On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 6:02 PM, John Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:
> > > Thousands of small decisions don't just average out. They can > > produce wild behavior that is inherently unpredictable. > > If they are coordinated, sure. That's what central control does. If > the decisions are uncorrelated, then they DO average out. No. Not when they influence each other. You referred to emergence, but there are no emergent properties when decisions "average out." But in reality, such networks of decisions always have emergent properties. Am I correct in assuming you are unfamiliar with the mathematics of complexity? Try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_systems Nick _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l