2012 : WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DEEP, ELEGANT, OR BEAUTIFUL EXPLANATION?
Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge; Director, Wolfson College Press Fellowship Programme; Columnist, the Observer; Author, From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg
Flocking Behaviour In Birds
My favourite explanation is Craig Reynold's suggestion (first published in 1986, I think) that flocking behaviour in birds can be explained by assuming that each bird follows three simple rules—separation (don't crowd your neighbours), alignment (steer towards the average heading of your neighbours) and cohesion (steer towards the average position of your neighbours). The idea that such complex behaviour can be accounted for in such a breathtakingly simple way is, well, just beautiful.
