Leonidas Aretakis: Now brought the Russian anarchist to the lives of the swarming robots

The reputation is bad.

Yes, the word reeks of armpit, then all the times you tried to catch a glimpse of the bag between loads of chariots, and the nephew as been dragged to the bagagebandets edge.

at the same time, it seems we sometimes rely on the same folkmyller, that when we consult the average score before the movie nights and eating out.

Pyotr Kropotkin (1842-1921). Photo: Science Photo Library

the One who early on understood the strength of our joint brainpower is the Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921), who recently dubbelöversatts to Swedish. In “A anarkists memories” (Atlantis), he talks about his life as a socialist champion of the serfs. But he was also a biologist, and in “Mutual aid” (Hansson & Bruce), he uses his observations from the siberian expanses to understand human life.

the basis for morality in Darwin's theory of natural selection, which made the mortality to be a gladiatorial. The perception is again in vogue, oddly enough, often by likening us at the lobster. Both in the Georgos Lanthimos movie ' The lobster” (2015), and in the psychologist Jordan B Peterson's “12 livsregler” (2018), fish and crustacean up to portray the society as a romanticized battle about the status.

Less soothing is the u.s. military's massive investment in svärmrobotik, with the biblical sounding flottnamn as the “Locust”

But Kropotkin writes that the fight for survival does not have to take place between the organisms, but just as often in relation to the environment. He found inspiration in other arthropods, namely, the social insects like bees and termites, whose success is based on cooperation.

He also noticed that, as when ants build bridges and roads, lack of centralised management. With the simple behaviors and local interactions occur, a result that is more complex than what a single insect can understand. Kropotkin found so the natural argument of the small communist communities, out of the reach of meddlesome governments.

svärmintelligens, and he also argued not so helpful in a time that screams for co-ordination on everything from refugee status, and inequality to global warming. In addition, in the absence of a collective project just what makes the present so alienating.

However, the concept has been given new life in the research on artificial intelligence and robotics. Researchers at Harvard have, for example, created a robotsvärm that can perform complex tasks based on simple commands. Technology is central to the automated traffic, but would also be able to save the environment: think millions of smårobotar who is given the task to empty the seas of plastic.

Less soothing is the u.s. military's massive investment in svärmrobotik, with the biblical sounding flottnamn as “Locust” (“grasshopper”). Svärmens advantages in battle, with which myrarméer destroy each other, suggests that nature is contrary to what Kropotkin was thinking neither is good or evil. Morality, we must find for themselves.