Monday, May 19, 2008

Adaptive system

An adaptive system is a system that is able to adapt its behavior according to changes in its environment or in parts of the system itself. A human being, for instance, is certainly an adaptive system; so are organizations and families. Some man-made systems can be made adaptive as well; for instance, control systems utilize feedback loops in order to sense conditions in their environment and adapt accordingly. Robots incorporate many of these control systems. Neural Networks are a common type of algorithmic implementation of adaptive systems.

Diffusion of innovations theory can help to explain the uptake of new ideas, practices and products by individuals and social groups -- human adaptive systems.

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