Abstract
In a reflective and richly entertaining piece from 1979, Doug Hofstadter
playfully imagined a conversation between ‘Achilles’ and an anthill (the eponymous
‘Aunt Hillary’), in which he famously explored many ideas and themes related to
cognition and consciousness. For Hofstadter, the anthill is able to carry on a conversation
because the ants that compose it play roughly the same role that neurons
play in human languaging; unfortunately, Hofstadter’s work is notably short on detail
suggesting how this magic might be achieved1. Conversely in this paper - finally
reifying Hofstadter’s imagination - we demonstrate how populations of simple
ant-like creatures can be organised to solve complex problems; problems that involve
the use of forward planning and strategy. Specifically we will demonstrate
that populations of such creatures can be configured to play a strategically strong -
though tactically weak - game of HeX (a complex strategic game).We subsequently
demonstrate how tactical play can be improved by introducing a form of forward
planning instantiated via multiple populations of agents; a technique that can be
compared to the dynamics of interacting populations of social insects via the concept
of meta-population. In this way although, pace Hofstadter, we do not establish
that a meta-population of ants could actually hold a conversation with Achilles, we
do successfully introduce Aunt Hillary to the complex, seductive charms of HeX.