Paper proves swarm imitation is exactly single-agent RL, deriving Maynard-Cross Learning
mistlab · reddit · 2026-10-23
An arXiv paper proves a mathematical equivalence between collective decision-making via local imitation (e.g., honey bees choosing nest sites via the waggle dance) and single-agent RL in multi-armed bandits. "Imitation of success" protocols evolve identically to Cross Learning's expected update, and the bee "weighted voter" model yields a new algorithm, Maynard-Cross Learning, where each non-learning individual acts as a parallel environment rollout with effective step size α = 1/N. The framework formalizes how hive-mind intelligence emerges from blind imitators, with applications to collective cognition theory and decentralized swarm robotics. Paper, project page, and reproducible code are public.
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