In coevolutionary worlds control and secrecy are counterproductive. You can't control, and revelation works better than concealment. "In zero-sum games, you always try to hide your strategy," says Axelrod. "But in nonzero-sum games you might want to announce your strategy in public so the other players need to adapt to it."

This is a cool notion, pulled from the book Out of Control. It's about biology and machines, and was published in 1994, when the internet was a novel place for university and government researchers.

Links I have liked in the new year, pasted straight from the sites where I scraped the titles:

• ephemeral profiles (cuz losing passwords is common amongst teens)

• Black Tie Optional (hint: naked parties)

• The Simpsonzu

• WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT? WHY?
• OPEN SECRETS: Enron, intelligence, and the perils of too much information.

• Freakonomics: The Gift-Card Economy (excellent verbage: "the dead-weight loss of Christmas")

Also dudes, I saw "The Queen" (trailer, imdb) on the airplane Sunday, and it was excellent. I don't think I would have ever thought to see it, but it was recommended to me, so I donned the cheese airline headphones and really, really enjoyed a film about the British Monarchy, change, stoicism, grief, privacy and public life. Bunches of stars and upward-pointing thumbs for that one, particularly since it was so unexpected.