蜜蜂的民主 – Honeybee Democracy by Thomas D. Seeley

弗里德里希·尼采曾说：“疯狂在个体中是罕见的，但在群体中……它却是规则。”但这本书通过蜜蜂的集体决策过程告诉我们：通过合理的程序，群体可以做出明智的决定。 从蜜蜂到人类大脑，作者带领我们踏上了一段非凡的科学发现之旅。通过一系列划时代的研究，他探索了蜜蜂蜂群如何决定在哪里安家。从这一引人入胜的故事中，他让我们看到，在没有全面信息或直接领导的情况下，社会体系如何能够做出正确的决定。 最终，以蜂群为模型，作者提出了终结群体疯狂的群体集体决策五项原则。

Honeybees make decisions collectively–and democratically. Every year, faced with the life-or-death problem of choosing and traveling to a new home, honeybees stake everything on a process that includes collective fact-finding, vigorous debate, and consensus building. In fact, as world-renowned animal behaviorist Thomas Seeley reveals, these incredible insects have much to teach us when it comes to collective wisdom and effective decision making. A remarkable and richly illustrated account of scientific discovery, Honeybee Democracy brings together, for the first time, decades of Seeley’s pioneering research to tell the amazing story of house hunting and democratic debate among the honeybees.

In the late spring and early summer, as a bee colony becomes overcrowded, a third of the hive stays behind and rears a new queen, while a swarm of thousands departs with the old queen to produce a daughter colony. Seeley describes how these bees evaluate potential nest sites, advertise their discoveries to one another, engage in open deliberation, choose a final site, and navigate together–as a swirling cloud of bees–to their new home. Seeley investigates how evolution has honed the decision-making methods of honeybees over millions of years, and he considers similarities between the ways that bee swarms and primate brains process information. He concludes that what works well for bees can also work well for people: any decision-making group should consist of individuals with shared interests and mutual respect, a leader’s influence should be minimized, debate should be relied upon, diverse solutions should be sought, and the majority should be counted on for a dependable resolution.

An impressive exploration of animal behavior, Honeybee Democracy shows that decision-making groups, whether honeybee or human, can be smarter than even the smartest individuals in them.