Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Essay
Nature 446, 143 (8 March 2007) | doi:10.1038/446143a; Published online 7 March 2007
Connections Control without hierarchy
Deborah M. Gordon1
- Deborah M. Gordon is in the Department of Biological Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5020, USA.
Abstract
Understanding how particular natural systems operate without central control will reveal whether such systems share general properties.
Because most of the dynamic systems that we design, from machines to governments, are based on hierarchical control, it is difficult to imagine a system in which the parts use only local information and the whole thing directs itself. To explain how biological systems operate without central control — embryos, brains and social-insect colonies are familiar examples — we often fall back on metaphors from our own products, such as blueprints and programmes.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).