| There is a secret zoo that runs encaged
| |
| | new cars or navigating around towns; and
|
| along the roads.They are liquid,
| |
| | because the highway wends its way
|
| semi-visible goliaths that rage through
| |
| | directly through most of Canada's major
|
| the streams and chunks of ordinary
| |
| | cities, it provides a handy litmus test
|
| traffic, with the effervescent tendrils
| |
| | for the homeostatic integrity of a given
|
| of mile-long tales whipping behind them
| |
| | specimen simply by observing whether or
|
| like Chinese dragons. Though composed of
| |
| | not it makes it through to the other side
|
| hundreds of pounds of steel, glass and
| |
| | of the urban area intact.While daytime
|
| plastic, they are able to pass through
| |
| | ATA formation is not rare, it is under
|
| solid objects. They are bound by the
| |
| | the cover of darkness that development
|
| laws of the highway, but not by any
| |
| | can proceed in a comparatively unfettered
|
| conventional notion of time or space.They
| |
| | fashion. This is due in large part to
|
| are Aggregate Traffic Animals: a
| |
| | the more abstract, disconnected
|
| menagerie of emergent beasts drawn from
| |
| | experience of interacting with other
|
| the interacting behaviours of many
| |
| | vehicles merely as points of coloured
|
| individual human beings driving many
| |
| | light. Familiar prejudices and
|
| individual cars with many individual
| |
| | stereotypes -- potential sources of
|
| goals, their collective activity giving
| |
| | destructive competition -- are smoothed
|
| rise to something with greater presence,
| |
| | out by the shadows. At least on the
|
| power and purpose than the sum of its
| |
| | basis of visual impressions, a Volvo and
|
| constituents. They take on a host of
| |
| | a Camaro can enter a system as
|
| different forms, each to serve a
| |
| | peers.Diminished visibility resulting
|
| different end.They are real, and they
| |
| | from mild to moderate weather conditions
|
| drive among us.PreambleIn his
| |
| | can have a similar equalising effect, but
|
| introduction to The Extended Phenotype
| |
| | when conditions become too severe drivers
|
| (Oxford University Press, 1982)
| |
| | tend to clump into packs for safety,
|
| enthusiastic evolutionary biology
| |
| | leading to pseudo-ATA fleets that are all
|
| cheerleader and Commodore-hacking
| |
| | too conscious social events (as in the
|
| pop-science guru Richard Dawkins invites
| |
| | Quintana Roo experience).Show me an
|
| us to consider the Necker Cube Illusion:
| |
| | autumn stretch of prairie
|
| a two-dimensional image representing two
| |
| | transcontinental highway at twilight, and
|
| interlocked three-dimensional blocks in
| |
| | I will show you the secret zoo of the
|
| which the foreground and background can
| |
| | road.Typical MorphologiesThe most basic
|
| seem to flip back and forth as the brain
| |
| | form of multi-car life is the Asipetal
|
| fruitlessly seeks the "true"
| |
| | Caterpillar, also known as a worm. Worms
|
| interpretation of the depicted space.
| |
| | begin when a stable solo vehicle spawns a
|
| This is Dawkins' starting point for a
| |
| | linear, single-lane chain of vehicles
|
| thought experiment in which he blurs the
| |
| | composed of loose monomers joining at the
|
| lines between species, their genes and
| |
| | rear (a closely related, but
|
| the environment, calling into question
| |
| | dysfunctional, construct known as an
|
| the traditional boundaries drawn through
| |
| | Acropetal Caterpillar grows by adding
|
| biological systems to identify the
| |
| | vehicles to the front of the chain,
|
| relevant level of study. To wit, to
| |
| | generally leading to destructive
|
| wank:We look at life and begin by seeing
| |
| | diffusion or autolysis). Short, lithe
|
| a collection of interacting individual
| |
| | worms are the fundamental building blocks
|
| organisms. We know that they contain
| |
| | of healthy ATA tissue. Perverse,
|
| smaller units, and we know that they are,
| |
| | long-form worms are the seeds of
|
| in turn, parts of larger composite units,
| |
| | congestion and death.The second atomic
|
| but we fix our gaze on the whole
| |
| | element of ATA tissue stands in stark
|
| organisms. Then suddenly the image
| |
| | contrast to the worm, for it is a
|
| flips. The individual bodies are still
| |
| | fleeting thing, and when it takes
|
| there; they have not moved, but they seem
| |
| | concrete form at all it is often
|
| to have gone transparent...In other
| |
| | manifested as a single car. The Apparent
|
| words, if you are able to de-emphasise
| |
| | Coxswain is a vehicle that appears, to
|
| the organism itself you are free to
| |
| | the conscious or semi-conscious mind of
|
| appreciate the idea of beaver ponds as
| |
| | one or more drivers, to be a leader of
|
| artificial lakes generated by beaver
| |
| | the worm. When the Apparent Coxswain
|
| genes, or to see a spider's web as an
| |
| | changes lanes, there is a higher
|
| arrangement of silk drawn by DNA. By
| |
| | probability that a majority of the worm
|
| extending the lines with which we bound
| |
| | will follow suit than if the change were
|
| the traditional phenotype, we define new
| |
| | initiated by a less trusted vehicle. In
|
| organisms, merging technology and
| |
| | many cases each car in a worm perceives
|
| individuals into communities the same way
| |
| | the car immediately ahead of it to be the
|
| that ancient micro-organisms interacting
| |
| | Apparent Coxswain, leading to
|
| inside bilipid membranes fell into
| |
| | domino-effect lane-transitions; such
|
| symbiotic lockstep dances to found the
| |
| | formations have high homeostatic
|
| first stable cells.Organelles, cells,
| |
| | integrity because of the worm's ability
|
| bodies, herds: at which level we discern
| |
| | to "find a new head" should one Apparent
|
| the animal is purely a matter of
| |
| | Coxswain be lost to the currents.
|
| focus.This idea of the emergent animal or
| |
| | (Please note: the Apparent Coxswain
|
| "super-organism" is hardly particular to
| |
| | should not be confused with the Virtual
|
| Dawkins: William Morton Wheeler remarked
| |
| | Coxswain or the Napoleonic Coxswain,
|
| on the idea in his 1911 paper "The Ant
| |
| | discussed below.)Formations that achieve
|
| Colony as an Organism" in a treatment
| |
| | such integration become Cholingers:
|
| that is every bit as cogent but with
| |
| | Asipetal Caterpillars with
|
| considerably less otaku chic than Kevin
| |
| | tightly-integrated internal feedback
|
| Kelly's printed-soundbyte manifesto on
| |
| | systems of Apparent Coxswains, capable of
|
| hive complexity, Out of Control (Perseus
| |
| | transmitting information from tip to tail
|
| Books, 1994). In the words of
| |
| | with high fidelity. Cholingers can
|
| Kelly:There is nothing to be found in a
| |
| | slither to avoid torn tyres on the road,
|
| beehive that is not submerged in a bee.
| |
| | twitch around slow-moving vehicles, and
|
| And yet you can search a bee forever with
| |
| | even slip through packs of alien worms,
|
| cyclotron and fluoroscope, and you will
| |
| | wild axenes and other traffic froth to
|
| never find a hive.So too can you examine
| |
| | arrive on the other side intact.Of
|
| a driver in a car and know nothing about
| |
| | course, not all Cholingers slip through
|
| the greater animal in which they both
| |
| | the strangers: sometimes they
|
| participate when the circumstances are
| |
| | interact.Every Cholinger is either
|
| right. Some of the applicable forces can
| |
| | benthic or pelagic. Benthic Cholingers
|
| be seen most clearly in the rarified
| |
| | travel at a similar rate to the currents
|
| environment of the professional race
| |
| | of the road, while Pelagic Cholingers
|
| course, as explored by David Ronfeldt, a
| |
| | travel at a dissimilar rate when compared
|
| senior social scientist at RAND, in his
| |
| | to other traffic (typically a faster
|
| 2002 paper Social Science at 190 MPH on
| |
| | rate). It is possible, however, for a
|
| NASCAR's Biggest Superspeedways, where
| |
| | benthic line to be picked up and carried
|
| fleeting moments of co-operation between
| |
| | along by a pelagic cousin, leading to a
|
| rivals are necessary in order to win.
| |
| | coupled form. This is the first real
|
| Ronfeldt focuses in particular on the
| |
| | Aggregate Traffic Animal we will meet
|
| phenomenon of draft line formation, which
| |
| | tonight: a bilaterally asymmetrical
|
| is similar to the way flocking birds can
| |
| | diageotrope known as the Epiphysian
|
| share aerodynamic advantage. Like iron
| |
| | Cyclosalp.Within the body of the
|
| filings in a magnetic field, the
| |
| | Cyclosalp the individual Cholingers are
|
| large-scale distribution of
| |
| | transmuted into a pair of Librigenates --
|
| opportunistically partnering cars are
| |
| | stretchy, free-flowing tissue that is
|
| drawn into predictable macro-scale
| |
| | bounded in space by the relationship with
|
| patterns across the speedway:Once the
| |
| | its partner, the accelerating pelagic
|
| racers sort themselves out - after ten to
| |
| | lobe sliding forward and the steady
|
| twenty laps - it is common to see a
| |
| | benthic lobe catching up in a slow-motion
|
| single draft line of four to seven cars
| |
| | slingshot, compressing and expanding
|
| running in front, pursued a hundred or so
| |
| | between the loose, senseless clumps of
|
| yards back by a second line of cars, all
| |
| | other cars. This accordion-like effect
|
| another hundred or so yards ahead of a
| |
| | might initially seem to be a force
|
| large pack of cars that may still be
| |
| | tearing the animal apart, rending pelagic
|
| running in parallel lines but are doing
| |
| | from benthic -- and this is indeed what
|
| more dicing than drafting...Cars that run
| |
| | might happen in too rarified an
|
| alone, often stuck dangerously between
| |
| | atmosphere -- but when presented with
|
| two draft lines, will appear to drift
| |
| | obstacles of any kind, the Librigenates
|
| irrevocably backward.Freed of the bonds
| |
| | that comprise the Cyclosalp fall back on
|
| of racing's formalism, the Aggregate
| |
| | their Cholinger heritage of local
|
| Traffic Animals are born, rooted in
| |
| | integrity, crystallising en masse to
|
| transient symbioses between individual
| |
| | navigate the hazard.Unfettered, the
|
| patches of drivers that will crystalise
| |
| | Epiphysian Cyclosalp is like half a
|
| into the organs of the beast. But the
| |
| | butterfly, its riparian body gilded by a
|
| circumstances have to be just right for
| |
| | slowly flapping wing of accelerating,
|
| one to emerge. The unholy Hieronymus
| |
| | gliding Librigenates ebbing and flowing
|
| Bosch-style concert of homicidal
| |
| | in a stately round. Its insides whorl as
|
| applied-shadenfreude that may
| |
| | partners switch places, benthic turning
|
| characterise your urban, intra-urban or
| |
| | briefly pelagic, pacer cars joining a
|
| sub-urban driving experience is not ripe
| |
| | rippling pulse of local inertia forward,
|
| ground for ATA growth: too frothy.The
| |
| | headlights cross-sweeping.It is beyond
|
| sociological and scatological dances of
| |
| | the scope of this article to detail the
|
| the megalopolis rushhour, too, are beyond
| |
| | myriad circumstances that provide seed
|
| the scope of this article, and are at any
| |
| | for the profitable entanglement of
|
| rate most likely best explored with deep
| |
| | multiple Cyclosalpic streams. So diverse
|
| computer simulations using high-tech
| |
| | are the possibilities that we could fill
|
| cellular automata tools with average
| |
| | a Biblical tome without scratching the
|
| driver profiles linked to real-world
| |
| | surface, without revealing the common
|
| statistics of roadway usage coupled with
| |
| | thread of simplicity upon which the
|
| an army of ten thousand angry ax-wielding
| |
| | complexity hinges. Suffice to say the
|
| orcs battling an equal number of obedient
| |
| | larger clade includes such varied forms
|
| clonetroopers.Rather, this field is
| |
| | as the whiplashing Epinastic
|
| perfect fodder for the amateur
| |
| | Tricyclosalp, the many-fingered
|
| ethologist, observing phenomena with a
| |
| | Dicyclosalp Fimbriatum, and the
|
| keen eye, an open mind and a sharp
| |
| | diaphanous, fleeting wonder of the
|
| pencil. And while much has been written
| |
| | mile-long Merosporangic
|
| about manipulating traffic waves, the
| |
| | Super-Cyclosalp...Of course, not all
|
| dynamics of traffic jams and
| |
| | Asipetal Caterpillars grow up to become
|
| phase-transitions in traffic density,
| |
| | stately Cholingers; instead, they lock
|
| very little time has been devoted to the
| |
| | into Lego-like bricks of uniform
|
| observation and cataloguing of persistent
| |
| | properties called Pycnoblastoids. While
|
| multi-car zoomorphia.Early
| |
| | short-lived Apiculate Pycnoblastoids (in
|
| ObservationsThe author first became aware
| |
| | which the Apparent Coxswain is always the
|
| of the existence of ATAs while making his
| |
| | most forward car) are more common, it is
|
| way through the hinterland of Canada on a
| |
| | the more flexible Laxiflorous
|
| long, mid-winter solo drive in a decrepit
| |
| | Pycnoblastoid (in which the Apparent
|
| Dodge Charger with no functioning radio.
| |
| | Coxswain is any car except that most
|
| Due to his dangerous penchant for
| |
| | forward) that lives a more fruitful
|
| immersive daydreaming in the absence of
| |
| | life.For instance, consider the case of a
|
| external stimuli, he began to parasite
| |
| | typical composite entity like a
|
| his driving decisions by locking in
| |
| | Tripycnoblastic Oomycotum, in which
|
| behind another car with comparable speed
| |
| | independent pycnoblasts jockey for
|
| ambitions. By reserving a sliver of
| |
| | position internally directly or by proxy
|
| awareness for tracking the red brake
| |
| | through one or more Napoleonic Coxswains
|
| lights of the "lead" car for changes in
| |
| | (that is, drivers who suffer from the
|
| speed or direction, the author was able
| |
| | delusion that they are single-handedly
|
| to comfortably enjoy his trance while a
| |
| | responsible for steering/leading their
|
| hefty burden of road awareness was
| |
| | local sub-structure). The domino-line
|
| outsourced to the other driver, causing
| |
| | behaviour of an Apiculate Pycnoblastoid
|
| the front car to function as a sort of
| |
| | makes it too brittle to survive the
|
| early warning mechanism for changing
| |
| | stresses of being permeated by a
|
| conditions (including the Mounties'
| |
| | competing pycnoblast, whereas the
|
| speed-traps).The notion resurfaced while
| |
| | comparatively elastic structure of the
|
| the author was wrestling a dented
| |
| | Laxifloroid -- imparted due to the
|
| Volkswagen Rabbit rental down a twisting,
| |
| | inherent time delay involved in
|
| pot-holed two-lane jungle highway through
| |
| | co-ordinating with a mid-fleet Apparent
|
| the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. As
| |
| | Coxswain -- retains a perfect balance of
|
| the journey began he found himself hedged
| |
| | rigidity and looseness, riding a line
|
| inside a short parade of other tourists,
| |
| | between orchestration and dissolution
|
| all driving their rental cars out of the
| |
| | that makes composite forms like Oomycota
|
| airport at around the same time at a
| |
| | possible.Pycnoblastic tissue is unusual
|
| hesitant pace, breaking frequently to
| |
| | in that it makes use of some level of
|
| process the unfamiliar leafy darkness
| |
| | awareness on the part of the driver that
|
| ahead. Fearing injury, the author
| |
| | they are participating in a formation
|
| laterally-leapfrogged the indecisive
| |
| | (though drivers are only likely to be
|
| parade and drove on into the murk alone.
| |
| | aware of the local level of structure).
|
| Remembering his success in the far north,
| |
| | When this awareness reaches a certain
|
| he latched onto the back of a local
| |
| | level the composite entity is usually
|
| vehicle (a home-modded convertible Beetle
| |
| | destroyed by internal stresses, but
|
| carrying ten people, standing room only),
| |
| | occasionally a dissolving
|
| using its varying speed as an indicator
| |
| | multi-pycnoblast will emit a stream of
|
| of road conditions. Unexpectedly, this
| |
| | highly energised vehicles -- the
|
| move was noticed by several of the other
| |
| | Apheresoid Lirellate, a concentrated
|
| tourists, who began to fight to separate
| |
| | apiculatoid pycnoblast flung free from
|
| themselves from the melee and join the
| |
| | the miasma of death to rocket away, using
|
| newer, more surefooted pack that was
| |
| | for a coxswain the abandoned carcass
|
| rapidly pulling ahead...By the time the
| |
| | itself....These are but the fringes of
|
| author had reached his exit the impromptu
| |
| | the zoo, the tip of the iceberg.We have
|
| fleet of vehicles had become a
| |
| | not even touched on the sensitive
|
| persistent, homeostatic phenomenon. The
| |
| | antennae of the Stipitate Phototaxites
|
| fleet had quickly learned to manipulate
| |
| | fringed with Virtual Coxswains,
|
| the spacing between its components in
| |
| | pseudo-lead cars ready to be sacrificed
|
| order to remain permeable to faster
| |
| | to trip any trap, the chaotic wrath of
|
| moving local traffic while defending its
| |
| | the Biflagellate Ableptic Figmo and the
|
| integrity against more disruptive
| |
| | fate of the cystidial flotsam locked
|
| external vehicles. Pulses of
| |
| | within them; the weird rhythms of the
|
| communication signifying when the passing
| |
| | Cacospysic Super-Barbicanoids and their
|
| lane was clear rippled down the chain
| |
| | elaborate dance of shifting coxswains,
|
| through a conscientious leaning into the
| |
| | the majesty of the motorcycle-based
|
| gravel shoulder, assisting in the process
| |
| | Raging Fallaxoid; the menagerie of
|
| of expectorating invaders. Several of
| |
| | endless cancers that can grow from
|
| the original tourist vehicles ended up
| |
| | unexpectorated papillic granulomae, from
|
| being swapped out for other vehicles
| |
| | cataracts of geriatric nektons, or from
|
| without rocking the boat. Later on, even
| |
| | service-stations with badly planned
|
| the leader was swapped out for another
| |
| | driveways.Further StudyThe study of a new
|
| experienced local car.It was a fetching
| |
| | order of life is not without its risks,
|
| game, contributing to the welfare of all
| |
| | both professional (in terms of
|
| of its players in an interesting way, but
| |
| | reputation) and practical (in terms of
|
| it was not a true ATA. It was too
| |
| | being maimed by mis-navigated vehicles).
|
| conscious a contrivance to be anything
| |
| | The amateur automotive ethologist must
|
| more than a delightful spontaneous social
| |
| | not only have keen skills of observation,
|
| event.You see, a distributed animal with
| |
| | but also the fortitude to persevere
|
| human components can be very sensitive to
| |
| | despite the slings and arrows of dubious
|
| perturbations from within. It is only
| |
| | dissenters. Like Leeuwenhoek's
|
| when the conflicting threads of goals,
| |
| | controversial animalcules and Pasteur's
|
| reasoning and competition between
| |
| | superstition-defying microbes, there will
|
| individual human minds are quietened into
| |
| | always exist a certain testudinal
|
| the background noise that the soil can
| |
| | resistance to new ideas among older
|
| truly be ripe to raise a complex beast.
| |
| | quarters. There will be those who doubt
|
| When drivers can fall into a
| |
| | the very existence of aggregate vehicular
|
| semi-hypnotic state and their herd
| |
| | life, or who insist that the zoo of the
|
| instincts take over, the seeds are laid
| |
| | road dwells in metaphor alone.The
|
| for something greater.HabitatWhile there
| |
| | opinions of such sceptics could be
|
| are thousands of traffic animal breeding
| |
| | changed by a single night spent on a
|
| grounds along the paved networks of the
| |
| | grassy hill overlooking a well-travelled
|
| world, only one driving region has been
| |
| | country highway, watching the streams of
|
| extensively explored at this time,
| |
| | red and silver lights merge and split,
|
| largely due to budgetary
| |
| | compress and attenuate, roil and
|
| considerations.The TransCanada Highway is
| |
| | interact, fatten and reproduce...Watch
|
| a nearly ideal environment for the
| |
| | the roads, and see the zoo for yourself.
|
| production of large-scale ATA phenomena,
| |
| | There is no denying its patterns of
|
| due in great part to the simplicity of
| |
| | insectile purpose, its myriad variations
|
| its shape: all cars are moving either
| |
| | in anatomy and configuration, or the
|
| westbound or eastbound, streamlining the
| |
| | orchestrated madness of the low-cost
|
| goals of the drivers in much the same way
| |
| | petroleum feeding frenzy. Your own mind,
|
| as the shape of the Daytona superspeedway
| |
| | honed by thousands of generations of
|
| encourages drafting partnerships (see
| |
| | natural selection to recognise life from
|
| above). Also, because there are long
| |
| | non-life, will tell you it is true; the
|
| stretches through lonely wilderness and
| |
| | disciplines of careful observation and
|
| semi-tundra, nascent traffic animals have
| |
| | meticulous classification will tell you
|
| a long period in which to mature before
| |
| | how, and why.Open your eyes, and witness
|
| coming against obstacles like influxes of
| |
| | an untapped world.
|
