The current understanding was that it was impossible to predict how something would evolve because it was a very turbulent environment full of things interacting with each other.
Kevin KellyWherever the Net arises, there arises also a rebel to resist human control...A network nurtures small failures in order that large failures don't happen as often. It is...fertile ground for learning, adaptation, and evolution...The only organization capable of unprejudiced growth, or unguided learning, is a network. All other topologies limit what can happen.
Kevin KellyAnd they discovered something very interesting: when it comes to walking, most of the ant's thinking and decision-making is not in its brain at all. It's distributed. It's in its legs.
Kevin Kelly