A case study on collective intelligence based on energy flow

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a stochastic scheme for modeling a multi-species prey-predator artificial ecosystem in order to investigate the influence of energy flow on ecosystem lifetime and stability. Inhabitants of this environment are a few species of herbivore and carnivore birds. In this model, collective behavior emerges in terms of flocking, breeding, competing, resting, hunting, escaping, seeking, and foraging. Ecosystem is defined as a combination of prey and predator species with inter-competition among species within the same level of the food chain, and intra-competition among those belonging to different levels of the food chain. Some energy variables are also introduced as functions of behaviors to model the energy within the ecosystem. Experimental results of 11,000 simulations analyzed by Cox univariate analysis and hazard function suggest that only five corresponding energy variables out of eight aforementioned behaviors influence the ecosystem lifetime. Also, results of survival analysis show that among pairwise interactions between energy factors, only two interactions affect the system lifetime, including interaction between flocking and seeking energies, and interaction between flocking and hunting energies. These results match the observations of real life birds, which use flocking behavior for flexible movements, efficient foraging, social learning, and reducing predation risks.