From a distance they are a sight to behold. One instant they are like a gigantic billowed sail, the next they are shaped like an hourglass, and just as suddenly a dark muslin ribbon on a slomo whiplash. In a flash they change shape and contour, direction and speed. They are the
stornini, or starlings, thousands upon thousands of them, chirping excitedly and dancing their vespertine ritual before settling for the night in their arboreal abode around the Palazzo dello Sport in the southern Roman district of EUR (for
Esposizione Universale Roma, Mussolini’s grand idea of a new Rome). From the large windows of my study, I watch them, fascinated. They seem to fly in perfect cadence to the strains of Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 that’s playing inside my bedroom, sailing now, disappearing later, and appearing again in a short while.
From a distance they are charming, but you don’t want to live near them. Up close they are a pest. Irate storeowners drive them away with sound apparatuses. Subway commuters and office workers rush to escape their droppings. A confrere of mine, who works with the venerable Vatican curia, has a slingshot on his table ready to aim at a stray bird. It is not pleasant to fall under the stornini’s sphere of influence, or should I say, effluence.
But I am amazed and fascinated by how coordinated they are. Who leads them? What coordinates them?
In Sierra Leone, I would pause on a village trek to contemplate a parade of ants. Thousands of ant-feet have carved out an ant-size canal on which they now march across the sodden path. Still more fascinating is the sight of thousands of other ants watching the parade from both sides of the route. Are they waiting for the cue to join in, or are they just cheering, much like human onlookers do at human parades?
My fascination about birds and ants was rekindled several months ago when I read a National Geographic article (Peter Miller, July 2007) on swarm intelligence. Now I know how a colony of ants promptly learns where I have kept my box of cookies. Patroller ants – they’re everywhere, didn’t you know? – return to their nest with information of food location and touch antennae with forager ants who then use the rate of their encounters with the former to tell if it’s safe to go out. Once the ants start foraging and bringing back food, other ants join the effort. A pheromone trail is created and becomes stronger as more and more ants bring in food. This system is called self-organizing. So swarm intelligence works this way: simple creatures following simple rules, each one acting on local information. No ant sees the big picture. No ant tells any other ant what to do. No leadership is required, only relatively simple interactions are needed to coordinate complex behavior.
Humans are learning from animal behavior, I read further. In the U.S., Italy and Switzerland, fleets of trucks carrying merchandise all use ant-foraging rules to find the best routes for deliveries. These routes may not always be the shortest for the individual driver, but they could get the best prices and therefore bring in huge profits for the company. In England and France, telephone companies have made calls go through faster on their networks by programming messages to deposit virtual pheromones as switching stations, just as ants leave signals for other ants to show them the best trails.
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No ants were in sight at the San Sebastian Coffee Shop, where maintenance and property personnel, secretaries, librarians, guidance counselors, staff of the registrar’s office and the electronic data processing department had a half day seminar-workshop on expanded operational planning last 2 February. Ma’am Tess Valeroso, custodian of the shop, sees to it that no creature with more than two legs sets foot there.
Because that was the first time they were convoked to such a gathering, someone cautioned me, I should not be dismayed if their response was not too encouraging. Fortunately, she was wrong. As the workshop went on, the participants soon warmed to the task, encouraged by the opportunity to have a strong say in the five-year development plan of the school. In times past, institutional plans were more of a finished product that they would receive from their superiors than something they would work from down up.
I sat with the maintenance group during the first workshop. They were excitedly enumerating the elements they should reduce or raise, eliminate or create in their department. As electrician Jun Calicdan put it, wastage of water and energy should be reduced, along with long coffee breaks and their attendant rumormongering. Plumber Dodie Cuaderno spoke about the community’s need to raise the dignity of the maintenance staff and their self-concept. Poldo Taburada said that animosity and bad attitude must be eliminated among them. Someone suggested buying materials wholesale; aside from the obvious savings in bulk purchase, materials would be readily available when repairs are needed. This way, the repairmen wouldn’t be blamed for delays that really are caused by lack of supply, which is another department’s responsibility. A tag line with which they want to now be known is “Maintenance, quick response”.
Humans function with a vastly more complicated array of clues than mere pheromones. The personality of the leader, with his vision, charisma and energy is a big factor. The formation, motivation, values and feelings that compose the personality of the follower are no less important. Then there is the organizational setup that may favor to a lesser or greater degree the dynamic of leadership and obedience. There are the other elements, external and internal, to factor in. All this falls under the grand adventure that is the human person, endowed by God with the greatest qualities: intelligence and free will.
God must have good reason for endowing man with liberty instead of only instinct (or is this now called pheromone?). He took the risk of man abusing his God-given liberty. And God’s own Son paid for the consequences of that risk, dying for the sins of mankind. But Jesus’ act of love is the cause of a happiness vastly greater than the sadness caused by our sins.
I am still thrilled to watch on National Geographic channel ants marching against termite colonies and hornets going for the overkill on the hives of the smaller bumblebees. But I am more thrilled to hear the prayer that a disciple of Jesus, High School Principal Cristina Aliwalas, shared one night on Foundation Week last January, as she received recognition for her 35th year in service:
“As we give thanks for our family, friends, co-employees, students, alumni and the OAR religious administrators, we pray for those who are lonely.
As we give thanks for our freedoms, we pray for those who are oppressed.
As we give thanks for our good health, we pray for those who are ill.
As we give thanks for our comfort, prosperity and employment, we share our blessings with others”.
God must have enjoyed that immensely too. No
stornino or
formica can give him that.
Fr. Jorge Peligro, veep for academics, closed last Saturday’s seminar-workshop by reminding Eboy, Nats and Caloy and everyone else that each one counts. When administrators call employees on a nickname basis, maybe that’s a good pheromone trail.
Ants can’t learn from humans, I suppose. But humans can learn from ants. I suggest that we study them closely next seminar-workshop.
