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ChucktheUnicorn t1_iti7slu wrote

Reply to comment by MacadamiaMarquess in Formation of Namibia’s fairy circles isn’t due to termites. Plants are "ecosystem engineers" that survive by forming optimal geometric patterns. by marketrent

> As far as I can ascertain, the swarm doesn’t understand. It merely behaves much as if it did.

How do you know it doesn't understand, even if in a more limited way? We only believe other people are conscious/understanding based on their observed behaviors

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MacadamiaMarquess t1_itiiasb wrote

That’s fair. We don’t know whether it is conscious/understanding, and may never know.

But my poor phrasing aside, swarm intelligence is used to describe scenarios where we are eventually able to explain the behavior without any need to resort to a hypothesis that has the group construct obtaining either understanding or a consciousness.

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