decision making <=> coevolution <=> emergent structure?

[gepr]

Here's a forward of a post to the complexity in management list.
It makes me wonder about the completeness of the partially ordered set
representation of causality and the available grammers.

What could this kind of result say about coherence in multi-agent
systems?

If anyone happens upon the issue of Physical Review Letters this is
in, please let me know what you think of it.  I don't have easy access
to it.

> Date:    Wed, 5 Aug 1998 07:29:00 -0400
> From:    Tony Mayo <address@hidden>
> Subject: Physics News: Group decisions can be mathematically unpredictable
> 
> The following item appears in today's PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE
> [A great free service BTW: to have Physics News Update delivered
> automatically to your e-mail address, send a message to
> mailto:address@hidden leave the subject line blank, in the body of the
> message, type add physnews]
> 
> The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News
> Number 385 August 3, 1998   by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein
> 
> GROUP DECISIONS CAN BE MATHEMATICALLY UNPREDICTABLE even with total
> knowledge of everyone's individual choices and the use of completely
> explicit decision making rules, a new study shows. As it turns out, the
> order in which the choices are presented to a group can make the course of
> the decision process impossible to anticipate.  Not only does this new
> result address the murky human process of amending Congressional bills, but
> it also confirms the idea that groups of computerized "intelligent agents"
> each with its own rules for buying and selling commodities can cause prices
> to fluctuate in a mathematically chaotic fashion.  Whenever a group tries to
> choose among three or more options by weighing two at a time, its decision
> can often cycle endlessly from one choice to another, especially when there
> is a large diversity of preferences.  To address the consequences of such
> cycles, David Meyer (UC-San Diego, 619-534-5524) and Thad Brown (Univ.
> Missouri) model each possible sequence of choices as a minimum-energy
> configuration of a one-dimensional system, such as the string of atoms with
> up and down spins used in studying magnetic materials.  For those sequences
> that cycle endlessly through different options, the system has a
> greater-than-zero entropy--meaning that there is an uncertainty in what the
> group's next choice will be. In this case the dynamics are chaotic---the
> next choice in the cycle is unpredictable since it depends sensitively on
> the order in which options are presented to the group.  (Upcoming article in
> Physical Review Letters.)
> 
> Perhaps an answer to Mort Saul's classic question: "How have we gone form
> Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin to what we have in Washington today.
> Could Darwin be so wrong?"
> 
> Best wishes,
> Tony Mayo
> Sales Trainer & Executive Coach
> 703.855.6296
> mailto:address@hidden
> http://www.MayoGenuine.com
> Reston, Virginia, U.S.A.

-- 
glen e. p. ropella      =><= Hail Eris!
the swarm corporation   W:(505) 995-0818
<address@hidden>        H:(505) 424-0448


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