Optimization in "self-modeling" complex adaptive systems

When a dynamical system with multiple point attractors is released from an arbitrary initial condition, it will relax into a configuration that locally resolves the constraints or opposing forces between interdependent state variables. However, when there are many conflicting interdependencies between variables, finding a configuration that globally optimizes these constraints by this method is unlikely or may take many attempts. Here, we show that a simple distributed mechanism can incrementally alter a dynamical system such that it finds lower energy configurations, more reliably and more quickly. Specifically, when Hebbian learning is applied to the connections of a simple dynamical system undergoing repeated relaxation, the system will develop an associative memory that amplifies a subset of its own attractor states. This modifies the dynamics of the system such that its ability to find configurations that minimize total system energy, and globally resolve conflicts between interdependent variables, is enhanced. Moreover, we show that the system is not merely “recalling” low energy states that have been previously visited but “predicting” their location by generalizing over local attractor states that have already been visited. This “self-modeling” framework, i.e., a system that augments its behavior with an associative memory of its own attractors, helps us better understand the conditions under which a simple locally mediated mechanism of self-organization can promote significantly enhanced global resolution of conflicts between the components of a complex adaptive system. We illustrate this process in random and modular network constraint problems equivalent to graph coloring and distributed task allocation problems. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 16: 17–26, 2011 © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.