Standford scientists discover that way ants search for food “mirrors the protocols that control traffic on the Internet” (TCP).
Here’s a little TCP computer nerdology 101…
SLOW-START: Like computers, ants follow this to avoid sending more ants than are needed initially.
CONGESTION AVOIDANCE: Ant “bandwidth” increases/decreases based on ant feedback during food transfer.
TIME-OUT: When forager ants are prevented from returning to the nest for more than 20 minutes, no moreleave the nest.
In fact, they so closely follow the TCP algorithm used in Internet data transfer that “had this discovery been made in the 1970s, before TCP was written, harvester ants very well could have influenced the design of the Internet. Gordon thinks that scientists have just scratched the surface for how ant colony behavior could help us in the design of networked systems.”
As a Bible-believing Creationist, announcements like this do not surprise me in any way. I would expect that we could have much to learn by examining the handiwork of an omnipotent, all-knowing Creator God. Instead, what surprises me are the lengths unbelievers will go to attribute advanced technology found in Creation to random chance and time.