The Perfect Swarm: The Science of Complexity in Everyday Life

by Len Fisher

One of the greatest discoveries of recent times is that the complex patterns we find in life are often produced when all of the individuals in a group follow the same simple rule. This process of “self-organization” reveals itself in the inanimate worlds of crystals and seashells, but as Len Fisher shows, it is also evident in living organisms, from fish to ants to human beings. The coordinated movements of fish in shoals, for example, arise from the simple rule: “Follow the fish in front.” Traffic flow arises from simple rules: “Keep your distance” and “Keep to the right.”Now, in his new book, Fisher shows how we can manage our complex social lives in an ever more chaotic world. His investigation encompasses topics ranging from “swarm intelligence” to the science of parties and the best ways to start a fad. Finally, Fisher sheds light on the beauty and utility of complexity theory. An entertaining journey into the science of everyday life, The Perfect Swarm will delight anyone who wants to understand the complex situations in which we so often find ourselves.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Psychology, Sociology, Popular Science, Physics, Nature

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Riku Sayuj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Till the eighth chapter, the characteristically real-life examples add to the effortless simplicity in explanation of the outlandish concepts to make it a joy to read. The book construction is much the same as in Rock, Paper, Scissors and borrow heavily from other famous works. But the long 8th and 9th chapters on heuristics and the tedious chapter summaries seem like a page-filling exercise as Fisher has nothing more to say about the topic and considers 250 pages a minimum requirement for a book.

The opening chapters about swarm intelligence in locusts, bees and birds are amazing and opens a window of wonder into this beautiful science. The applications to human crowds and networks and to computer systems are also wonderfully executed. Fisher borrows extensively from Malcolm Gladwell and then disses him in the Notes section of the book - I wonder why. He does the same to Avinash K Dixit in Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life.

[Tim Mobley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title: The Perfect Swarm: The Science of Complexity in Everyday Life

Author: Len Fisher

Publisher: Basic Books

The buzz in LA over the past week was whether Google has been testing self-driven cars on public streets in California. In fact, they have - although they also claim a human was always in the car in case something went wrong. With all the technology at our disposal these days, you may wonder, why we aren't already riding on robot-driven roads? Turns out the answer is complex - literally.

Whether it's driverless cars in traffic or data packets on a busy computer network, much of the progress of today's technologies are indebted to locust, ants, bees and all of nature's creatures that swarm. In his book, The Perfect Swarm, Dr. Len Fisher explains how many fields of study, from psychology to engineering, have been learning from nature things like:
-How individuals avoid a collision within a swarm
-How the swarm navigates around obstacles/threats
-How the swarm gets to their destination with efficiency

Dr. Fisher starts with a look at nature's swarms, and gradually moves to human society and complexity science. Throughout the book, he provides amusing anecdotes from scientific experiments, examples of computer modeling, and lessons humans can learn about leadership, change management, problem solving, decision making and networking. Dr. Fisher also provides up-to-date examples of these principles at work, from web businesses like Digg.com to political flash mobs self-organizing via Twitter in Iran. Seventy-two pages of informative notes also provide detailed information and references that did not fit in the body of the text.

Two thoughts might occur to the reader in the course of reading this book:
1.) "This stuff is common sense" - It's true that many of the ideas related to swarm intelligence and decision making are based on simple principles. (In fact, it seems, the more complex the problem, the simpler the solution.) However, Dr. Fisher points out that finding that simple solution is... complicated. Take this Frank Plumpton Ramsey quote:

The rate of saving multiplied by the marginal utility of money should always be equal to the amount by which the total net rate of enjoyment of utility falls short of the maximum possible rate of enjoyment.

This is a great example how getting to a simple solution (how much money we should save) is complicated.

2.) "Is this just about crowd control?" - One might easily think, when reading about "bee logic" that all you can get out of these insights are general rules for managing crowds (at sports events, for instance). But the second half of the book takes a detailed look at some hidden applications for swarm intelligence.

The following are just a few of the many practical insights offered in The Perfect Swarm

-Leadership - Bee swarms teach us that leaders need not be visible or prominent to be effective. Dr. Fisher states, “We can lead a group simply by having a goal, so long as the others in the group do not have different goals.”
-Teamwork - Swarm intelligence differs from “groupthink” in that individuals think and act independently. Dr. Fisher points out how groupthink leads to problems such as the two space shuttle disasters.
-Human Resource - Complexity theory says that, while experts are good for specialized problems, a “swarm” of generalists are better for solving complex problems. Phil Tetlock breaks down “experts” into two types - foxes and hedgehogs – and shows how foxes offer “built-in diversity.”
-Consensus - Once solutions are reached by individual members of “the swarm” there still exists the problem of reaching an objective consensus. Decisions with only two alternatives (i.e. Yes/No, guilty/innocent) are much easier to deal with.
-Heuristics - Sometimes good decisions can be made by a “swarm” – even in the absence of information. Gerd Gigerenzer offers strategies for such decisions based on statistics.
-Change Management - In today’s complex world, there is a growing need to be able to adapt quickly to changes. The book takes a look at businesses such as Ebay that have acted like “hawks,” taking advantages of fleeting opportunities.
-Networking - Even with billions of websites, it’s still a small world. Dr. Fisher shows the importance of “two-way” links, the Power Law (80/20 rule) and 6 degrees of separation.

Because the field of complexity science connects all conceivable areas of study, this book is a “must read” for leaders, followers, innovators and technicians. Whatever role one plays in “the swarm” it is important to understand lessons we can learn from nature.

[Imroze Aslam · Rating 5 out of 5]

It became one of my most favorite books. It was particularly interesting for me as I have worked in areas discussed in it like Swarm Intelligence, Complexity Theory, Steering behaviors, Data Science and Graph Theory, and it touches upon many areas and questions that I'm interested in related to Sociology and Decision Theory. The book was relatively short but still covered a lot more than what I was expecting. There were many concepts that can help us in explaining the world and optimizing our lives.

[John Gribbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thus would be my candidate for book of the year, if the publication date was December, not January. Who know what may turn up in the next 12 months? Whatever it is, though, will find Len Fisher a hard act to follow. His theme is the way simple rules of interaction lead to interactions such as the self-organisation that makes pretty patterns in a layer of warm liquid, gives a shoal of fish the appearance of having a group intelligence, and explains the behaviour of human beings in football crowds and walking along pavements.
The rules really are simple. The “intelligent” fish, for example, are following the rules: keep your distance; follow the fish in front; keep pace with the fish next to you. People follow much the same rules, providing insight into practical solutions to problems such as designing the exists from sports stadiums.
There is much more to this delightful and entertaining book, but my favourite section deals with the kind of group intelligence that operates on the show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? If you have a choice, you are far better off asking the audience than phoning a friend. From this and other studies Fisher makes a compelling case that legal justice would be best served if each juror heard the evidence in isolation, and voted guilty or not guilty independently. He certainly convinced me.
There are a few mistakes in the book, but they can be forgiven. Buy it, read it, tell your friends about it.
.

A version of this review first appeared in Focus

[Devora · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fisher takes a broad approach to the ideas presented rather than going into any depth. He uses filler 'fluff' (stories and anectodes) to distract the reader from his lack of technicality and where he does go into technical details (not often - which is good considering how poorly he does it) he was imprecise and unclear. This use of filler causes his central message to be confusing and leaves the reader unsure as to what he is trying to say. On a more positive note the multitude of side points and stories where humorous enough to cause me to think it worth reading on that count alone.

[Adam Hallihan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the beginning of the book was engaging and introduced some interesting concepts related to swarm intelligence. I went into the book looking for information about emergent properties and the behavior or bees and ants. This fact most likely led to how much I enjoyed some parts better than others. I would agree with the another reviewer where the connection to everyday lives was a forced concept as opposed to letting the science speak for itself.

[Jurgen Appelo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stories and science leading to a strange and unconvincing set of rules.

[YHC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before reading this book, coincidentally, i watched a series of BBC documentary named "The code" the night before. I was so stunned and in awe about how math is our daily life and how the nature actually shaped by geometry.
Then i read this book with great similarity about swarm intelligence that all explained in "The code".
So many seemingly mysterious natural phenomenon could be explained with simple mathematical structure, such as why bee hive shaped hexagon with the experiment of bubbles. Natural works efficiently in saving materials, hexagon is the best and strongest structure. The shape of crystal got perfect cube shape simple atomically their structure is like that. Virus got perfect Polyhedron...etc.

Back to the book, why the fish and bird flocks don't bump into each other and move in a harmonious synchronized way? simply each bird/ fish just 1. follow the fish/ bird in front. 2. if not, keep same distance with the fish/ bird beside them. Same behavior happens on flocks of human in crowded public space.

Sex degree of separation, though i still don't quite see how i can reach an African kid just through 6 people in between, well, since it's working with others, then it works.

The wisdom of crowds: in "the code", they asked around whole company employees in the office to guess the number of a jar of candies (which is around 5219 pieces after calculation), some guess 500, some wildly guess 80,000....etc, totally got around 150 people's guessing, the average was scarily accurate like 5221....something like that. That blew my mind...This book also talked about this experiment and cow meat weigh guessing ....and so on...all shows given bigger data from the crowds, we are more and more approaching the exact answer.

I think that means i need to read "the wisdom of crowds" for the next book!!

[MarkusQ · Rating 2 out of 5]

It started out promising but devolved into a hodgepodge of marginally related points, clumsily paraphrased (or mis-paraphrased) research results, and Malcom Gladwell rehash. Then, as if realizing he'd unrecoverably lost focus, the author grabbed on to the "takeaway built point" trick and bailed out.

If you liked "Why Do Men Have Nipples?: Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini" and "What Einstein Told His Barber: More Scientific Answers to Everyday Questions" you'll probably enjoy this too. I didn't, didn't, and didn't, but I'm apparently atypical.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to read how simple mathematical rules govern some seemingly complex behavior in the first half of the book, but I lost some interest as the chapters continued. The last chapter resuscitated a little more interest. All in all, a worthwhile quick read.

[Maxwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but I thought it was kinda weak?

[Willem_Ha · Rating 3 out of 5]

First chapters about swarms are great. Last chapters about decision making seems not closely related to swarms which is a pity since the swarm information is definitely interesting.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

from the library ... gave back most recently Jan 2011

there really is something to tell high school graduates


this book has a list of useful guidelines at the back about negotiating life

Simple Rules for Complex Situations
a]develop the virtues of swarm intelligence in family community and business groups by encouraging people to see themselves as stakeholders vs shareholders

also turn your cell phone holders into a smart mob

b]lead from the inside if possible with colleagues, BUT be careful not to get other members of the group know what you are doing. Just head in the direction that you want to go and leave it to the laws of the swarm to do the rest.

c] when networking, find use or establish those few long range links that bring clusters together into a small world with only a few degrees of separation

d] if in a crowd and need to escape, use a mixed strategy for escape: follow the crowd 60% and spend the other forty % searching out escape routes on your own.

e]to choose "the best" option without looking at every one of them, look at 37% of those available then take the next option that is better than any of them. There is more in this choosing the 'best for your effort' that I can't summarize.

f] people with influence are not necessary early adopters (people who will use an idea or product after a single exposure) if you want to start a new trend, it is better to try for critical mass of early adopters that to pursue a person of high influence

g]use Benford's law when dealing with data

h] don't believe that chains of connection have an underlying meaning unless you have some reason other than the connections themselves

i] pedestrian crowds tend to self organize into flowing rivers
Follow the rivers and don't get stuck on the banks.

j] when planning a complicated road trip across a city build in as many right turns as possible

Rules from Social and Behavioral Studies:
k]when taking a shortcut across a field or a park, pick your own path instead of the trail if what you want is the shortest route.

l]if there is a warning of danger, just believe it
m]if you are on the outside of a dense crowd, back off and try to persuade others to do so also
n]choose the alternative you recognise

o]if you recognize more than one alternative, take the one you recognize most easily
p]choose the option that has the greatest excess of positive cues over negative ones

q]when choosing between two possibilities, rank order your cues in the order of your expectation that they will lead to the best choice, then choose at the first cue that distinguishes between the options.

r]if there is an option to do nothing, seriously consider it
s]it is often easy to do what the majoritiy of your peer group is doing
t]you can follow the example of someone who has succeeded if you have the same qualities they have

Rules from Nature
Rules from Business
Rules from Computer Modeling
Rules from Mathamatics


from the library computer:
Table of Contents

Patterns of the Perfect Swarm: Visions of Complexity in Nature ix
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Emergence of Swarm Intelligence
The Locusts and the Bees
Ant Logic
A Force in a Crowd
Group Intelligence: The Majority or the Average?
Consensus: A Foolish Consistency?
Crazes, Contagion, and Communication: The Science of Networks
Decision Rules OK?
Searching for Patterns: Imagination and Reality
Notes
Index

[Clark Hays · Rating 3 out of 5]

Swarms and the illusion of leadership

I purchased this book to learn more about swarm dynamics and swarm intelligence. The books starts promisingly, but moves rather quickly into the territory staked out by the subtitle: the science of complexity. While somewhat interesting, it wasn’t what I’d hoped and I almost put it down, but I’m a stubborn reader and so slogged through (curse you, Goodreads, for making me care about my end of year reading report).

Early on, I found some interesting insights into communications (my day job) drawn from the swarm behavior of bees. Apparently, bees don’t need managers or supervisors or hierarchical roles to make a swarm function effectively: “Just a few informed individuals can lead a much larger group of uninformed individuals simply by moving faster and in the appropriate direction.” Studies indicate that it works in humans, as well, with people tending to follow others who seem to know where they are going. That leads to the notion that leadership is a function of information differences between the informed and the uninformed.

After deeper thought and a decade of experience in corporate America, I’m not so sure that holds true beyond very basic information (such as “which way is the bathroom”), unless one makes the argument that the appearance of being informed is enough to lead.

Later there was a glimmer of insight related to marketing (as an author, that hits me right in the “life’s work” category) based on understanding connectivity, networks hubs and how information is passed along. The ultimate goal, it would seem, is to maximize the number of people who receive information that is worth passing along to another person. On a related note, the behavior of ant colonies reinforces this notion for steady, consistent communications rather than single splashy ones. Ants rely on pheromones, laying down trails for others to follow — the more ants that follow it, the more important the trail becomes and the greater the perceived value. Humans aren’t lucky enough to have pheromones and so rely on press releases and articles and ads and Facebook posts to lay down trails … to their products (in my case, books). Pheromones sound much more effective.

The author is a solid writer, clearly knowledgeable about this areas and he goes out of his way to create a variety rules for maximizing success within a complex environment but it’s unlikely they will stick with me for long. I also learned a bit about crowd dynamics and what not to do in a stampede, but that’s one rule I am already clear on: avoid crowd situations entirely.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the few books on complexity that didn't talk about fractals, Mandelbrot,coastlines and the butterfly effect. It concentrated on how (mostly) living things behave when they are in a group and the new properties of that "swarm". It doesn't talk about emergence of things over long period of time.

Here are some of the things I found interesting:

* African Locust who once they reach a certain population density produce Serotonin and start them to swarm

* How ants know to follow the shortest path to food

* Rules that fish/people follow in a school/crowd

Fisher in later chapters talks more about group intellegence. group concensus, the small world problem. This book is approximately 170 pages long with 70 pages of sources,footnotes,asides.

I did not think this was a great book like
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and SoftwareEmergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software. I did find it to be an enjoyable read.

[LizG · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book gets a bit bogged down with the science and math specifics for my taste, but it's easy enough to skim those parts and the rest of it is easily palatable for those of us with an interest and curiosity but no technical training, thanks to the author, a scientist with a dry, self-deprecating sense of humour.

When I first picked up the book I skimmed it, almost put it down because of the technical stuff, then found the summary "Rules" at the back and was intrigued enough to want to continue reading from the start.

When I read that Fisher and a friend conducted experiments on moving through crowds while making their way to a friend's party, all I could think was, "Wow, serious geek entertainment!"

I've long believed that people with diverse training or experience are better at problem solving than niche specialists, and the book acknowledges this finding in Fisher's and others' work.

One of the most practical findings for me was that spending more time studying more options doesn't actually lead to better decisions. Hah, I thought so! (This is borne out in some of Malcolm Gladwell's and Daniel Pink's writing as well.)

All in all, an interesting geek-read.

[Ninakix · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find the idea of "_____ in your everyday life" a little stale, especially when it seems somewhat forced. I think this book would have done itself a favor by focusing mostly on the different concepts presented without trying to force ideas on how this would apply to users lives.

What was interesting was the first four chapters in this book were engaging to me, and perhaps it was because I was relatively unfamiliar with the material. However, after about chapter 6, I found the book getting progressively more boring. I also felt that in these later chapters, Fisher would have done better to incorporate a broader range of thinking into his books - although he does draw from some psychologists, a lot of this thinking tends to be one dimensional and a bit rote. In particular, I had qualms with the chapter on networks, both in the way it was written and some of the assertions made on adoption theory and diffusion of innovations.

[Betsy Dion · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books looks at similar patterns and rules that guide the behavior of groups (swarms)--schools of fish, swarms of locusts, colonies of bees, or crowds and networks of humans. The book just touches the surface of most of it, but there is an extensive bibliography for those who want to read more. The author comes up with a list of behaviors that will generally lead to good outcomes, based on the studies mentioned in the book.

Some of them are very intriguing, such as if you have to make a choice, and you can't return to an option once you have rejected it, then you should look at the first 37 percent of your choices, reject them, and pick the next one that is better than any of the ones that you have seen. This will give you a 1 in 3 chance of picking the best option, and you will likely end up with an option in the top few percent. If you are happy with a choice that is in the top 10%, then you only need to compare to 14% of the choices.

[Uwe Hook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Len Fisher's "The Perfect Swarm" is a great reference for understanding the science behind human complexity and everyday life. He describes the concept of swarm intelligence by using examples in nature and comparing them to human behavior and self-organization, all while using whimsy and amusement to frame his text. Fisher states that out of chaos, mathematical patterns emerge to create order, and this order can be seen from coral and ants to sand dunes and bees. What's more, he describes how the collective intelligence of swarms can help humans make better decisions as groups and as individuals within a group. Using humor only adds to Fisher's narrative and provides a break from the mathematical conceptual foundation of the swarm intelligence paradigm. Ultimately, Fisher provides a solid model for revealing how complexity emerges from simple rules in nature, and how humans can imitate those behaviors to better understand our chaotic world.

[Franck Chauvel · Rating 3 out of 5]

In “The Perfect Swarm”, Len tells us about Complexity—how complex patterns emerge from local interactions. Complexity explains the behaviour of schools of fish, human crowds and many others.

Len uses “swarm” in a broader sense that I thought. While I initially thought of swarms as armies of small animal, Lens goes further and covers not only swarms' behaviour but also strategies and heuristics, which individuals may use to take local decision. I however lack a conclusion that would explain how these local decisions interact in a swarm and to what group behaviour.

Compared to Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life, I found Len's text easier to read because it does not contain Greek symbols, but still provides references for the eager readers.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining discussion of crowd and swarm intelligence

As its title suggests, this lively book often makes its points with humor and wit. Physicist and author Len Fisher draws on laboratory experiments, observations of the natural world, well-known historical events, contemporary cases and examples from his own life, making a complex subject accessible. His book covers some ground that will be familiar from other books on group intelligence, collaboration and the wisdom of crowds, but the material on “swarm intelligence” is new. Fisher’s numerous examples from all facets of nature provide highly fascinating case studies of group behavior. getAbstract recommends this book to professionals in marketing and strategy, and to trainers and readers who are interested in new ways of thinking.

[Eva Nickelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting introduction to swarm theory. The science is done with a hand-wave (while I would have enjoyed a bit more substance), but the conclusions in the last chapter of the book were well presented. Fisher tries to pull the variety of swarm behaviors outlined to apply them to human groups. It is an interesting take on how to modify a group's behavior without anyone else in the group realizing it. I also enjoyed the notes in the back of the book, which dived into more detail or suggested further reading for different points. It maintained a good pace while reading the book, while still substantiating the writing.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

What starts out as a fascinating read unfortunately runs out of steam about halfway through, and sputters out by repeating itself at the end. It's too bad, as the author's tone is congenial and sounds like a voice with much to say about many subjects, but I couldn't shake the feeling that this would have been better as a long magazine article stripped of fluff.

For those who are interested, you could likely get the same experience by reading the first two or three chapters and the last one, referencing the middle chapters only if truly wishing to get in the weeds.

[Omar Rodriguez-Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers the science of swarm and flock behavior among animals and humans, group-thinking and crowd intelligence. It touches on resolving caos through pattern recognition and human imagination but falls short on expanding on, what I think, is the most interesting topic. Unfortunately as things start getting more and more interesting the book comes to an end.

Very good read non the less.

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it is mostly a lot of theory, this book does provide a good understaning of complexity theory and swarm intelligence. The author does a good job of taking the math out of the subject so those of us without a PhD in applied mathamatics can understand what is going on. Over all, this book had a lot in common with the The Tipping Point, but had a lot more science to back it up.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat book -- not for dummies. Explains the mathematical principles behind why swarms of fish move all the the same time, how voting works, how to guess the right number of jelly beans in a jar. I won't pretend that I understood all the mathy parts, but there is enough explanation and real-life application to make this a very worthy read.

[Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book on the power of "Networks" and the ability to harness the crowd for superior results. Easy to read and points to multiple solutions - which indeed there are.

I bought it because our CEO suggested it and it helped me understand some of his vision for the power of a connected vehicle network.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book that is well foot-noted for those seeking to dive into the details. I was hoping for a bit more depth on certain topics, so it is only a 3 for being somewhat superficial. That said, I would recommend it to borrow from a friend/library.

[Alan Cunningham]

At first elementary, and then intuitive, this review of the fields of emergent behavior, chaos, and game theory is a good review of the field of group agency and behavior. I especially enjoyed the chapter on voting, voice, and political will.

[Eric Vandermeer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating stuff .....