3.3 Hierarchies


Important job of high-level agents is control. "When any enterprise becomes too complex and large for one person to do, we construct organizations in wich certain agents are concerned, not with the final result, but only with what some other agents do." As a result of this, there is a set of fundamental control problems to be solved -- who chooses agents to do jobs? Who decides when jobs are done? Who decides how much effort different jobs should take? Who settles conflicts, and how?

A control hierarchy would solve many of these problems. But, as is often the case in complex businesses, the relations between mental agents are not strictly hierarchical. As a result, solving control problems is not only crucial, but difficult.


Pearl Street | Society of Mind Home Page | Dawson Home Page |