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Multimediali
What do a school of fish, a flock of birds, and an octopus have in common?
A school of fish can swirl into a vortex, a flock of birds draws elegant patterns in the sky, and what was once many, they now begin to look like one.
Swarm intelligence — a term introduced in the late 1980s — does not belong to any single individual, but emerges from interactions among them. In a flock, no bird leads or sees the full pattern: each one only sees its neighbours and follows a few simple rules — don’t get too close, don’t drift too far.
From these simple local interactions arises a coordinated, fluid, complex behaviour — as if the group were a new organism with a mind of its own.
And what about the octopus?
To understand why — even alone — it has something in common with a flock of birds, we need to shift perspective. In the octopus, a large portion of its neurons are located in its arms (yes — technically, they are arms, not tentacles).
Think of each arm as a semi-independent individual: it senses the environment, explores, makes decisions, and interacts with the others — not always waiting for the central brain.
From these interactions emerge fluid, coordinated movements — just as they do in a school of fish or a murmuration of birds.
In a school of fish, many can seem to become one. In the octopus, what seems one reveals itself to be many.