BIrds_Murmuration_1440x900.mp4

The poet John Donne immortalized the idea that "no man is an island," but neither, it turns out, are most other species. Many natural and artificial systems are characterized by the collective, from neurons firing in sync and immune cells banding together, to schools of fish and flocks of birds moving in harmony, to new business models and robot designs operating in the absence of a single leader.