John Henry Holland Quotes

When a new building block is discovered, the result is usually a range of innovations.

This use of building blocks to generate internal models is a pervasive feature of complex adaptive systems.

If we are to understand the interactions of a large number of agents, we must first be able to describe the capabilities of individual agents.

Evolution continually innovates, but at each level it conserves the elements that are recombined to yield the innovations.

Particular individuals do not recur, but their building blocks do.

The measure of performance of any given agent is the amount of money it accumulates through its actions.

Looking back to data, we can see if the consequences are plausible; looking forward to theory, we can see if general principles are suggested.

Unwrapping occurs when the "solution" is explicitly built into the program from the start.

The recycling of resource by the aggregate behavior of a diverse array of agents is much more than the sum of the individual actions.

Nonlinear interactions almost always make the behavior of the aggregate more complicated than would be predicted by summing or averaging.

If there is to be a competition, there must be some basis for resolving it. It is also clear that the competition should be experienced based.