"The pattern of interaction itself, rather than any signal transferred, acts as the message." #readingToday

An ant uses its recent experience of interactions to decide what to do. The pattern of interaction itself, rather than any signal transferred, acts as the message. What matters is not what one ant tells another when they meet, but simply that they meet. An ant operates according to a rule such as, "If I meet another ant with odor A about three times in the next 30 seconds, I will go out to forage; if not, I will stay here." The rules are actually more probabilistic than that—more like, "If I meet another ant with odor A about three times in the next 30 seconds, the probability that I will go out to forage will increase by about 10%; if not, it will go down by about 20%." Brains use interaction networks in an analogous way. A neuron's function depends on its recent experience of interactions with other neurons, and out of these patterns of interaction emerge thought and memory.