http://bactra.org/notebooks Cosma's Notebooks en http://bactra.org/notebooks/1995/03/13#complex-adaptive-systems I say we call them adapters, and send ``complex'' home to get some rest, but no one listens to <em>me.</em> See <a href="adaptation.html">adaptation</a> and <a href="complexity.html">complexity.</a> <P>It has been represented to me, that ``complex adapative system'' is needed to describe a large number of interacting adapters. Now <a href="voltaire.html">Voltaire</a> was once attacking a hack for writing bad books, when he was told that the poor man had to eat, after all: to which he said, ``I do not see the necessity.'' A collection or society or community or population of adapters, even (though I despise the word) a system of adapters, would seem to fit the bill; and there is precedent for a ``Pandemonium'' of adapters as well