Bees Solve Hard Computing Problems Faster Than Supercomputers
Here's something I never thought could have been possible: bees (yes, the tiny 2-3cm insects) can beat a supercomputer in solving a super-difficult problem that even some supercomputers have problems with. That problem is called the traveling salesman problem. I looked this up, and I found that the traveling salesman problem tries to find a route between multiple cities, with the shortest possible total distance between the cities, all while only visiting each city once. The way the bees were tested is that researchers set up artificial flowers, and the bees were observed and were found to always find the shortest route between the artificial flowers. The reason that the bees have the ability to do this is that bees need a lot of energy to fly, and so by optimizing their route between flowers, they can pick up as much pollen as possible while using as little energy as possible for transportation. This seems to be some kind of evolutionary adaptation, that must really help the bee.
However, this whole post could be wrong, and could have been proved wrong by a comment on my source article. The comment stated that the bees are obviously successful at a smaller level, but that involves only 10-15 flowers, but that is also the level where supercomputers can quickly and easily solve the problem. The bees have not been tested with 100 flowers, or other high numbers like that, which a supercomputer cannot solve within the lifetime of the universe. Presumably, the bees can't handle that either. Even with their limitations, the bees are very successful for a creature of that size, and I think it's amazing how much they have going on in their little bee brains.
Sources:
Rebecca Boyle
Oct. 26, 2010
http://gizmodo.com/5674050/bees-solv
e-hard-computing-problems-faster-than-supercomputers
I thought that your article was very interesting. I don't really understand what you mean by supercomputer, though - a computer is a computer, isn't it? Anyway, it's really cool that bees are able to think as fast as a computer. They're so small, and, no offense, they don't seem that bright.
ReplyDeleteI think that the bees' adaptations are very logical and useful - when you have that little mass, and not that much energy, you need to save and conserve the maximum amount.