http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/science/13traff.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

This is a cool article about the ways individuals in nature link to larger group behavior, how they alter or support the group dynamic, and how simple computer models with a few programmed rules can predict it. When it comes to moving as a group, we're just like ants, only not as "smart."

Interesting article. I think there was a similar one in Smithsonian or National Geographic recently.

Are there more possible human applications? How about politics, and the tendency to follow the larger swarm? Isn't that a fairly close approximation of what we call "momentum" or "bandwagon climbing"?

And on the personal level, I've had the Mormon Cricket experience- with cellular technology. On the one hand, I attempt to keep up with those in front of me. On the other, I've got peers and below nipping at my heels, because if I do not conform to the 24/7 personal instant access standards of those around me, I get bit in the *ss. Opting out is not an acceptable choice.