Many, if not all, complex systems in biology have a fine-grained architecture, in that they consist of large numbers of relatively simple elements that work together in a highly parallel fashion.
Several possible advantages are conferred by this type of architecture, including robustness, efficiency, and evolvability. One additional major advantage is that a fine-grained parallel system is able to carry out what Douglas Hofstadter has called a "parallel terraced scan". This refers to a simultaneous exploration of many possibilities and pathways, in which the resources given to each exploration at a given time depend on the perceived success of that exploration at that time. The search is parallel in that many different possibilities are explored simultaneously, but is "terraced" in that not all possibilities are explored at the same speeds or to the same depth. Information is used as it is gained to continually reasses what is important to explore.
In cellular metabolism such fine-grained explorations are carried out by metabolic pathways, each focused on carrying out a particular task. A pathway can be speeded up or slowed down via feedback from its own results or from other pathways. The feedback itself is in the form of time-varying concentrations of molecules, so the relative speeds of different pathways can continually adapt to the moment-to-moment needs of the cell.
Melanie Mitchell - Complexity: a guided tour.
No comments:
Post a Comment