Swarm Intelligence

the presence of stimuli in the environment, Bandura saw behavior as

much as a cause as an effect, and in fact he demonstrates in this land-

mark volume that reciprocal causation of individuals’ behavior and cog-

nition results in increased opportunities for people to exercise control

over their destinies; it is, almost paradoxically, the root of free will.

Bandura has apparently never concerned himself with the larger

question of what would happen if thousands, or millions, of reciprocal-

causation agents interacted in a population; he was more concerned

with the fate of the individual embedded in such a system. As we will see,

it appears almost inevitable ...