Simulation and Analysis of a Shared Extended Mind

Some types of animals exploit patterns created in the environment as external mental states, thus obtaining an extension of their mind. In the case of social animals, the creation and exploitation of such patterns can be shared, which supports a form of shared extended mind or collective intelligence. This article explores this shared extended mind principle for social animals in more detail. The focus is on formal analysis and formalization of the dynamic properties of the processes involved, both at the local level (the basic mechanisms) and the global level (the emerging properties of the whole), and their relationships. A case study in social ant behavior in which the shared extended mind plays an important role is used as an illustration. For this case, simulations are described based on specifications of local properties, and global properties are specified and verified. © 2005, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.