The octopus can teach us a thing or two about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, especially about the threat from IEDs, improvised explosive devices.
No, really. It’s all about decentralization in the natural world–the ability to quickly adapt to changing conditions and threats. Those in the natural world have learned to quickly change their structures, behaviors, and reactions–like the amazing ability of the octopus to camouflage. It can react to perceived danger and blend in, match the colors of its surrounding area, and vanish right under the eye of its predator.
A group of researchers from the University of Arizona’s Institute of the Environment is advising security and disaster management officials on how to more successfully and “naturally” react to and deal with threats from our predators–terrorists, hackers, and even mutating pathogens. The key to addressing threats, the researchers say in the May 20 edition of Nature, is to examine the natural world.
By examining the billions of years of evolution and adaptation in nature, researchers have concluded that large centralized bureaucracies do not allow for quick and effective reactions to serious threats. Just as the octopus utilizes its decentralized network of pigment cells to evade predators and conceal itself from its prey, ground troops can act like independent cells, assess the given situation, and act most appropriately and effectively.
“The individual soldiers in the war zone are the most adaptable unit out there,” says Rafe Sagarin, lead author of the Nature article. “They are in a better position to recognize and address an emerging threat in time than a centralized bureaucracy.”
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