Re: [Swarm-Modelling] lifecycle requirements

[Marcus G. Daniels]

Scott Christley wrote:
> On Nov 27, 2006, at 11:55 AM, glen e. p. ropella wrote:
>
> > It's not the collective that I'm trying to get at, it's the post-facto
> > naming of the object that I'm after.  The collective gets together in
> > some pattern, an external agent perceives this collective and _labels_
> > the pattern as, say, a "whirlpool".  That external agent should then be
> > able to act upon that whirlpool without explicit knowledge of how to act
> > on any given constituent of the whirlpool.
>
> If you can "perceive" this collective then slapping a label onto it 
> and interacting with it becomes easy.
Suppose you are watching a time sequence of aggregate index prices from 
a stock market.  The index is heading up steadily, and you want to get 
in and make some money before the bubble pops.  What do you do?   You 
need some way to place a bid and you need source of money and you need 
an idea of what is best to buy (but perhaps anything will do).    The 
mechanisms for interacting in a collective (the bubble) aren't 
necessarily suggested from the perception of it.