This sounds somewhat similar to the radio-mesh-networking problem, where everyone has a cellphone radio, but there aren't any cellphone towers, so the only way to communicate is to talk to other cellphones to build up some sort of model and then pass your message off to some % of the cellphones that you can see and communicate with. Of course, you may be completely out of range of every other cellphone, so you may be incommunicado until either you move, or someone else moves closer to you. At 08:34 PM 5/17/2017, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
The recent discussion of giving directions to people who don't know where they are reminded me of a problem that I think is original with me.
Suppose a large number of people are placed randomly in an immense forest. There are no landmarks, the ground is level, and it's always heavily overcast so there's no way to tell which way is north.
You can leave marks. People and marks can be seen iff you get within 10 meters of them.
If everyone knows the above before they're transported to the forest, so they can discuss the problem with the others, what would be a good strategy?
There isn't necessarily one best answer. But some answers are better than others.