| In The Invincible Lem does
a very effective job of describing how global patterns can arise from local interactions. |
| Here Lem describes a fictional world
inhabited by tiny robot "insects" that, when unfamiliar circumstances arise,
self-organize into a vast cloud. Although the individual elements are too
simple to respond effectively to environmental stresses, the cloud, a product
of inorganic evolution, can respond with terrifying power and sophistication. The cloud
is a physical relaization of a 3-dimensional
cellular automaton. |
| Here is a brief quote, indicating the care with which he
treates the issues od self-organization. |
"Are you suggesting that these elements have been clever enough to
jump back to their proper places again by themselves? That would imply some initial
blueprint of the entire brain - "
"Not necessarily. It suffices for each element to recall those
elements with which it was in immediate contact." ... "But this is no more than a
grossly simplified description. The process must be far more complicated than that - just
consider how frequently these individual elements are destroyed - and yet the overall
functioning of the superstructure remains unaffected."
|
| Other of Lem's stories deal with artifical worlds, cyberspace
landscapes inhabited by
virtual creatures. We wonder if Lem imagined fractal constructions to make
natural-looking artificial
landscapes, or to provide
easy navigation for the inhabitants of these worlds. |