| There is a secret zoo that runs encaged along | | | | of new cars or navigating around towns; and |
| the roads.They are liquid, semi-visible | | | | because the highway wends its way directly |
| goliaths that rage through the streams and | | | | through most of Canada's major cities, it |
| chunks of ordinary traffic, with the | | | | provides a handy litmus test for the |
| effervescent tendrils of mile-long tales | | | | homeostatic integrity of a given specimen |
| whipping behind them like Chinese dragons. | | | | simply by observing whether or not it makes |
| Though composed of hundreds of pounds of | | | | it through to the other side of the urban |
| steel, glass and plastic, they are able to | | | | area intact.While daytime ATA formation is |
| pass through solid objects. They are bound | | | | not rare, it is under the cover of darkness |
| by the laws of the highway, but not by any | | | | that development can proceed in a |
| conventional notion of time or space.They are | | | | comparatively unfettered fashion. This is |
| Aggregate Traffic Animals: a menagerie of | | | | due in large part to the more abstract, |
| emergent beasts drawn from the interacting | | | | disconnected experience of interacting with |
| behaviours of many individual human beings | | | | other vehicles merely as points of coloured |
| driving many individual cars with many | | | | light. Familiar prejudices and stereotypes |
| individual goals, their collective activity | | | | -- potential sources of destructive |
| giving rise to something with greater | | | | competition -- are smoothed out by the |
| presence, power and purpose than the sum of | | | | shadows. At least on the basis of visual |
| its constituents. They take on a host of | | | | impressions, a Volvo and a Camaro can enter a |
| different forms, each to serve a different | | | | system as peers.Diminished visibility |
| end.They are real, and they drive among | | | | resulting from mild to moderate weather |
| us.PreambleIn his introduction to The | | | | conditions can have a similar equalising |
| Extended Phenotype (Oxford University Press, | | | | effect, but when conditions become too severe |
| 1982) enthusiastic evolutionary biology | | | | drivers tend to clump into packs for safety, |
| cheerleader and Commodore-hacking pop-science | | | | leading to pseudo-ATA fleets that are all too |
| guru Richard Dawkins invites us to consider | | | | conscious social events (as in the Quintana |
| the Necker Cube Illusion: a two-dimensional | | | | Roo experience).Show me an autumn stretch of |
| image representing two interlocked | | | | prairie transcontinental highway at twilight, |
| three-dimensional blocks in which the | | | | and I will show you the secret zoo of the |
| foreground and background can seem to flip | | | | road.Typical MorphologiesThe most basic form |
| back and forth as the brain fruitlessly seeks | | | | of multi-car life is the Asipetal |
| the "true" interpretation of the depicted | | | | Caterpillar, also known as a worm. Worms |
| space. This is Dawkins' starting point for a | | | | begin when a stable solo vehicle spawns a |
| thought experiment in which he blurs the | | | | linear, single-lane chain of vehicles |
| lines between species, their genes and the | | | | composed of loose monomers joining at the |
| environment, calling into question the | | | | rear (a closely related, but dysfunctional, |
| traditional boundaries drawn through | | | | construct known as an Acropetal Caterpillar |
| biological systems to identify the relevant | | | | grows by adding vehicles to the front of the |
| level of study. To wit, to wank:We look at | | | | chain, generally leading to destructive |
| life and begin by seeing a collection of | | | | diffusion or autolysis). Short, lithe worms |
| interacting individual organisms. We know | | | | are the fundamental building blocks of |
| that they contain smaller units, and we know | | | | healthy ATA tissue. Perverse, long-form |
| that they are, in turn, parts of larger | | | | worms are the seeds of congestion and |
| composite units, but we fix our gaze on the | | | | death.The second atomic element of ATA tissue |
| whole organisms. Then suddenly the image | | | | stands in stark contrast to the worm, for it |
| flips. The individual bodies are still | | | | is a fleeting thing, and when it takes |
| there; they have not moved, but they seem to | | | | concrete form at all it is often manifested |
| have gone transparent...In other words, if | | | | as a single car. The Apparent Coxswain is a |
| you are able to de-emphasise the organism | | | | vehicle that appears, to the conscious or |
| itself you are free to appreciate the idea of | | | | semi-conscious mind of one or more drivers, |
| beaver ponds as artificial lakes generated by | | | | to be a leader of the worm. When the |
| beaver genes, or to see a spider's web as an | | | | Apparent Coxswain changes lanes, there is a |
| arrangement of silk drawn by DNA. By | | | | higher probability that a majority of the |
| extending the lines with which we bound the | | | | worm will follow suit than if the change were |
| traditional phenotype, we define new | | | | initiated by a less trusted vehicle. In many |
| organisms, merging technology and individuals | | | | cases each car in a worm perceives the car |
| into communities the same way that ancient | | | | immediately ahead of it to be the Apparent |
| micro-organisms interacting inside bilipid | | | | Coxswain, leading to domino-effect |
| membranes fell into symbiotic lockstep dances | | | | lane-transitions; such formations have high |
| to found the first stable cells.Organelles, | | | | homeostatic integrity because of the worm's |
| cells, bodies, herds: at which level we | | | | ability to "find a new head" should one |
| discern the animal is purely a matter of | | | | Apparent Coxswain be lost to the currents. |
| focus.This idea of the emergent animal or | | | | (Please note: the Apparent Coxswain should |
| "super-organism" is hardly particular to | | | | not be confused with the Virtual Coxswain or |
| Dawkins: William Morton Wheeler remarked on | | | | the Napoleonic Coxswain, discussed |
| the idea in his 1911 paper "The Ant Colony as | | | | below.)Formations that achieve such |
| an Organism" in a treatment that is every bit | | | | integration become Cholingers: Asipetal |
| as cogent but with considerably less otaku | | | | Caterpillars with tightly-integrated internal |
| chic than Kevin Kelly's printed-soundbyte | | | | feedback systems of Apparent Coxswains, |
| manifesto on hive complexity, Out of Control | | | | capable of transmitting information from tip |
| (Perseus Books, 1994). In the words of | | | | to tail with high fidelity. Cholingers can |
| Kelly:There is nothing to be found in a | | | | slither to avoid torn tyres on the road, |
| beehive that is not submerged in a bee. And | | | | twitch around slow-moving vehicles, and even |
| yet you can search a bee forever with | | | | slip through packs of alien worms, wild |
| cyclotron and fluoroscope, and you will never | | | | axenes and other traffic froth to arrive on |
| find a hive.So too can you examine a driver | | | | the other side intact.Of course, not all |
| in a car and know nothing about the greater | | | | Cholingers slip through the strangers: |
| animal in which they both participate when | | | | sometimes they interact.Every Cholinger is |
| the circumstances are right. Some of the | | | | either benthic or pelagic. Benthic |
| applicable forces can be seen most clearly in | | | | Cholingers travel at a similar rate to the |
| the rarified environment of the professional | | | | currents of the road, while Pelagic |
| race course, as explored by David Ronfeldt, a | | | | Cholingers travel at a dissimilar rate when |
| senior social scientist at RAND, in his 2002 | | | | compared to other traffic (typically a faster |
| paper Social Science at 190 MPH on NASCAR's | | | | rate). It is possible, however, for a |
| Biggest Superspeedways, where fleeting | | | | benthic line to be picked up and carried |
| moments of co-operation between rivals are | | | | along by a pelagic cousin, leading to a |
| necessary in order to win. Ronfeldt focuses | | | | coupled form. This is the first real |
| in particular on the phenomenon of draft line | | | | Aggregate Traffic Animal we will meet |
| formation, which is similar to the way | | | | tonight: a bilaterally asymmetrical |
| flocking birds can share aerodynamic | | | | diageotrope known as the Epiphysian |
| advantage. Like iron filings in a magnetic | | | | Cyclosalp.Within the body of the Cyclosalp |
| field, the large-scale distribution of | | | | the individual Cholingers are transmuted into |
| opportunistically partnering cars are drawn | | | | a pair of Librigenates -- stretchy, |
| into predictable macro-scale patterns across | | | | free-flowing tissue that is bounded in space |
| the speedway:Once the racers sort themselves | | | | by the relationship with its partner, the |
| out - after ten to twenty laps - it is common | | | | accelerating pelagic lobe sliding forward and |
| to see a single draft line of four to seven | | | | the steady benthic lobe catching up in a |
| cars running in front, pursued a hundred or | | | | slow-motion slingshot, compressing and |
| so yards back by a second line of cars, all | | | | expanding between the loose, senseless clumps |
| another hundred or so yards ahead of a large | | | | of other cars. This accordion-like effect |
| pack of cars that may still be running in | | | | might initially seem to be a force tearing |
| parallel lines but are doing more dicing than | | | | the animal apart, rending pelagic from |
| drafting...Cars that run alone, often stuck | | | | benthic -- and this is indeed what might |
| dangerously between two draft lines, will | | | | happen in too rarified an atmosphere -- but |
| appear to drift irrevocably backward.Freed of | | | | when presented with obstacles of any kind, |
| the bonds of racing's formalism, the | | | | the Librigenates that comprise the Cyclosalp |
| Aggregate Traffic Animals are born, rooted in | | | | fall back on their Cholinger heritage of |
| transient symbioses between individual | | | | local integrity, crystallising en masse to |
| patches of drivers that will crystalise into | | | | navigate the hazard.Unfettered, the |
| the organs of the beast. But the | | | | Epiphysian Cyclosalp is like half a |
| circumstances have to be just right for one | | | | butterfly, its riparian body gilded by a |
| to emerge. The unholy Hieronymus Bosch-style | | | | slowly flapping wing of accelerating, gliding |
| concert of homicidal applied-shadenfreude | | | | Librigenates ebbing and flowing in a stately |
| that may characterise your urban, intra-urban | | | | round. Its insides whorl as partners switch |
| or sub-urban driving experience is not ripe | | | | places, benthic turning briefly pelagic, |
| ground for ATA growth: too frothy.The | | | | pacer cars joining a rippling pulse of local |
| sociological and scatological dances of the | | | | inertia forward, headlights cross-sweeping.It |
| megalopolis rushhour, too, are beyond the | | | | is beyond the scope of this article to detail |
| scope of this article, and are at any rate | | | | the myriad circumstances that provide seed |
| most likely best explored with deep computer | | | | for the profitable entanglement of multiple |
| simulations using high-tech cellular automata | | | | Cyclosalpic streams. So diverse are the |
| tools with average driver profiles linked to | | | | possibilities that we could fill a Biblical |
| real-world statistics of roadway usage | | | | tome without scratching the surface, without |
| coupled with an army of ten thousand angry | | | | revealing the common thread of simplicity |
| ax-wielding orcs battling an equal number of | | | | upon which the complexity hinges. Suffice to |
| obedient clonetroopers.Rather, this field is | | | | say the larger clade includes such varied |
| perfect fodder for the amateur ethologist, | | | | forms as the whiplashing Epinastic |
| observing phenomena with a keen eye, an open | | | | Tricyclosalp, the many-fingered Dicyclosalp |
| mind and a sharp pencil. And while much has | | | | Fimbriatum, and the diaphanous, fleeting |
| been written about manipulating traffic | | | | wonder of the mile-long Merosporangic |
| waves, the dynamics of traffic jams and | | | | Super-Cyclosalp...Of course, not all Asipetal |
| phase-transitions in traffic density, very | | | | Caterpillars grow up to become stately |
| little time has been devoted to the | | | | Cholingers; instead, they lock into Lego-like |
| observation and cataloguing of persistent | | | | bricks of uniform properties called |
| multi-car zoomorphia.Early ObservationsThe | | | | Pycnoblastoids. While short-lived Apiculate |
| author first became aware of the existence of | | | | Pycnoblastoids (in which the Apparent |
| ATAs while making his way through the | | | | Coxswain is always the most forward car) are |
| hinterland of Canada on a long, mid-winter | | | | more common, it is the more flexible |
| solo drive in a decrepit Dodge Charger with | | | | Laxiflorous Pycnoblastoid (in which the |
| no functioning radio. Due to his dangerous | | | | Apparent Coxswain is any car except that most |
| penchant for immersive daydreaming in the | | | | forward) that lives a more fruitful life.For |
| absence of external stimuli, he began to | | | | instance, consider the case of a typical |
| parasite his driving decisions by locking in | | | | composite entity like a Tripycnoblastic |
| behind another car with comparable speed | | | | Oomycotum, in which independent pycnoblasts |
| ambitions. By reserving a sliver of | | | | jockey for position internally directly or by |
| awareness for tracking the red brake lights | | | | proxy through one or more Napoleonic |
| of the "lead" car for changes in speed or | | | | Coxswains (that is, drivers who suffer from |
| direction, the author was able to comfortably | | | | the delusion that they are single-handedly |
| enjoy his trance while a hefty burden of road | | | | responsible for steering/leading their local |
| awareness was outsourced to the other driver, | | | | sub-structure). The domino-line behaviour of |
| causing the front car to function as a sort | | | | an Apiculate Pycnoblastoid makes it too |
| of early warning mechanism for changing | | | | brittle to survive the stresses of being |
| conditions (including the Mounties' | | | | permeated by a competing pycnoblast, whereas |
| speed-traps).The notion resurfaced while the | | | | the comparatively elastic structure of the |
| author was wrestling a dented Volkswagen | | | | Laxifloroid -- imparted due to the inherent |
| Rabbit rental down a twisting, pot-holed | | | | time delay involved in co-ordinating with a |
| two-lane jungle highway through the Mexican | | | | mid-fleet Apparent Coxswain -- retains a |
| state of Quintana Roo. As the journey began | | | | perfect balance of rigidity and looseness, |
| he found himself hedged inside a short parade | | | | riding a line between orchestration and |
| of other tourists, all driving their rental | | | | dissolution that makes composite forms like |
| cars out of the airport at around the same | | | | Oomycota possible.Pycnoblastic tissue is |
| time at a hesitant pace, breaking frequently | | | | unusual in that it makes use of some level of |
| to process the unfamiliar leafy darkness | | | | awareness on the part of the driver that they |
| ahead. Fearing injury, the author | | | | are participating in a formation (though |
| laterally-leapfrogged the indecisive parade | | | | drivers are only likely to be aware of the |
| and drove on into the murk alone. | | | | local level of structure). When this |
| Remembering his success in the far north, he | | | | awareness reaches a certain level the |
| latched onto the back of a local vehicle (a | | | | composite entity is usually destroyed by |
| home-modded convertible Beetle carrying ten | | | | internal stresses, but occasionally a |
| people, standing room only), using its | | | | dissolving multi-pycnoblast will emit a |
| varying speed as an indicator of road | | | | stream of highly energised vehicles -- the |
| conditions. Unexpectedly, this move was | | | | Apheresoid Lirellate, a concentrated |
| noticed by several of the other tourists, who | | | | apiculatoid pycnoblast flung free from the |
| began to fight to separate themselves from | | | | miasma of death to rocket away, using for a |
| the melee and join the newer, more surefooted | | | | coxswain the abandoned carcass |
| pack that was rapidly pulling ahead...By the | | | | itself....These are but the fringes of the |
| time the author had reached his exit the | | | | zoo, the tip of the iceberg.We have not even |
| impromptu fleet of vehicles had become a | | | | touched on the sensitive antennae of the |
| persistent, homeostatic phenomenon. The | | | | Stipitate Phototaxites fringed with Virtual |
| fleet had quickly learned to manipulate the | | | | Coxswains, pseudo-lead cars ready to be |
| spacing between its components in order to | | | | sacrificed to trip any trap, the chaotic |
| remain permeable to faster moving local | | | | wrath of the Biflagellate Ableptic Figmo and |
| traffic while defending its integrity against | | | | the fate of the cystidial flotsam locked |
| more disruptive external vehicles. Pulses of | | | | within them; the weird rhythms of the |
| communication signifying when the passing | | | | Cacospysic Super-Barbicanoids and their |
| lane was clear rippled down the chain through | | | | elaborate dance of shifting coxswains, the |
| a conscientious leaning into the gravel | | | | majesty of the motorcycle-based Raging |
| shoulder, assisting in the process of | | | | Fallaxoid; the menagerie of endless cancers |
| expectorating invaders. Several of the | | | | that can grow from unexpectorated papillic |
| original tourist vehicles ended up being | | | | granulomae, from cataracts of geriatric |
| swapped out for other vehicles without | | | | nektons, or from service-stations with badly |
| rocking the boat. Later on, even the leader | | | | planned driveways.Further StudyThe study of a |
| was swapped out for another experienced local | | | | new order of life is not without its risks, |
| car.It was a fetching game, contributing to | | | | both professional (in terms of reputation) |
| the welfare of all of its players in an | | | | and practical (in terms of being maimed by |
| interesting way, but it was not a true ATA. | | | | mis-navigated vehicles). The amateur |
| It was too conscious a contrivance to be | | | | automotive ethologist must not only have keen |
| anything more than a delightful spontaneous | | | | skills of observation, but also the fortitude |
| social event.You see, a distributed animal | | | | to persevere despite the slings and arrows of |
| with human components can be very sensitive | | | | dubious dissenters. Like Leeuwenhoek's |
| to perturbations from within. It is only | | | | controversial animalcules and Pasteur's |
| when the conflicting threads of goals, | | | | superstition-defying microbes, there will |
| reasoning and competition between individual | | | | always exist a certain testudinal resistance |
| human minds are quietened into the background | | | | to new ideas among older quarters. There |
| noise that the soil can truly be ripe to | | | | will be those who doubt the very existence of |
| raise a complex beast. When drivers can fall | | | | aggregate vehicular life, or who insist that |
| into a semi-hypnotic state and their herd | | | | the zoo of the road dwells in metaphor |
| instincts take over, the seeds are laid for | | | | alone.The opinions of such sceptics could be |
| something greater.HabitatWhile there are | | | | changed by a single night spent on a grassy |
| thousands of traffic animal breeding grounds | | | | hill overlooking a well-travelled country |
| along the paved networks of the world, only | | | | highway, watching the streams of red and |
| one driving region has been extensively | | | | silver lights merge and split, compress and |
| explored at this time, largely due to | | | | attenuate, roil and interact, fatten and |
| budgetary considerations.The TransCanada | | | | reproduce...Watch the roads, and see the zoo |
| Highway is a nearly ideal environment for the | | | | for yourself. There is no denying its |
| production of large-scale ATA phenomena, due | | | | patterns of insectile purpose, its myriad |
| in great part to the simplicity of its shape: | | | | variations in anatomy and configuration, or |
| all cars are moving either westbound or | | | | the orchestrated madness of the low-cost |
| eastbound, streamlining the goals of the | | | | petroleum feeding frenzy. Your own mind, |
| drivers in much the same way as the shape of | | | | honed by thousands of generations of natural |
| the Daytona superspeedway encourages drafting | | | | selection to recognise life from non-life, |
| partnerships (see above). Also, because | | | | will tell you it is true; the disciplines of |
| there are long stretches through lonely | | | | careful observation and meticulous |
| wilderness and semi-tundra, nascent traffic | | | | classification will tell you how, and |
| animals have a long period in which to mature | | | | why.Open your eyes, and witness an untapped |
| before coming against obstacles like influxes | | | | world. |