Collective Intelligence for Control of Distributed Dynamical Systems

We consider the El Farol bar problem, also known as the minority game W. B. Arthur, The American Economic Review, 842: 406 411 1994, D. Challet and Y.C. Zhang, Physica A, 256:514 1998. We view it as an instance of the general problem of how to con gure the nodal elements of a distributed dynamical system so that they do not work at cross purposes", in that their collective dynamics avoids frustration and thereby achieves a provided global goal. We summarize a mathematical theory for such con guration applicable when as in the bar problem the global goal can be expressed as minimizing a global energy function and the nodes can be expressed as minimizers of local free energy functions. We show that a system designed with that theory performs nearly optimally for the bar problem.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 1999
• Where: CORR
• Authors: David Wolpert, Kevin R. Wheeler, Kagan Tumer
• Keywords: Bar Problem, CORR 1999, Education, El Farol Bar Problem, Global Goal