E.O. Wilson Inspires SimAnt

For students who live in Dunster House, ants are the unwelcome roommates that crawl into clothing, wander across homework assignments, and invade precious packages of chocolate-chip cookies.

But for the students who play SimAnt, a computer simulation created by will Wright and Justin McCormick, it's people who are the enemy. Participants fight for territory as members of an ambitious colony of black ants.

Wright says he has sold over 50,000 copies of SimAnt, which was released by the Maxis software company last November as the successor to best-selling SimCity and SimEarth.

SimAnt lets players see life from an ant's perspective as they battle rival colonies, drive humans from their homes, and try to escape the jaws of hungry ant lions.

Players make everyday decisions essential to the ants' survival, such as where to forage for food, when to hunt, and when to breed more worker ants.

Wright says he and McCormick drew most of the background for the game from The Ants, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Baird Professor of Science E.O. Wilson and Agassiz Professor Bert Holldobler.

Wilson says SimAnt has successfully "captured the subtleties of life in an ant colony."

"I am quite charmed by [SimAnt's] sophistication and precision," he says.

Wilson says he would recommend SimAnt to his students.

"I would expect a conversion to entomology (the study of insects) among the undergraduates," Wilson says.

Wilson and Wright attribute their attraction to ants to the insects' ability to work as a group. Wilson compares the organization of ant colonies to the human brain.

"Individual brain cells are dumb, but millions together are very bright," Wilson says.

Wright says that ants' property of collective intelligence has made them the "mascots" of artificial life, a branch of computer science which simulates biological systems. Wright drew on artificial life concepts and techniques when developing SimAnt.

One purpose of SimAnt is to teach players about life in an ant colony, according to Wright. SimAnt's manualdiscusses the history, communication and socialbehavior of ants.

Lester L. Ward '93 says that SimAnt "achievesits goal in terms of educating people."

"It gets you into this alien mindset and humanrationality doesn't enter into it any more," Wardsays." You want to take over humans and take whatyou can."

"I like being the ant," says SanjayKrishnaswamy '93. "I find it very humbling. I findit very cool."

"It's just gross enough to be fun."

Both Ward and Krishnaswamy say they havemanaged to take over the backyard and drive thehumans out of their home--a SimAnt "victory."

"At the end of you get a nice scene of thehumans feeling in terror," Krishnaswamy says

Lester L. Ward '93 says that SimAnt "achievesits goal in terms of educating people."

"It gets you into this alien mindset and humanrationality doesn't enter into it any more," Wardsays." You want to take over humans and take whatyou can."

"I like being the ant," says SanjayKrishnaswamy '93. "I find it very humbling. I findit very cool."

"It's just gross enough to be fun."

Both Ward and Krishnaswamy say they havemanaged to take over the backyard and drive thehumans out of their home--a SimAnt "victory."

"At the end of you get a nice scene of thehumans feeling in terror," Krishnaswamy says