Open AccessPersistence of nonoptimal strategies
Author(s) -
H. A. Ceccatto,
Bernardo A. Huberman
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.86.10.3443
Subject(s) - maxima and minima , analogy , metastability , formalism (music) , statistical physics , simple (philosophy) , nonlinear system , persistence (discontinuity) , computer science , biological system , mathematical optimization , physics , mathematics , biology , mathematical analysis , quantum mechanics , art , musical , philosophy , linguistics , geotechnical engineering , epistemology , visual arts , engineering
Metastable configurations in open computational systems with local minima in their optimality functions are shown to be very long lived, which makes them effectively stable. When rare transitions to the global optimum do occur, they happen extremely fast, in analogy to models of punctuated evolution in biology. These results are obtained by introducing a thermodynamic-like formalism that allows for a simple analysis of nonlinear game dynamics in computational ecosystems.