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Cabinet of emergence — specimen 04

Ant colony pathfinding

A nest, a food source, two routes between them — one short, one long. Ants pick a route at random, weighted by how much pheromone is already on it, walk it, and add a fixed amount of pheromone when they arrive. Pheromone fades over time. No ant compares the two routes, measures anything, or remembers a past trip. The question: does the colony reliably find the shorter route, or just whichever route got lucky early?

Live specimen · 40 ants · double bridge

Ready.

2.0×
0.05
2.0

Field journal

0 batches logged this session

On short path
Pheromone S / L

Fraction of the colony currently on the short path — 1.0 means fully converged, 0.0 means the colony locked onto the long route instead.