Society · Protocols
Stigmergy
Indirect coordination via environment modification (Ant Colony)
Definition
Mechanism
Agents MARK a shared environment with structured Traces instead of sending direct messages. Other agents SENSE traces and respond. Coordination emerges from accumulated trace patterns without any agent-to-agent communication. Persistence is either Decay with reinforcement, or versioning — the scheme is declared, not assumed.
Invariants
- Persistence scheme is declared: either Decay with reinforcement, or versioning.
- Locality: sensing is local to the agent's position.
- No direct channel: coordination passes through the environment, never agent to agent.
Risks
Failure modes
Trace pollution
too many traces, and the signal is lost among them.
Namespace collision
unrelated agents mark the same medium and read each other's traces as their own.
Semantic ambiguity
agents interpret the same trace differently.
Persistence mismatch
traces fade before they coordinate, or persist after they mislead.
Unattributable trace
a mark cannot be tied to whoever left it.
Relationships
Builds on
Used by
References
Stewardship and maintenance
Mind
Automated scientific method
Reference