[ehzy]

Would you mind describing the mechanism responsible for the ants optimizing the path? I would assume that once a path is established it become self-reinforcing as more ants follow it and drop their pheromones.

Is it that the ants that randomly begin taking the shortest path complete trips more quickly, thereby increasing the pheromone concentration along the shorter path? Still, it seems difficult to overcome the sheer amount of pheromones being laid across the longer but more popular path...