Erdi Complexity Explained

1. Auflage 2007
ISBN: 978-3-540-35778-0
Verlag: Springer-Verlag
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 397 Seiten

This book is, of course about complexity. The title of the book, as you may recognize was motivated (excuse me for using this very mild expression) by Daniel Dennett’s Consciousness Explained [130]. Dennett’s intention was to explain consciousness as the emergent product of the interaction among c- stituents having physical and neural character. The goal of this book is to explain how various types of complexity emerge due to the interaction among constituents. There are many questions to be answered, how to understand, control, decompose, manage, predict the many-faced complexity. After tea- ing thissubjectforseveralyearsIfeelthatthe time hascome toputthe whole story together. The term “complex system” is a buzzword, but we certainly don’t have a single de?nition for it. There are several predominant features of compl- ity. Complex processes may show unpredictable behavior (which we still try to predict somehow), may lead to uncontrolled explosion (such in case of epilepsy, earthquake eruptions or stock market crashes). One of the char- teristic feature of simple systems is, that there is a single cause which implies a single e?ect. For large class of complex systems it is true that e?ects are fed back to modify causes. Biological cells belong to this class. Furthermore they are open to material, energetic and information ?ow by interaction with their environment, still they are organizationallyclosed units. Another aspect of complexity is the question how collective phenomena emerge by some se- organized mechanisms.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Erdi, Peter

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Preface;6
2;Contents;9
3;1 Complex Systems: The Intellectual Landscape;14
3.1;1.1 The Century of Complexity?;14
3.2;1.2 Characteristics of Simple and Complex Systems;18
3.3;1.3 Connecting the Dots;33
4;2 History of Complex Systems Research;37
4.1;2.1 Reductionist Success Stories Versus the Importance of Organization Principles;37
4.2;2.2 Ancestors of present day complex system research;47
5;3 From the Clockwork World View to Irreversibility ( and Back?);68
5.1;3.1 Cyclic Universe Versus Linear Time Concept: the Metaphysical Perspective;68
5.2;3.2 The Newtonian Clockwork Universe;72
5.3;3.3 Mechanics Versus Thermodynamics;86
5.4;3.4 The Birth of the Modern Theory of Dynamical Systems;90
5.5;3.5 Oscillations;92
5.6;3.6 The Chaos Paradigm: Then and Now;98
5.7;3.7 Direction of Evolution;111
5.8;3.8 Cyclic Universe: Revisited. . . and Criticized;116
6;4 The Dynamic World View in Action;119
6.1;4.1 Causality, Teleology and About the Scope and Limits of the Dynamical Paradigm;119
6.2;4.2 Chemical Kinetics: A Prototype of Nonlinear Science;123
6.3;4.3 Systems Biology: The Half Admitted Renaissance of Cybernetics and Systems Theory;140
6.4;4.4 Population Dynamic and Epidemic Models: Biological and Social;150
6.5;4.5 Evolutionary Dynamics;157
6.6;4.6 Dynamic Models of War and Love;158
6.7;4.7 Social Dynamics: Some Examples;164
6.8;4.8 Nonlinear Dynamics in Economics: Some Examples;169
6.9;4.9 Drug Market: Controlling Chaos;172
7;5 The Search for Laws: Deductive Versus Inductive;174
7.1;5.1 Deductive Versus Inductive Arguments;174
7.2;5.2 Principia Mathematica and the Deductive Approach: From Newton to Russell and Whitehead;176
7.3;5.3 Karl Popper and the Problem of Induction;178
7.4;5.4 Cybernetics: Bridge Between Natural and Artificial;178
7.5;5.5 John von Neumann: The Real Pioneer of Complex Systems Studies;179
7.6;5.6 Artificial Intelligence, Herbert Simon and the Bounded Rationality;184
7.7;5.7 Inductive Reasoning and Bounded Rationality: from Herbert Simon to Brian Arthur;187
7.8;5.8 Minority Game;189
7.9;5.9 Summary and "What Next?";191
8;6 Statistical Laws: From Symmetric to Asymmetric;193
8.1;6.1 Normal Distribution;193
8.2;6.2 Bimodal and Multimodal Distributions;198
8.3;6.3 Long Tail Distributions;199
9;7 Simple and Complex Structures: Between Order and Randomness;208
9.1;7.1 Complexity and Randomness;208
9.2;7.2 Structural Complexity;210
9.3;7.3 Noise-Induced Ordering: An Elementary Mathematical Model;224
9.4;7.4 Networks Everywhere: Between Order and Randomness;226
10;8 Complexity of the Brain: Structure, Function and Dynamics;243
10.1;8.1 Introductory Remarks;243
10.2;8.2 Windows on the Brain;244
10.3;8.3 Approaches and Organizational Principles;247
10.4;8.4 Single Cells;253
10.5;8.5 Structure, Dynamics, Function;261
10.6;8.6 Complexity and Cybernetics: Towards a Unified Theory of Brain- Mind and Computer;295
11;9 From Models to Decision Making;310
11.1;9.1 Equation-Based Versus Agent-Based Model;310
11.2;9.2 Game Theory: Where We Are Now?;323
11.3;9.3 Widening the Limits to Predictions: Earthquake, Eruptions Epileptics Seizures, and Stock Market Crashes;333
12;10 How Many Cultures We Have?;357
12.1;10.1 Complexity as a Unifying Concept;357
12.2;10.2 The Ingredients of Complex Systems;361
12.3;10.3 Complexity Explained: In Defense of (Bounded) Rationality;363
13;References;369
14;Index;396