Tad Hogg and Bernardo A. Huberman
Dynamics of Computation Group
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
Palo Alto, CA 94304
hogg@parc.xerox.com
@INCOLLECTION {,
AUTHOR = "Tad Hogg and Bernardo A. Huberman",
TITLE = "Better Than the Best: The Power of Cooperation",
BOOKTITLE = "1992 Lectures in Complex Systems",
EDITOR = "Lynn Nadel and Daniel Stein",
PAGES = "165-184",
SERIES = "SFI Studies in the Sciences of Complexity",
VOLUME = "V",
PUBLISHER = "Addison-Wesley",
ADDRESS = "Reading, MA",
YEAR = "1993"}
We show that when agents cooperate in a distributed search problem, they
can solve it faster than any agent working in isolation. This is
accomplished by having agents exchange hints within a computational
ecosystem. We present a quantitative assessment of the value of
cooperation for solving constraint satisfaction problems through a
series of experiments. Our results suggest an alternative methodology to
existing techniques for solving constraint satisfaction problems in
computer science and distributed artificial intelligence.
postcript (283K, 22 pages, available on-line only within Xerox)