Generalization of the Common Stomach: Integral Control at the Supra-Individual Level

Homeostatic self-regulation is an essential aspect of open dissipative systems presented in the previous chapters. These systems show strong resilience against perturbations and are regulated by interactions networks. In this chapter, we generalize our findings and present the regulation role of redundant (predominantly, negative) feedback systems paired with a buffer node. We present this regulation system as a type of integral control which is responsible for the robustness of many homeostatic mechanisms. The regulation core, which we call common stomach regulation, describes close regulatory relationships between a substance and the colony members that process that substance. In some sense, the substance itself is regulating its collection and use by “adjusting” the workforce that handles that material. Robust systems have the important advantage of having a larger parameter space, in which they can evolve and adjust to environmental changes. Identifying and understanding the nature of control mechanisms are of fundamental importance for the understanding of biological regulation. The common stomach regulatory network we discovered is an example of closed loop systems that work at the supra-individual level. Different insect societies evolved their eusociality independently from non-social predecessors, but they have “discovered” the same, very efficient regulatory mechanism.