Zootechnologies : a media history of swarm research / Sebastian Vehlken ; translated by Valentine A. Pakis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vehlken, Sebastian, author.

Contributor:

Pakis, Valentine A., translator.

Series:

Recursions: theories of media, materiality, and cultural techniques.

Recursions: theories of media, materiality, and cultural techniques

Standardized Title:

Zootechnologien. English

Language:

English

Undetermined

Subjects (All):

Swarm intelligence.

Computer simulation.

Swarming (Zoology).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (400 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2019.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Swarming has become a fundamental cultural technique related to dynamic processes and an effective metaphor for the collaborative efforts of society. This book examines the media history of swarm research and its significance to current socio-technological processes. It shows that the hype about collective intelligence is based on a reciprocal computerization of biology and biologization of computer science: After decades of painstaking biological observations in the ocean, experiments in aquariums, and mathematical model-making, it was swarms-inspired computer simulation which provided biological researchers with enduring knowledge about animal collectives. At the same time, a turn to biological principles of self-organization made it possible to adapt to unclearly delineated sets of problems and clarify the operation of opaque systems - from logistics to architecture, or from crowd control to robot collectives. As zootechnologies, swarms offer performative, synthetic, and approximate solutions in cases where analytical approaches are doomed to fail.

Contents:

Front matter

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

I. Deformations: A Media Theory of Swarming

II. Formations

III. Formats

IV. Formulas

V. Transformations

VI. Zootechnologies

Conclusion

Works Cited

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 20 Nov 2020).

Already published as: Zootechnologien. Eine Mediengeschichte der Schwarmforschung, Sebastian Vehlken. Copyright 2012, Diaphanes, Zürich-Berlin.

Includes bibliographical references.

This eBook is made available Open Access. Unless otherwise specified in the content, the work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed October 10 2025)

ISBN:

1-003-71001-8

90-485-3742-8

9781003710011

OCLC:

1130903694

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access