1. An adaptive computing system comprising, in combination, a message memory for storing a plurality of messages, each message being represented by a sequence of binary digits; a classifier memory for storing a plurality of classifiers, each such classifier consisting of a condition part identifying a subset of messages in said message memory which are to be translated into result messages, an action part which specifies the functional relationship between the messages in said subset and said result messages, and a strength value; processing means for producing the result messages specified by each of said classifiers, said processing means further including bid generating means for producing a bid value for each given one of said classifiers which produces at least one of said result messages, said bid value being related to the strength value of said given classifier and being further related to the strength values of those classifiers which produced the messages in the subset specified by the condition part of said given classifier, and selection means responsive to said bid value for placing the result messages specified by only chosen ones of said classifiers in said message memory for further processing.