This man wants to control the Internet. And you should let him.

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A system of linked computers like the Internet is obviously a network, but so are jetliners, human bodies, and even bacterial cells. They’re all networks because they are made up of lots and lots of parts that work together. Robust networks have parts that continue to work together smoothly even if conditions fluctuate unpredictably. In the case of the Internet, a million people may try to send e-mail at once. Doyle knows, however, that networks that look perfectly sound can be headed for collapse with little warning. Control theorists have pondered living things for decades, but until recently they lacked the mathematical tools to analyze them as they would a technological system. Doyle and his colleagues have created some of those tools.