Complex Adaptive Systems Group ![]() |
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![]() The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) has done pioneering work in the interdisciplinary field of complexity. The term "complex adaptive systems" was coined here, by John H. Holland and the other famous researchers of the SFI. An amazing property of many complex systems is the appearance of similar global features and structures in completely different systems, for example in hurricanes and galaxies. A Galaxy has a diameter of many thousand light years, whereas a typical Hurricane is a few hundred miles wide. Yet their complicated spiral structure looks very similar, and even the "eye" in a hurricane corresponds to the black hole in the core of a galaxy. Here we have an example of an emergent property. Emergent processes, properties, dynamics, and patterns are responsible for the appearance of similar global features and structures in completely different systems. Emergence is besides adaptation a major characteristic feature of many complex, social and self-organizing systems. A system has high complexity or is very complex, if it can be represented efficiently by different models at different scales. The overall complexity is determined by the number of levels on which structures can be found, and it depends on the complexity of these structures and their interactions. If a system can be represented by the same models at different scales, or if it has scale independent or scale free properties, it is often a fractal or a self-similar system. Self-similarity is a basic property of fractals. We find often similar properties in complex systems and their components, for example in cells and organisms |
Complex systems are usually systems which have been created by evolution or an
evolutionary process. Evolved systems which have a long historical background
are nearly always complex. Complexity can be found everywhere
where evolution is at work,
Another interesting question is if there is there a drive to systems of increasing complexity in evolution. Do systems and agents which are subject to evolution become automatically more and more complex ? At least we live in a part of the universe which is much more complex than the rest. Without doubt, life on earth has become more and more complex during the last billion years. Are catastrophes and mass extinctions good or bad for evolution, and what is their role in history ? Some of the many unsolved and interesting questions about these systems are for example : How does complexity emerge in complex systems ? Why isn't the universe just a turbulent mess of particles tumbling around each other ? Why did the big bang not form a simple gas of particles, or condense into one big crystal ? How can the universe start with a big explosion and end up with life, history, and culture ? If you find this questions interesting, take a look at our blog and our wiki. Both will be supplemented in the near future by a social network for people interested in science, complex systems, and complexity. | ||
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Chaos and complexity generally emerge trough a repeated combination of
Melting Pots of different cultures, for example the ancient city of Alexandria (Ancient Egypt) and modern New York (America) are well known for their achievements, diversity and knowledge. America is like Ancient Egypt a country of immigrants and a big melting pot. Both countries have or had the most advanced civilization, culture and technology of their time. You maybe doubt that the american culture is really so far ahead, but you must admit that English is at least the world language and the current language of science, which has replaced Latin as the language of science in the middle ages. |
![]() ![]() But what triggers the loop in the first place? Perhaps it is a mixture of similarity and dissimilarity which plays an important role: it is the dissimilarity in the similarity which we find attractive in general. We are attracted by
Science. Science progresses as a result of the clash between theory and experiment, between speculation and measurement. The right balance between freedom and obligation is also necessary for science : a scientist has the freedom of discovering new things with free, unrestricted research, but he has the obligation to publish his results. A scientist usually takes several publications, which he names in the bibliography, and merges them to a new publication. He splits each publication into relevant and irrelevant parts, and recombines the different fragments to a new work. By interweaving and interlocking the different threads of knowledge, the scientist creates a new thread of insight and information. It may become a part of common knowledge, if it is accepted by the scientifc community. Science is a shared knowledge based on a common understanding. In the same way, by splitting/isolating and melting/merging of muscial voices, motives and themes, composers interweave the threads of musical voices, motives and themes to a complex pattern of music. Poets merge and separate different verse lines through rhymes, they combine different styles and stories to a new style or story. So complexity arises in science, music and literature through the process of interweaving and interlocking by..
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![]() Existence of water was the condition for life on the early earth. Another condition of higher life-forms is oxygen. Animals need oxygen to survive, to break down food and release the energy they need to live. But the oxygen in the atmosphere was not produced with the intention of making an animal friendly environment. The final 21% level of oxygen in the atmosphere was the result of the first major pollution crisis - an environmental catastrophy. But Microorganisms are not the only things influencing the composition of the atmosphere. Lightning bolts are with 28.000 degree Celsius more than five times as hot as the surface of the sun. Only a fraction of all lightnings in thunder storms reach the ground, 90% of all lightnings have no contact with it. They literally burn the air on their way down to earth or in the cloud, and produce nitrogen oxides (NOx) and ozone. Nitrogen oxides are an important fertilizer for plants, and the ozone shield in the stratosphere protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. The greatest catastrophe for every living being and every single person is death. Although it is the source of the strongest fears and sufferings, it is necessary for the evolution of a species as a whole. No evolution would be possible without death. No stellar evolution would be possible without the death of stars. Probably the ulimate and greatest catastrophe - the tremendous explosion of a supernova - is the most powerful generator of complexity. Elements heavier than iron are only formed in supernova explosions. And they are distributed by them at the same time. Supernovae enable the Build-up and fusion of heavy elements, and they disperse the results accross the universe. Without lightnings, comets and other catastrophes there would be no life on earth. It seems likeley, that disasters and catastrophes enabled life in the first place, that they are the food for (complex) adaptive systems. |
The most famous impact is the one that
caused the Chicxulub Crater (named for a
local village in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico),
and killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
The outer boundary of the Chicxulub impact crater
which has a diameter of 145 to 180 km
is still visible today from space.
The impact was so strong and tremendous, that
nearly seventy percent off all species, including
all dinosaurs died out in relatively short time -
the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) extinction.![]() H.G. Wells said in the "The Time Machine" : "Intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger, and trouble [..] There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change." Another need of change was the Ice Age. The disastrous and dramatic climatic change during the Ice Age was the catalyst for the development of language and better tools. But if the earth had frozen entirely during an ice age, perhaps we would not exist at all, as Stephen Jay Gould says : "We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook. We may yearn for a 'higher' answer-but none exists." | ||
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![]() The Mind, The Brain, and Complex Adaptive Systems, ed. by Harold J. Morowitz, Jerome L. Singer, Santa Fe Institute - Studies in the Sciences of Complexity Addison-Wesley, 1995 Introduction to the theory of neural computation, John Hertz, Anders Krogh and Richard Palmer, Santa Fe Institute - Studies in the Sciences of Complexity Addison-Wesley, 1991 Other good books are : The Complexity of Cooperation: Agent-Based Models of Competition and Collaboration, Robert Axelrod, Princeton University Press, 1997 Axelrod's models are simple. But, as Axelrod remarks, the complexity should be in the results, not in the model itself. The simplicity of his models is their beauty. He explains with simple models the emergence of complex abstract terms like power and culture. His Dissemination Model explains the Emergence of Culture through local convergence and global polarization. With his Tribute Model (for "Building Political Actors") he captures the essential properties of power and explains the Origin of Nations/Empires. It is a worthy successor of his classic book "Evolution of Cooperation". At first sight too simple, but in fact a brilliant work. More recommendable books: Emergence: Contemporary Readings in Philosophy and Science, Mark A. Bedau and Paul Humphreys (Eds.), MIT Press, 2007 |
Complexity : Life at the edge of chaos, Roger Lewin, University of Chicago Press, 2000 Early Civilizations, Bruce G. Trigger, The American University in Cairo Press, 1993 Origins of the modern mind, Merlin Donald, Harvard University Press, 1993 The origins of life - from the birth of life to the origins of language John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry Oxford University Press, 1999 How Nature works, Per Bak, Springer-Verlag, 1996 Complexity and Evolution, Max Pettersson, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996 Generative Social Science: Studies in Agent Based Computational Modeling Joshua M. Epstein Princeton University Press, 2007 Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life, John H. Miller & Scott E. Page Princeton University Press, 2007 ![]() The FRIAM (Friday Morning Complexity Coffee Group) mailing list, a list of the RedFish Group, is always a source of useful ideas and informations. | ||
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