My reasons for thinking that this concept ought to be more widely known is that equipoise carries with it aspects of science that remain sorely needed these days. It connotes judgment—for it asks what problems are worthy of consideration. It connotes humility—for we do not know what lies ahead. It connotes open vistas—because it looks out at the unknown. It connotes discovery—because, whatever way forward we choose, we will learn something. And it connotes risk—because it is sometimes dangerous to embark on such a journey.
Equipoise is a state of hopeful ignorance, the quiet before the storm of discovery.
Equipoise is a state of hopeful ignorance, the quiet before the storm of discovery.
🗞 Information theory, predictability, and the emergence of complex life
Luís F Seoane, Ricard Solé
🔗 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1701.02389v1
📌ABSTRACT
Despite the obvious advantage of simple life forms capable of fast replication, different levels of cognitive complexity have been achieved by living systems in terms of their potential to cope with environmental uncertainty. Against the inevitable cost associated to detecting environmental cues and responding to them in adaptive ways, we conjecture that the potential for predicting the environment can overcome the expenses associated to maintaining costly, complex structures. We present a minimal formal model grounded in information theory and selection, in which successive generations of agents are mapped into transmitters and receivers of a coded message. Our agents are guessing machines and their capacity to deal with environments of different complexity defines the conditions to sustain more complex agents.
Luís F Seoane, Ricard Solé
🔗 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1701.02389v1
📌ABSTRACT
Despite the obvious advantage of simple life forms capable of fast replication, different levels of cognitive complexity have been achieved by living systems in terms of their potential to cope with environmental uncertainty. Against the inevitable cost associated to detecting environmental cues and responding to them in adaptive ways, we conjecture that the potential for predicting the environment can overcome the expenses associated to maintaining costly, complex structures. We present a minimal formal model grounded in information theory and selection, in which successive generations of agents are mapped into transmitters and receivers of a coded message. Our agents are guessing machines and their capacity to deal with environments of different complexity defines the conditions to sustain more complex agents.
🗞 Equivalence between non-Markovian and Markovian dynamics in epidemic spreading processes
Michele Starnini, James P. Gleeson, Marián Boguñá
🔗 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1701.02805v1
📌 ABSTRACT
A general formalism is introduced to allow the steady state of non-Markovian processes on networks to be reduced to equivalent Markovian processes on the same substrates. The example of an epidemic spreading process is considered in detail, where all the non-Markovian aspects are shown to be captured within a single parameter, the effective infection rate. Remarkably, this result is independent of the topology of the underlying network, as demonstrated by numerical simulations on two-dimensional lattices and various types of random networks. Furthermore, an analytic approximation for the effective infection rate is introduced, which enables the calculation of the critical point and of the critical exponents for the non-Markovian dynamics.
Michele Starnini, James P. Gleeson, Marián Boguñá
🔗 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1701.02805v1
📌 ABSTRACT
A general formalism is introduced to allow the steady state of non-Markovian processes on networks to be reduced to equivalent Markovian processes on the same substrates. The example of an epidemic spreading process is considered in detail, where all the non-Markovian aspects are shown to be captured within a single parameter, the effective infection rate. Remarkably, this result is independent of the topology of the underlying network, as demonstrated by numerical simulations on two-dimensional lattices and various types of random networks. Furthermore, an analytic approximation for the effective infection rate is introduced, which enables the calculation of the critical point and of the critical exponents for the non-Markovian dynamics.
🗞 Types and Forms of Emergence
Jochen Fromm
🔗 https://arxiv.org/pdf/nlin/0506028v1.pdf
📌 ABSTRACT
The knowledge of the different types of emergence is essential if we want to understand and master complex systems in science and engineering, respectively. This paper specifies a universal taxonomy and comprehensive classification of the major types and forms of emergence in Multi-Agent Systems, from simple types of intentional and predictable emergence in machines to more complex forms of weak, multiple and strong emergence.
Jochen Fromm
🔗 https://arxiv.org/pdf/nlin/0506028v1.pdf
📌 ABSTRACT
The knowledge of the different types of emergence is essential if we want to understand and master complex systems in science and engineering, respectively. This paper specifies a universal taxonomy and comprehensive classification of the major types and forms of emergence in Multi-Agent Systems, from simple types of intentional and predictable emergence in machines to more complex forms of weak, multiple and strong emergence.
🌀 Apply now for SFI's 2017 Complex Systems Summer School
🔗 https://sficsss.fluidreview.com/
🚩The Santa Fe Institute is accepting applications for its signature education program for graduate students and postdocs: the 2017 Complex Systems Summer School, June 11-July 7, 2017, at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Apply by January 23, 2017.
The program offers an intensive four-week introduction to complex behavior in mathematical, physical, living, and social systems.
CSSS is intended for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the sciences or social sciences who seek a background and hands-on experience conducting interdisciplinary research in complex systems.
The program includes lectures, laboratories, and discussion sessions focusing on foundational ideas, tools, and current topics in complex systems research. These include nonlinear dynamics and pattern formation, scaling theory, information theory and computation theory, adaptation and evolution, network structure and dynamics, adaptive computation techniques, and computer modeling tools and specific applications of these core topics to various disciplines.
In addition, participants will formulate and carry out team projects related to topics covered in the program.
All activities will be conducted in English.
🔗 https://sficsss.fluidreview.com/
🚩The Santa Fe Institute is accepting applications for its signature education program for graduate students and postdocs: the 2017 Complex Systems Summer School, June 11-July 7, 2017, at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Apply by January 23, 2017.
The program offers an intensive four-week introduction to complex behavior in mathematical, physical, living, and social systems.
CSSS is intended for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the sciences or social sciences who seek a background and hands-on experience conducting interdisciplinary research in complex systems.
The program includes lectures, laboratories, and discussion sessions focusing on foundational ideas, tools, and current topics in complex systems research. These include nonlinear dynamics and pattern formation, scaling theory, information theory and computation theory, adaptation and evolution, network structure and dynamics, adaptive computation techniques, and computer modeling tools and specific applications of these core topics to various disciplines.
In addition, participants will formulate and carry out team projects related to topics covered in the program.
All activities will be conducted in English.
⭕️ Physics, Complexity and Causality
George F. R. Ellis1
🔗 http://www.nature.com.sci-hub.cc/nature/journal/v435/n7043/full/435743a.html
🐾 Although the laws of physics explain much of the world around us, we still do not have a realistic description of causality in truly complex hierarchical structures.
🐾 The atomic theory of matter and the periodic table of elements allow us to understand the physical nature of material objects, including living beings. Quantum theory illuminates the physical basis of the periodic table and the nature of chemical bonding.
George F. R. Ellis1
🔗 http://www.nature.com.sci-hub.cc/nature/journal/v435/n7043/full/435743a.html
🐾 Although the laws of physics explain much of the world around us, we still do not have a realistic description of causality in truly complex hierarchical structures.
🐾 The atomic theory of matter and the periodic table of elements allow us to understand the physical nature of material objects, including living beings. Quantum theory illuminates the physical basis of the periodic table and the nature of chemical bonding.
Complex Systems Studies
⭕️ Physics, Complexity and Causality George F. R. Ellis1 🔗 http://www.nature.com.sci-hub.cc/nature/journal/v435/n7043/full/435743a.html 🐾 Although the laws of physics explain much of the world around us, we still do not have a realistic description of…
📄 ON THE NATURE OF CAUSATION IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS
George F. R. Ellis1
🔗http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.670.2930&rep=rep1&type=pdf
George F. R. Ellis1
🔗http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.670.2930&rep=rep1&type=pdf
⭕️ The unfolding and control of network cascades
The same connections that give a network its functionality can promote the spread of failures and innovations that would otherwise remain confined.
http://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.3426
The same connections that give a network its functionality can promote the spread of failures and innovations that would otherwise remain confined.
http://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.3426
Complex Systems Studies
🎶 Networks Networks surround and sustain us, in nature, in our bodies, in relationships, in the digital world.
🎶 This hour, TED speakers explore how we rely on networks and how we have the power to shape them.
http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/
http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/
NPR
Who is really shaping the future of AI?
What will AI look like in 2026? Is the hype a bubble or a tech revolution that will transform everything? This episode, the global politics shaping the future of AI and what it means for you.
🌀 A history of complexity science. Update to 2020:
http://www.art-sciencefactory.com/complexity-map_feb09.html
http://www.art-sciencefactory.com/complexity-map_feb09.html
🌀 COMPLEXITY IS JUST A WORD!
BY PETER CORNING
http://complexsystems.org/publications/complexity-is-just-a-word/
BY PETER CORNING
http://complexsystems.org/publications/complexity-is-just-a-word/
🌀 THERMOECONOMICS: BEYOND THE SECOND LAW
BY PETER CORNING
🔗 http://complexsystems.org/publications/thermoeconomics-beyond-the-second-law/
📌 Abstract
Physicist Erwin Schrodinger’s What is Life? (1945) has inspired many subsequent efforts to explain biological evolution, especially the evolution of complex systems, in terms of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the concepts of “entropy” and “negative entropy.” However, the problems associated with this paradigm are manifold. Some of these problems will be highlighted in the first part of this paper, and some of the theories that have been derived from it will be briefly critiqued. “Thermoeconomics”, by contrast, is based on the proposition that the role of energy in biological evolution should be defined and understood not in terms of the Second Law but in terms of such economic criteria as “productivity,” “efficiency,” and especially the costs and benefits (or “profitability”) of the various mechanisms for capturing and utilizing available energy to build biomass and do work. Thus thermoeconomics is fully consistent with the Darwinian paradigm. Furthermore, it is argued that economic criteria provide a better account of the advances (and recessions) in bioenergetic technologies than does any formulation derived from the Second Law.
#cybernetics, #entropy, #information, #natural_selection, #synergy, #thermodynamics
BY PETER CORNING
🔗 http://complexsystems.org/publications/thermoeconomics-beyond-the-second-law/
📌 Abstract
Physicist Erwin Schrodinger’s What is Life? (1945) has inspired many subsequent efforts to explain biological evolution, especially the evolution of complex systems, in terms of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the concepts of “entropy” and “negative entropy.” However, the problems associated with this paradigm are manifold. Some of these problems will be highlighted in the first part of this paper, and some of the theories that have been derived from it will be briefly critiqued. “Thermoeconomics”, by contrast, is based on the proposition that the role of energy in biological evolution should be defined and understood not in terms of the Second Law but in terms of such economic criteria as “productivity,” “efficiency,” and especially the costs and benefits (or “profitability”) of the various mechanisms for capturing and utilizing available energy to build biomass and do work. Thus thermoeconomics is fully consistent with the Darwinian paradigm. Furthermore, it is argued that economic criteria provide a better account of the advances (and recessions) in bioenergetic technologies than does any formulation derived from the Second Law.
#cybernetics, #entropy, #information, #natural_selection, #synergy, #thermodynamics
Forwarded from Sitpor.org سیتپـــــور
یک سیستم پیچیده چیست؟
http://www.sitpor.org/2017/01/complexsys1/
http://www.sitpor.org/2017/01/complexsys1/
Forwarded from Sitpor.org سیتپـــــور
🌀 سیستمهای پیچیده: «ماهیت و ویژگی»
http://www.sitpor.org/2017/01/complexsys1/
🎯 مقدمه:
حدود۳۳۰ سال پیش، نیوتون با انتشار شاهکار خود، اصول ریاضی فلسفه طبیعی، نگاهی جدید نسبت به بررسی طبیعت را معرفی کرد. نگاه نیوتون به علم به کمک نظریه الکترومغناطیس که توسط مکسول جمع بندی و در نهایت توسط آلبرت اینشتین کامل شد، شالوده فیزیککلاسیک را بنا نهاد. انقلاب بعدی علم، توسط مکانیک کوانتومی رخداد. آنچه که مکانیک کوانتومی در قرن ۲۰ میلادی نشانه گرفت، مسئله موضعیت در فیزیک کلاسیک و نگاه احتمالاتی به طبیعت بود. نگاهی که سرانجام منجر به پارادایمی جدید در علم، به عنوان فیزیک مدرن شد. با این وجود، علیرغم پیشرفتهای خارقالعاده در فیزیک و سایر علوم، کماکان در توجیه بسیاری از پدیدهها وا ماندهایم. پدیدههایی که همیشه اطرافمان حاضر بودهاند ولی هیچموقع قادر به توجیه رفتار آنها نبودهایم. بنابراین، میتوان به این فکر کرد که شاید در نگاه ما به طبیعت و مسائل علمی، نقصی وجود داشته باشد. به دیگر سخن، بعید نیست که مجددا نیاز به بازنگری در نگاهمان به طبیعت (تغییر پارادایم) داشته باشیم؛ عدهی زیادی معتقدند آنچه که در قرن ۲۱ام نیاز است، نگاهی جدید به مبانی علم است؛ نگاه پیچیدگی!
http://www.sitpor.org/2017/01/complexsys1/
🎯 مقدمه:
حدود۳۳۰ سال پیش، نیوتون با انتشار شاهکار خود، اصول ریاضی فلسفه طبیعی، نگاهی جدید نسبت به بررسی طبیعت را معرفی کرد. نگاه نیوتون به علم به کمک نظریه الکترومغناطیس که توسط مکسول جمع بندی و در نهایت توسط آلبرت اینشتین کامل شد، شالوده فیزیککلاسیک را بنا نهاد. انقلاب بعدی علم، توسط مکانیک کوانتومی رخداد. آنچه که مکانیک کوانتومی در قرن ۲۰ میلادی نشانه گرفت، مسئله موضعیت در فیزیک کلاسیک و نگاه احتمالاتی به طبیعت بود. نگاهی که سرانجام منجر به پارادایمی جدید در علم، به عنوان فیزیک مدرن شد. با این وجود، علیرغم پیشرفتهای خارقالعاده در فیزیک و سایر علوم، کماکان در توجیه بسیاری از پدیدهها وا ماندهایم. پدیدههایی که همیشه اطرافمان حاضر بودهاند ولی هیچموقع قادر به توجیه رفتار آنها نبودهایم. بنابراین، میتوان به این فکر کرد که شاید در نگاه ما به طبیعت و مسائل علمی، نقصی وجود داشته باشد. به دیگر سخن، بعید نیست که مجددا نیاز به بازنگری در نگاهمان به طبیعت (تغییر پارادایم) داشته باشیم؛ عدهی زیادی معتقدند آنچه که در قرن ۲۱ام نیاز است، نگاهی جدید به مبانی علم است؛ نگاه پیچیدگی!