Self-Organizing System

a self-adaptive control system in which adaptation to changing conditions or optimization of control processes is achieved by changing the structure of the control system. This alteration of the structure can be effected by switching particular subsystems on or off or by making qualitative changes in, for example, the control algorithms, the links between subsystems, and the hierarchy of subordination of the systems. The principal difference between self-organizing systems and self-aligning systems is that in the former the processes of adaptation are primarily qualitative in nature, whereas in the latter they are chiefly quantitative.