Journal on Policy and Complex Systems
agents decide their course of actions upon it . The meaning is always subjective and contextual ; however , agents use shared criteria to assign meaning to information . In biological terms , the meaning of information is tied to fitness and survival . Information means something to an agent based on how it affects its fitness ( Mitchell , 2009 , p . 184 ). Henceforth , the appropriate response to an input is one that increases the overall agent fitness .
Fitness and versatility in rules of behaviour are what determine the overall fitness of an agent ( Holland , 1995 , p . 63 ). Since adaptability is an essential attribute for agents survival , the success of an agent does not derive from its “ raw power plus cunning ,” as social Darwinists and realists believe , but from its ability to cope with the complexity of the system , to process information and discover new fit rules ( Clemens , 2006 , p . 74 ). Moreover , agents ’ fitness are intertwined in a coevolutionary process ( Clemens , 2006 , p . 75 ). For instance , in “ an arms race , the peaks of a predator and its prey may gain or decline according to changes in their offensive and defensive capabilities ” ( Clemens , 2006 , p . 75 ). If the attacker gains a new lethal attack tactic , his fitness peak will rise , and the one of the prey will decrease . However , if the prey develops a counter tactic , the peak of the attacker will decrease . Yet , both will be better off than the rest of agents that have not been part of the coevolutionary process , which did not adapt to the new offensive and defensive tactics .
However , the concept of fitness is possible to understand the evolutionary function of self-organization . Self-organization emerges from the coevolution of rules of behavior among adaptive agents as an evolutionary response to the complexity of the system . Via organization , agents are able to process information collectively and increase their computational power . In addition , self-organization increases deterministic and focused behaviors among agents , with the outcome of increasing the overall efficiency of the system ( Mitchell , 2005 , p . 5 ). In other words , self-organization acts as a magnifier for coevolution of fit rules among agents .
Social organizations , and in particular the nation-state , are systems with strong self-organization and topdown processes that channel agents into increasingly deterministic and focused behaviors . They have no purpose outside of those defined by their components . Nevertheless , they do have an inherited function , which is one of the favoring coevolutions and promoting fit rules among their population . For example , nation-states execute this function by balancing bottom-up and top-down processes with institutions , unfocused and focused behavior with norms , randomness , and determinism with redistribution .
Conversely , the international system has only a “ passive ” role in favoring coevolution . Whereas states act as meta-agents to promote fit behavior , the international system is only a place where coevolution takes place : a medium for agents to interact and adapt to each other . System-wide self-organization still subsists , but it is less structured and less resilient . Partially it is so be-
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