- metaheuristic inspired by the foraging behavior of ants — introduced by Dorigo (1992)
- ants deposit pheromones on paths. good paths accumulate more pheromone. the colony converges on optimal routes
- a pure example of stigmergy: indirect coordination through environmental modification
- in cyber: neurons deposit cyberlinks on the cybergraph. links backed by more focus attract more attention. the network converges on relevance through the tri-kernel — the same principle, formalized
- diffusion in the tri-kernel is the mathematical generalization of pheromone-guided random walks
- see collective intelligence