good system down that doesn't require complex units. The ant, itself, Bonabeau points out, is not a complex unit. In fact, all of its movements are based on immediate reactions to its surroundings or to its fellow ants. Put those ants together, however, and a sophisticated system emerges.
Some scientists call it a collective intelligence.
The Harvard University naturalist Edward O. Wilson estimates between 1 and 10 million billion ants are alive at any given moment. Take, for example, the ability of ants to find the shortest path to a food source. When an obstacle, such as a stick or even a person's foot, blocks the most direct path, ants very quickly find the next best route. Translate that ability to glitches on the Internet or roadways or in telephone lines and the ant can offer some solutions. If the nodes on one Internet network are clogged with too much traffic, it's sometimes necessary to reroute new traffic.