the parent plant produces offshoots, spreading ever further from the core. When such a shoot, once it has produced its own roots, gets separated from the mother plant, it will survive independently and define a new plant. Thus, the growth of society is more like that of plants than like that of the higher animals that we are most familiar with, there is not a clear distinction between a parent and its offspring. Superorganisms are also capable of the so-called "distributed intelligence," a system composed of individual agents with limited intelligence and information. These can pool resources to complete goals beyond the individuals' reach on their own. Similar to the concept of "Game theory." (Durlauf, S.N., Blume, L.E. 2010) In this concept, individuals and organisms make choices based on the behaviors of the other player to deem the most profitable outcome for them as an individual rather than a group. Terminology Biocybernetics is a conjoined word from bio (Greek: βίο / life) and cybernetics (Greek: κυβερνητική / controlling-governing). Although the extended form of the word is biological cybernetics, the field is most commonly referred to as biocybernetics in scientific papers. Early proponents Early proponents of biocybernetics include Ross Ashby, Hans Drischel, and Norbert Wiener among others. Popular papers published by each scientist are listed below. Ross Ashby, "Introduction to Cybernetics", 1956 Hans Drischel, "Einführung in die Biokybernetik." 1972 Norbert Wiener, "Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine", 1948 Similar fields Papers and research that delve into topics involving biocybernetics may be found under a multitude of similar names, including molecular cybernetics, neurocybernetics, and cellular cybernetics. Such fields involve disciplines that specify certain aspects of the study of the living organism (for example, neurocybernetics focuses on the study neurological models in organisms). Categories Biocybernetics – the study of an entire living organism Neurocybernetics – cybernetics dealing with neurological models. (Psycho-Cybernetics was the title of a self-help book, and is not a scientific discipline) Molecular cybernetics – cybernetics dealing with molecular systems (e.g. molecular biology cybernetics) Cellular cybernetics – cybernetics dealing with cellular systems (e.g. information technology/cell phones or biological cells) Evolutionary cybernetics – study of the evolution of informational systems (See also evolutionary programming, evolutionary algorithm) See also Bioinformatics Biosemiotics Computational biology Computational biomodeling Medical cybernetics List of biomedical cybernetics software References External links Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics Journal "Biological Cybernetics" Scientific portal on biological