XPost: comp.ai.alife   
   From: bear@sonic.net   
      
   Christian Guttmann wrote:   
   >   
   > Hello,   
   >   
   > I am currently looking into communication and collaboration among   
   > agents. Does anyone have an educated answer about the following question.   
   >   
   >  > Is collaboration possible without communication?   
   >   
   > By "without communication", I mean: no exchange of any information   
   > whatsoever - not before collaboration, not during collaboration, not   
   > through the environment, not through signals and not through direct means.   
   >   
   > In case, anyone has a positive answer, it would be helpful if there is   
   > also a publication about this matter.   
   >   
      
   You may wish to read "The Invisible Hand" -- I think it was by Adam Smith   
   but I'm not sure of that.   
      
   It's about how humans collaborate to achieve the most efficient use of   
   resources by using money as a universal medium of exchange.   
      
   This is not really "with no communication of any kind" -- obviously   
   an agent with no information input of any kind cannot collaborate with   
   anyone or anything.   But by creating a marketplace and negotiating   
   prices at a local level in response to market conditions, individual   
   actors contribute to large-scale market movements and drive fundamental   
   changes in the way things are done.   
      
   They aren't really acting according to a plan, but the flow of money   
   in a free-market economy gives rise to a "collaboration" to extract   
   the greates possible utility, with a design far more complex and subtle   
   than any single actor could have envisioned.   
      
   				Bear   
      
   [ comp.ai is moderated.  To submit, just post and be patient, or if ]   
   [ that fails mail your article to , and ]   
   [ ask your news administrator to fix the problems with your system. ]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)