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

• Superior document: Recursions: theories of media, materiality, and cultural techniques
• VerfasserIn: Vehlken, Sebastian,
• TeilnehmendeR: Pakis, Valentine A.,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam : : Amsterdam University Press,, 2019.
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English; Undetermined
• Series: Recursions: theories of media, materiality, and cultural techniques.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (400 pages) :; digital, PDF file(s).
• 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.
• Other title: Zootechnologien.; 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
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references.
• ISBN: 9048537428
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Sebastian Vehlken ; translated by Valentine A. Pakis.

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.