Think about all the things that need to happen for a human settlement to thrive:
思考下要使一个人类定居点繁荣需要发生的所有事：
obtaining food, building shelter, raising children and more.
获得食物，建造居所，生儿育女，等等。
There needs to be a way to divide resources, organize major efforts and distribute labor efficiently.
这需要有一个方法来分配资源，组织主要力量以及高效地分配劳动力。
Now imagine having to do this without any sort of planning or higher level communication.
现在想像下在无任何计划或更高层次交流的情况下来做这件事。
Welcome to the ant colony.
欢迎来到蚂蚁群落。
Ants have some of the most complex social organization in the animal kingdom,
在动物王国中，蚂蚁有着某种最为复杂的社会组织，
living in structured colonies containing different types of members who perform specific roles.
它们住在有结构的群落中，包含不同类型的成员，这些成员有明确角色。
But although this may sound similar to some human societies,
尽管这听上去和某种人类社会很相似，
this organization doesn't arise from any higher level decisions, but is part of a biologically programmed cycle.
然而这个组织并非由任何更高层次的决定而产生，而是生物程序循环的一部分。
In many species, all the winged males and winged virgin queens
在许多（蚂蚁）亚种中，来自种群中所有附近的群落的有翅雄蜂和有翅未交配蜂皇，
from all the nearby colonies in the population each leave from their different nests and meet at a central place to mate,
分别离开它们不同的巢穴，在一个中间地聚集交配，
using pheromones to guide each other to a breeding ground.
利用外激素引导对方到繁殖地。
After mating, the males die off, while females try to establish a new colony.
交配后，雄蜂死去，而雌蜂则尝试建立一个新的群落。
The few that are successful settle down in a suitable spot, lose their wings, and begin laying eggs,
少数能在一个合适的地点成功定居（的雌蜂），失去翅膀并开始产卵，
selectively fertilizing some using stored sperm they've saved up from mating.
有选择的使一些在交配中保留并储藏的精子受精。
Fertilized eggs grow into female workers who care for the queen and her eggs.
受精的卵子长成雌性工蜂，负责照顾蜂皇和她的卵。
They will then defend the colony and forage for food, while unfertilized eggs grow into males
然后它们负责保卫群落以及储存食物，而未受精的卵长成雄蜂，
whose only job is to wait until they are ready to leave the nest and reproduce, beginning the cycle again.
它们唯一的工作是等待直至他们准备好离开蜂巢以及繁殖，重新开始这一循环。
So how do worker ants decide what to do and when? Well, they don't really.
那么工蜂怎么决定该做什么及何时做这些事呢？嗯，他们其实并不决定。
Although they have no methods of intentional communication,
尽管他们没有内部交流的方法，
individual ants do interact with one another through touch, sound and chemical signals.
个体蚂蚁确实通过接触、声音和化学信号与其他蚂蚁互动。
These stimuli accomplish many things from serving as an alarm to other ants if one is killed,
这些刺激伴随着许多事：从警告其他蚂蚁另一只蚂蚁被杀，
to signaling when a queen is nearing the end of her reproductive life.
到当蜂皇已临近生育期末时发出信号。
But one of the most impressive collective capabilities of an ant colony
但蚂蚁群落最令人印象深刻的收集能力之一
is to thoroughly and efficiently explore large areas without any predetermined plan.
是无任何先决计划下彻底而有效地勘查大块区域。
Most species of ants have little or no sense of sight and can only smell things in their vicinity.
多数蚂蚁亚种仅有有限视觉或没有视觉，而且只能闻到他们附近的东西。

Combined with their lack of high level coordination, this would seem to make them terrible explorers,
加上他们缺乏高层面的协调，这使他们貌似糟糕的勘探者，
but there is an amazingly simple way that ants maximize their searching efficiency;
但有一个令人惊叹的简单方法使蚂蚁能最大化他们的搜索效率；
by changing their movement patterns based on individual interactions.
（这就是）以个体互动为依据改变他们的移动模式。
When two ants meet, they sense each other by touching antennae.
当两只蚂蚁相遇，他们通过碰触触角来感知对方。
If there are many ants in a small area this will happen more often
如果在小块区域内有许多蚂蚁，这将发生的更为频繁，
causing them to respond by moving in more convoluted, random paths in order to search more thoroughly.
导致他们通过更迂回和随机的移动路径来响应（彼此），来使搜索更彻底。
But in a larger area, with less ants, where such meetings happen less often, they can walk in straight lines to cover more ground.
但在大块区域中仅有少量蚂蚁，这样的碰面则发生的不那么频繁，它们能够走直线来覆盖更多地面。
While exploring their environment in this way,
当用这种方式勘察他们环境时，
an ant may come across any number of things, from threats or enemies, to alternate nesting sites.
一只蚂蚁会遇到各式各样的事，从威胁或敌人到可选的巢穴点。
And some species have another capability known as recruitment.
一些亚种有另外一个能力，称为招募。
When one of these ants happens to find food, it will return with it, marking its path with a chemical scent.
当这些蚂蚁中的一只碰巧找到食物时，它会带回食物，用一种化学气味来标记路径。
Other ants will then follow this pheromone trail, renewing it each time they manage to find food and return.
然后其他蚂蚁会跟随这一外激素标记的路径，并在他们每次能找到食物并返回时更新这一路径。
Once the food in that spot is depleted, the ants stop marking their return.
一旦地点中的食物耗尽，这些蚂蚁便停止标记他们的回程。
The scent dissipates and ants are no longer attracted to that path.
气味散发，蚂蚁们便不会再被吸引到这条路径上。
These seemingly crude methods of search and retrieval are, in fact,
事实上，这种看似原始的搜索和回收方法，
so useful that they are applied in computer models to obtain optimal solutions from decentralized elements,
应用于计算机模型上非常有用，例如从分散元素中获得最优解决方法，
working randomly and exchanging simple information.
随机工作和交换简单信息。
This has many theoretical and practical applications, from solving the famous traveling salesman problem,
这在理论上和实际上有很多应用，从解决著名的销售人员差旅问题，
to scheduling computing tasks and optimizing Internet searches,
到计算机任务进度安排和最优化网络搜索，
to enabling groups of robots to search a minefield or a burning building collectively, without any central control.
以及使多组机器人能够勘察矿区，或在无任何中央控制下，整体焚烧某一建筑。
But you can observe these fascinatingly simple, yet effective, processes directly through some simple experiments,
但你可以直接通过一些简单实验来观察这些令人陶醉的简单而有效的过程，
by allowing ants to enter empty spaces of various sizes and paying attention to their behavior.
通过让蚂蚁进入不同大小的空旷区域并注意他们的行为。
Ants may not be able to vote, hold meetings or even make any plans,
蚂蚁可能不会选举、开会甚至列计划，
but we humans may still be able to learn something from the way that such simple creatures are able to function so effectively in such complex ways.
但如此简单的生物却能用这些复杂方式高效实现功能，我们人类仍能从这一方法中学到东西。