Processes that occur in many biological systems are not synchronous,
but are governed by asynchronous updating. Although some previous
models of multi agent systems have incorporated
asynchronous
updating in an informal or
implicit way, the importance of asynchronous behaviour has been
largely overlooked. However, the update scheme chosen is very
important in determining the overall system behaviour. We illustrate
this point using several updating schemes in simple models. The
implication is that care should be given to selecting an update
scheme that is appropriate for the modelling application. We also
observe that certain ordered asynchronous processes play a role in
emergent modularity
, an important
process in the evolution of complexity
in living
systems.