Speed-Accuracy Tradeoffs in Collective Decision Making

Speed-Accuracy Tradeoffs in Collective Decision Making

ABSTRACT:

Information flows in ever greater quantities on dynamically changing networks. There is thus an increasing need to understand how to put computing power where it is most needed. Most traditional centrally controlled scheduling algorithms are not designed for such tasks, and they should be replaced by more decentralized systems. Ant colonies provide a prime example of a decentralized decision making system as a potential source of inspiration for distributed computing environments. Through the course of evolution, ants have acquired sophisticated mechanisms that use only local information, which they integrate into collective decisions. In this talk I will combine simple models with experimental data to illustrate how ants achieve tradeoffs between speed and accuracy in ant colony emigrations. In particular, I will focus on the question which of the mechanisms are most important to maximize one or the other.