COOPERATIVE STRUCTURE
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 717 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Methodology or model |
Cooperative structures are observed in all social animals. They are also now researched within the frame of A.I. and are acquiring a very general meaning, as a model of self-organization of complex wholes by reciprocally regulating interactions between elements formerly independent from each others. This is basically a bottom-up phenomenon, governed by generative rules, closely related to cellular automata.
Construction of cooperative structures is also recursive and seems even to have been one of the most important factors in general evolution, as a stepping stone to ever higher levels of sociality, as shown by C. BRESCH (1977, 1987).
More recently, a number of researchers started to study more elaborated models of cooperative structures, mainly through the new discipline called Artificial Life (A.L.). For detailed information see, under others, C. LANGTON (Ed.), l989 and the SIGART Collection on Integrated Cognitive Architecture (1991).