Swarm Intelligence

of randomness in this book, we will assume that we are talking about

something similar to the unpredictability that arises from complex sys-

tems such as cellular automata. This kind of randomness—and let’sgo

ahead and call it that—is an integral aspect of the environment; life and

intelligence must be able to respond to unexpected challenges.

We have noted that adaptation usually seems to include some ran-

dom component, but we have not asked why. If we consider an adaptive

system as one that is adjusting itself in response to feedback, then the

question is in finding the appropriate adjustment to make; this can be

very difficult in a complex system, ...