First, the good news: You, the individual, can defy prediction. Second, the bad news: You, the group, can’t.
According to Henri Weimerskirch of the Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, pelicans trained to fly in a “V” formation individually save as much as 14% of the energy the lead pelican uses.* Of course, we associate flying in a “V” with geese, so let’s make the leap the Smithsonian makes about their flight: Geese save energy by flying in a “V.”** I know, you’re not a bird, but your species is prone to exhibit a characterizing cliché, “Birds of a feather flock together.” And, like geese, the human “birds” move in formation, predictable formation.
Enter a team of numerical analysts from the Technical University of Munich. In short, a team led by Professor Massimo Fornasier claims it is possible to devise automatic and precise models “for specific, relatively simple group interactions.”*** Although he acknowledges the unpredictability of individuals (like you, of course), Fornasier says, “People in masses behave akin to particles in a fluid or gas…Analogous to the force of attraction between molecules in a gas, we can describe generalized behavioral patterns as resulting from interacting social forces between individual agents and represent them in mathematical equations.”
The numerical analysts seek to develop ever more precise algorithms for interpreting and predicting human group behavior. In doing so they will serve the needs of those who want to manipulate the “collective” in any place at any time. As Fornasier says, “In the next step we can then also make predictions about future behavior… And once we can calculate the behavior of a group of interacting agents in advance, we are only one small step away from controlling them.”
Do you relish unpredictability? Or do you prefer to save some intellectual energy, fly in formation, and follow the lead goose? Yes, life is seemingly easier in the “V,” but it’s not YOUR life.
*http://mentalfloss.com/article/13062/why-do-flocks-geese-fly-%E2%80%9Cv%E2%80%9D-shape
** http://www.tweentribune.com/article/tween56/why-do-geese-fly-v-formation/
*** https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161114143006.htm
Massimo Fornasier, Francesco Solombrino. Mean-Field Optimal Control. ESAIM: Control, Optimisation and Calculus of Variations, 2014; 20 (4): 1123 DOI: 10.1051/cocv/2014009
According to Henri Weimerskirch of the Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, pelicans trained to fly in a “V” formation individually save as much as 14% of the energy the lead pelican uses.* Of course, we associate flying in a “V” with geese, so let’s make the leap the Smithsonian makes about their flight: Geese save energy by flying in a “V.”** I know, you’re not a bird, but your species is prone to exhibit a characterizing cliché, “Birds of a feather flock together.” And, like geese, the human “birds” move in formation, predictable formation.
Enter a team of numerical analysts from the Technical University of Munich. In short, a team led by Professor Massimo Fornasier claims it is possible to devise automatic and precise models “for specific, relatively simple group interactions.”*** Although he acknowledges the unpredictability of individuals (like you, of course), Fornasier says, “People in masses behave akin to particles in a fluid or gas…Analogous to the force of attraction between molecules in a gas, we can describe generalized behavioral patterns as resulting from interacting social forces between individual agents and represent them in mathematical equations.”
The numerical analysts seek to develop ever more precise algorithms for interpreting and predicting human group behavior. In doing so they will serve the needs of those who want to manipulate the “collective” in any place at any time. As Fornasier says, “In the next step we can then also make predictions about future behavior… And once we can calculate the behavior of a group of interacting agents in advance, we are only one small step away from controlling them.”
Do you relish unpredictability? Or do you prefer to save some intellectual energy, fly in formation, and follow the lead goose? Yes, life is seemingly easier in the “V,” but it’s not YOUR life.
*http://mentalfloss.com/article/13062/why-do-flocks-geese-fly-%E2%80%9Cv%E2%80%9D-shape
** http://www.tweentribune.com/article/tween56/why-do-geese-fly-v-formation/
*** https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161114143006.htm
Massimo Fornasier, Francesco Solombrino. Mean-Field Optimal Control. ESAIM: Control, Optimisation and Calculus of Variations, 2014; 20 (4): 1123 DOI: 10.1051/cocv/2014009
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