Furthermore, said Holland, the control of a complex adaptive system tends to be highly dispersed. There is no master neuron in the brain, for example, nor is there any master cell within a developing embryo. If there is to be any coherent behavior in the system, it has to arise from competition and cooperation among the agents themselves. This is true even in an economy. Ask any president trying to cope with a stubborn recession: no matter what Washington does to fiddle with interest rates and tax policy and the money supply, the overall behavior of the economy is still the result of myriad
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