- Complex Adaptive Systems

One of the most important roles a computer can play is to act as a simulator of physical processes. When a com puter mimics the behavior of a system, such as the flow of air over an airplane wing, it provides us with a unique way of studying the factors that control that behavior. The key, of course, is for the computer to offer an accurate rendition of the system being studied. In the past fifty years, computers have scored some major successes in this regard. Designers of airplanes, bridges, and Ameri ca's Cup yachts all use computers routinely to analyze their designs before they commit them to metal. For such artifacts, we know how to mimic the behavior quite exactly, using equations discovered over a…