Chapter 22 Chapter 5 Game Master

According to the agenda, the second speech of the Economics Symposium started after lunch on the first day of the conference, and the whole afternoon was arranged.The topic of the speech was "The Global Economy as an Adaptive Process", and the speaker was John H. Holland from the University of Michigan. Arthur had finished his speech and now had the energy to take an interest in it.And not just because the topic of the talk sounded interesting.John Holland was one of the visiting fellows at the Institute that fall, and the two of them were arranged to live in the same room, but Holland arrived in Santa Fe late at night the day before the meeting, when Arthur was at the convent for the last time. Considering his speech everywhere, there is no time to take care of this newcomer.All he knew about Holland was that he was a computer expert and, according to the institute, a "very nice guy."

The institute's assessment of Holland seems to be good.When everyone went back to the conference room converted from the chapel and sat back on their chairs beside the long folding table, Holland was already standing in front of the podium and ready to speak.He was a lean Midwesterner in his mid-sixties, with a broad, ruddy face that seemed perpetually smiling, and a high-pitched voice that made him speak like an enthusiastic graduate student.Arthur took an immediate liking to him. Holland began to speak, and at first Arthur was a little drowsy, as if he was listening passively, but within a few minutes he was out of sleep, and suddenly he was refreshed and absorbed.