Three Things We Need To Do If We Want To Murmurate
And if we do, the human flock might just sort itself out
Nature handles complicated complexity, simply and beautifully
Sometimes simplicity is right in front of us. It’s ours to notice, even as — or especially as — we confront the most complicated and complex challenges.
I was reminded of this by a line of questioning at a recent gathering. The query went like this:
What needs to happen for a murmuration of starlings to occur? And what can humans learn from this?
If you haven’t seen a murmuration before, I encourage you to take a moment to appreciate the dynamic, geometrical, seemingly magical habit of our feathered friends.
Scholarship aplenty
How do these birds not crash into each other? We humans seem to be crashing into one another a fair bit, in small and large ways. What are these critters doing that we aren’t? And what can we apply to our own behaviours?
Numerous books have been written on related topics (one I appreciated is The Smart Swarm, by Peter Miller). Here, I’ll simply home in on a pattern that feels relevant for us, now, in the context of our combined challenges — our…
