**Stigmergy** describes the phenomenon of high-level organization emerging from simple communication processes between agents in a [[Complex Adaptive Systems|complex adaptive system]]. It is a form of indirect coordination, in which individual agents within a complex system modify their local environment, which provide cues for additional individual agents to modify their local environment. The result is the appearance of coordinated group behavior without a central authority. This is known as autopoiesis, or self-organization. Examples are trail networks of ants, starling murmurations, schools of fish, termite mounds, [[Honeybees|honeybee]] swarms, and other forms of collective intelligence. Each modification serves as persistent information that organizes the behavior of subsequent agents. The [[emergence]] of stigmergic properties in multicellular networks has prompted their study as an [allegory](https://www.evolutionofcomputing.org/Multicellular/Stigmergy.html) for computer networks. Similarly, social progressives have advocated for use of stigmergy as an organizational strategy for societies. It is unclear as of yet how this is implemented since **indirectness** is a fundamental feature. Does this conflict with [[The Designer Economy]]? [Stigmergic cognition](https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/10004/1/MPRA_paper_10004.pdf) is a theory of [[Epistemology]] using the physical principles of stigmergy as a framework for making rational judgements. It has implications for the formation of [[Cognitive Bias]] as informed by the heuristics and biases model as well as for [[ecological rationality]]. In short, it theorizes that we develop ways to store information outside of ourselves, offloading the cognitive effort of memory onto the local environment. As such, our institutions and their symbolism become a cognitive structure for [[Social Epistemology]]. As a principle in spatial design, stigmergy represents a **meaningful arrangement** of programmatic elements, such that they respond to and direct user behavior. Signals and [[cues]] provide the basis for communicating how agents within a design should respond. A signal is an active communication in real-time, such as a stoplight, while a cue is embedded in within its environment. Cues are specialized according to location and shape, its context will determine how it is interpreted. #### Examples of Stigmergy Structures - Chess: Accessibility, democratic. Exponentially increasing iterations from a simple set of rules. Meaning and metaphor rest upon a pre-existing social construct. Alpha zero: proves that modes of play are themselves constructed. - Baseball - Long-term memory and the Self. - Extracellular matrix - Is **mind** an extra cellular matrix? ### Boundaries * Another relevant analogy is the concept of life and death in the game of Go. The game of Go is a game of drawing boundaries. Within a boundary of stones, a structure is “alive” if any action on it can be met with a reply that preserves it, even when surrounded by enemy stones.