"These Internet engineers weren't control theorists, but they built this incredibly robust network," Doyle says. "Man, that's awesome." Then again, the engineers were doing something that evolution figured out long ago.
I know the intended audience for this article is probably elementary school students, but it always disappoints me when someone says biological evolution "figures out" something, and I'm equally disappointed when someone says it's "awesome" that engineers can do something.
It's the fact that they built a network that's incredibly robust from a control-theoretical standpoint _without the benefit of control theory_ that's awesome.
Just because some aspects of the current internet can be described by control theory doesn't mean a knowledge of control theory is beneficial or even necessary.
I remain skeptical until someone shows me how control theory leads to a better solution to a problem we currently have with the internet.
I know the intended audience for this article is probably elementary school students, but it always disappoints me when someone says biological evolution "figures out" something, and I'm equally disappointed when someone says it's "awesome" that engineers can do something.
I guess I shouldn't expect much from a magazine that publishes puff pieces like "Long Live Closed-Source Software" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=93716