Fruit fly nervous system: new solution to fundamental computer network problem

[6ren]

Adjacent cells might self-select, but you can adjust the probability of self-selection to lower this risk as much as you like. Once selected, the cell owns the adjacent cells, by inhibiting their self-selection. (Maybe the inhibitor spreads further over time?). As self-selection continues, any gaps are filled in.

It reminds me of git's hashes. There's no absolute guarantee that different objects will have different hashes (since there are more possible objects than hashes), but it's pretty good in practice (and I guess/hope git has a secondary check for collisions). I really don't like these kinds of algorithms - they are just wrong - but I have to admit they work pretty well, by taking a likely guess instead of working it out exactly. eg ethernet also uses randomnness.

[paulbaumgart]

No, git doesn't have a secondary check: http://progit.org/book/ch6-1.html § A SHORT NOTE ABOUT SHA-1

[sophacles]

This claim of wrongness is a pretty large claim. Care to back it up? (e.g. define wrong)

[onteria]

Here is the original story from Carnegie Mellon University on the topic:

http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2011/January/jan13_fruitflyn...

[joshrule]

Here's the paper's abstract: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6014/183.abstract

Here's the supplemental materials: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6014/183/suppl/DC1

Does anyone have a link to the actual paper?

[tieTYT]

This article desperately needs a diagram.

[JoeAltmaier]

Requires all selection to be synchronized - may be difficult to implement in a dynamic evolving network e.g. the internet.

[TheSOB88]

Cool algorithm. Does it produce as effective an MIS?