Complexes

New Paper: The Dynamically Extended Mind -- A Minimal Modeling Case Study

2013-05-09T21:12:00.000-05:00

The extended mind hypothesis has stimulated much interest in cognitive science. However, its core claim, i.e. that the process of cognition can extend beyond the brain via the body and into the environment, has been heavily criticized. A prominent critique of this claim holds that when some part of the world is coupled to a cognitive system this does not necessarily entail that the part is also constitutive of that cognitive system. This critique is known as the "coupling-constitution fallacy". In this paper we respond to this reductionist challenge by using an evolutionary robotics approach to create a minimal model of two acoustically coupled agents. We demonstrate how the interaction process as a whole has properties that cannot be reduced to the contributions of the isolated agents. We also show that the neural dynamics of the coupled agents has formal properties that are inherently impossible for those neural networks in isolation. By keeping the complexity of the model to an absolute minimum, we are able to illustrate how the coupling-constitution fallacy is in fact based on an inadequate understanding of the constitutive role of nonlinear interactions in dynamical systems theory.

The Dynamically Extended Mind -- A Minimal Modeling Case Study
Tom Froese, Carlos Gershenson, David A. Rosenblueth
Accepted in Congress on Evolutionary Computation IEEE CEC 2013, Evolutionary Robotics track
http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.1958

New draft: Information Measures of Complexity, Emergence, Self-organization, Homeostasis, and Autopoiesis

2013-04-11T12:46:00.000-05:00

In this chapter review measures of emergence, self-organization, complexity, homeostasis, and autopoiesis based on information theory. These measures are derived from proposed axioms and tested in two case studies: random Boolean networks and an Arctic lake ecosystem.
Emergence is defined as the information produced by a system or process. Self-organization is defined as the opposite of emergence, while complexity is defined as the balance between emergence and self-organization. Homeostasis reflects the stability of a system. Autopoiesis is defined as the ratio between the complexity of a system and the complexity of its environment. The proposed measures can be applied at multiple scales, which can be studied with multi-scale profiles.

Information Measures of Complexity, Emergence, Self-organization, Homeostasis, and Autopoiesis
Nelson Fernandez, Carlos Maldonado, Carlos Gershenson
http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.1842

New Draft: Information and (Human) Computation

2013-04-08T09:50:00.000-05:00

In this chapter, concepts related to information and computation are reviewed in the context of human computation. A brief introduction to information theory and different types of computation is given. Two examples of human computation systems, online social networks and Wikipedia, are used to illustrate how these can be described and compared in terms of information and computation.

Full text at http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.1428

Draft of a chapter to be published in Michelucci, P. (Ed.) Handbook of Human Computation, Springer.

Course on Coursera

2013-02-27T15:51:00.001-06:00

Last week Coursera, the leading MOOC (massive open online course) initiative, announced 29 new partners, including UNAM, which will start the partnership giving three courses in Spanish. I have the privilege to teach one of these, on Scientific Thinking. You can already sign up, course begins on May 6th. In less than a week, almost 2500 students have enrolled.

Improving public transport with a budget

2012-12-05T15:54:00.001-06:00

Large cities benefit from public transport. It is simply more efficient to transport hundreds or thousands of people together (trans, trams, buses) than each of them individually (cars, taxis). However, public transportation systems have to match the passenger demand. If there are relatively too few passengers for the public transport capacity, there will be idling and waste of resources. If there are relatively too many passengers, the system will be saturated and become inefficient. This balance between public transport capacity and demand is very tricky, since many cities change their transportation demands much faster than their public transport infrastructure.

There is also a clear correlation between the cost, building time, and capacity of transportation systems. Trains and metros are high cost, high capacity, making them unsuitable for cities of roughtly less than a million inhabitants. Trams and bus rapid transit (BRT) are intermediate: they have less capacity, but they cost less and can be built in less time. These are not only suitable for medium cities, but for routes with medium demands in megacities. The low cost and low capacity end of the spectrum is filled by buses and minibuses. Compared to the high and medium capacity public transportation systems, low capacity transportation systems tend to be slower and less efficient per passenger. It is not possible to build BRT for all transportation routes in cities, there will be much more low demand routes than those that justify the investment of BRT. Can we have some of the benefits of BRT in low capacity transportation systems?

BRT have been very popular because a line can be built in less than a year. Metro lines can take 3-6 years, costing six times more per kilometer. Certainly, metro lines have a higher passenger capacity and average speed than BRT. But BRT are a good option for routes which do no thave the high demand justifying a metro line (or the city budget does not allow for it, better than nothing?). They accelerate transportation over buses because passengers pay when they enter stations, and can enter all at once through several doors when buses arrive at stations. The cost: building stations and the public space for them, along with dedicated lanes. Buses spend much time simply receiving payments from passengers. In Mexico City, some buses even have a dedicated person (commonly underaged) to collect the fares.

It would be too expensive to have dedicated stations for all transportation routes in cities such as Mexico. However, the time lost collecting fares could be considreably reduced with prepaid cards, as it has been done in several cities (e.g. Hong Kong, Brussels, Boston...). In Mexico City, there is a notable lack of coordination between transportation systems. Recently a "city card" was released to pay for metro and BRT. Soon it should be usable for tram lines. We are just changing mayor, who has announced that the chaotic routes of "microbuses" (now transporting more than half of the population) will gradually be transformed into private companies, with benefits for the drivers and passengers. It will be very important that they also integrate the city card to accelerate payments. This will improve the service, reduce traffic, pollution, equal headway instabilities, and even leave digital trails which can be used for different purposes. One option would be to let them accept cash, at least for some time. Just let them charge more for it, to motivate people to get their cards. It is fair, if you use cash, you are delaying everybody in the bus. You should pay for that.

Book chapter published: Facing complexity: Predition vs. adaptation

2012-11-13T16:24:00.000-06:00

Gershenson, C. (2013). Facing complexity: Predition vs. adaptation. In A. Massip and A. Bastardas (eds), Complexity Perspectives on Language, Communication and Society.

One of the presuppositions of science since the times of Galileo, Newton, Laplace, and Descartes has been the predictability of the world. This idea has strongly influenced scientific and technological models. However, in recent decades, chaos and complexity have shown that not every phenomenon is predictable, even if it is deterministic. If a problem space is predictable, in theory we can find a solution via optimization. Nevertheless, if a problem space is not predictable, or it changes too fast, very probably optimization will offer obsolete solutions. This occurs often when the immediate solution affects the problem itself. An alternative is found in adaptation. An adaptive system will be able to find by itself new solutions for unforeseen situations.

Video: Las implicaciones de las interacciones para la ciencia y la filosofía

2012-11-12T18:58:00.000-06:00

From today's seminar [in Spanish]

Your browser does not support iframes. http://bambuser.com/v/3140519

Based on:

Gershenson, C. (In Press) The Implications of Interactions for Science and Philosophy. Foundations of Science. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10699-012-9305-8

Paper published: Life as Thermodynamic Evidence of Algorithmic Structure in Natural Environments

2012-11-06T11:50:00.000-06:00

In evolutionary biology, attention to the relationship between stochastic organisms and their stochastic environments has leaned towards the adaptability and learning capabilities of the organisms rather than toward the properties of the environment. This article is devoted to the algorithmic aspects of the environment and its interaction with living organisms. We ask whether one may use the fact of the existence of life to establish how far nature is removed from algorithmic randomness. The paper uses a novel approach to behavioral evolutionary questions, using tools drawn from information theory, algorithmic complexity and the thermodynamics of computation to support an intuitive assumption about the near optimal structure of a physical environment that would prove conducive to the evolution and survival of organisms, and sketches the potential of these tools, at present alien to biology, that could be used in the future to address different and deeper questions. We contribute to the discussion of the algorithmic structure of natural environments and provide statistical and computational arguments for the intuitive claim that living systems would not be able to survive in completely unpredictable environments, even if adaptable and equipped with storage and learning capabilities by natural selection (brain memory or DNA).

Zenil, Hector; Gershenson, Carlos; Marshall, James A.R.; Rosenblueth, David A. 2012. "Life as Thermodynamic Evidence of Algorithmic Structure in Natural Environments." Entropy 14, no. 11: 2173-2191.

http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/14/11/2173

Paper Published: The Implications of Interactions for Science and Philosophy

2012-10-31T13:10:00.000-06:00

Reductionism has dominated science and philosophy for centuries. Complexity has recently shown that interactions—which reductionism neglects—are relevant for understanding phenomena. When interactions are considered, reductionism becomes limited in several aspects. In this paper, I argue that interactions imply nonreductionism, non-materialism, non-predictability, non-Platonism, and non-Nihilism. As alternatives to each of these, holism, informism, adaptation, contextuality, and meaningfulness are put forward, respectively. A worldview that includes interactions not only describes better our world, but can help to solve many open scientific, philosophical, and social problems caused by implications of reductionism.

The Implications of Interactions for Science and Philosophy

Carlos Gershenson

FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE

2012, DOI: 10.1007/s10699-012-9305-8

New draft: Living is information processing; from molecules to global systems

2012-10-24T09:32:00.000-05:00

We extend the concept that life is an informational phenomenon, at every level of organisation, from molecules to the global ecological system. According to this thesis: (a) living is information processing, in which memory is maintained by both molecular states and ecological states as well as the more obvious nucleic acid coding; (b) this information processing has one overall function - to perpetuate itself; and (c) the processing method is filtration (cognition) of, and synthesis of, information at lower levels to appear at higher levels in complex systems (emergence). We show how information patterns, are united by the creation of mutual context, generating persistent consequences, to result in `functional information'. This constructive process forms arbitrarily large complexes of information, the combined effects of which include the functions of life. Molecules and simple organisms have already been measured in terms of functional information content; we show how quantification may extended to each level of organisation up to the ecological. In terms of a computer analogy, life is both the data and the program and its biochemical structure is the way the information is embodied. This idea supports the seamless integration of life at all scales with the physical universe.

Living is information processing; from molecules to global systems
Keith D. Farnsworth, John Nelson, Carlos Gershenson
http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.5908

Video: Complexity and Information: Measuring Emergence, Self-organization, Homeostasis, and Autopoiesis at Multiple Scales

2012-10-05T13:06:00.000-05:00

Complexity and Information: Measuring Emergence, Self-organization, Homeostasis, and Autopoiesis at Multiple Scales

Keynote talk at the 5th International Workshop on Guided Self-Organization. University of Sydney, Australia, September 26th, 2012.

youtu.be/Ba0zSNYkWtw?a

Concepts used in the scientific study of complex systems have become so widespread that their use and abuse has led to ambiguity and confusion in their meaning. We use information theory to provide abstract and concise measures of complexity, emergence, self-organization, homeostasis, and autopoiesis. The purpose is to clarify the meaning of these concepts with the aid of the proposed formal measures. In a simplified version of the measures (focusing on the information produced by a system), emergence becomes the opposite of self- organization, while complexity represents their balance. Homeostasis can be seen as a measure of the stability of the system. Autopoiesis can be measured as the ratio between the information produced by the environment over the information produced by a system. We use computational experiments on random Boolean networks and elementary cellular automata to illustrate the measures at multiple scales.

Most of the contents of this talk were recently published in Complexity.

IWSOS 2013 7th International Workshop on Self-Organizing Systems Palma de Mallorca, 9-10th of May, 2013

2012-10-05T12:51:00.000-05:00

IWSOS 2013
7th International Workshop on Self-Organizing Systems
Palma de Mallorca, 9-10th of May, 2013
http://ifisc.uib-csic.es/iwsos2013/

IWSOS 2013 is the seventh International Workshop on Self-Organizing Systems, a multidisciplinary event dedicated to self-organization in networks and networked systems, including techno-social systems.

Self-organization relates the behavior of the individual components (the microscopic level) to the resulting networked structure and functionality of the overall system (the macroscopic level), where simple interactions at the microscopic level may already give rise to complex, adaptive, and robust behavior at the macroscopic level. The growing scale, complexity, and dynamics of (future) networked systems have been driving research from centralized solutions to self-organized networked systems. The applicability of well-known self-organizing techniques to specific networks and networked systems is being investigated, as well as adaptations and novel approaches inspired by cooperation in nature. Models originating from areas like control theory, complex systems research, evolutionary dynamics, sociology and game theory are increasingly applied to complex networks to analyze their behavior, robustness and controlability.

Self-organization principles not only apply to the internet and computer networks but also to a variety of other complex networks, like transportation networks, telephony networks, smart electricity grids, financial networks, social networks, and biological networks. “Network Science” and “Complex Networks theory” constitute new research areas that provide additional insights into self-organizing systems.

IWSOS 2013 will feature the participation of Alessandro Vespignani as confirmed keynote speaker and several invited experts on the field whose names will be published soon. It will also include the presentation of the most select scientific papers among those received in the Call for Papers procedure.

Important dates:

Submission deadline: November 18, 2012
Notification: January 15, 2013
Camera-ready papers due: February 3, 2013
Conference dates: May 9 – 10, 2013

Video: Application of living technology to urban problems

2012-09-23T18:47:00.000-05:00

Earlier this month I gave a seminar back at the VUB, one of my alma maters. Here is a video recording, more details here or below.

Application of living technology to urban problems

Carlos Gershenson (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)

Abstract:

I will present an overview of current and potential applications of living technology to urban problems. Living technology can be described as technology that exhibits the core features of living systems. These features can be useful to solve dynamic problems. In particular, urban problems concerning mobility, logistics, telecommunications, governance, safety, sustainability, and society and culture are presented, while solutions involving living technology are reviewed. A methodology for developing living technology is mentioned, while supraoptimal public transportation systems are used as a case study to illustrate the benefits of urban living technology. Finally, the usefulness of describing cities as living systems is discussed.

Reference:

http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.3659

Slides of the talk:

http://turing.iimas.unam.mx/~cgg/doc/LivCty.pdf

video at http://youtu.be/GGUlchEob3k

Hypocritical denial

2012-08-31T10:18:00.001-05:00

The Mexican federal electoral tribunal rejected the demand for the nulification of the presidential election yesterday. The magistrates say that proofs are not sufficient. I do not know who are they trying to fool. Everybody knows about the irregularities and we received thousands of proofs at Contamos. But also the millions who got material benefits from PRI know it first hand. Where did all the money come from, we don't know, but it is either deviated from public money for electoral purposes, or from organized crime. Which one is worse? Illegal in any case. There is a huge social discontent. Regrettably, it is only fitting for a soap opera president: to become "elected" with such a farse. On your TV sets from December 1st.

Can a butterfly fly with only half her wings?

2012-08-17T17:58:00.000-05:00

Butterflies have four wings. Can they fly with only two?

This question arose this week. My wife and daughter had picked up a butterfly cocoon to see how the butterfly emerged and later free her. But our naughty/lovely cat bit on the cocoon. So when the butterfly came out, her right wings were damaged. She couldn't fly.

Still, to answer the question of this post, if the hind wings are missing, butterflies can fly, their flight is amazingly robust. This is a nice example of how reductionism fails to see the function of systems by ignoring their interactions. You can have two out of four wings, but a butterfly will fly or not, live or die, depending on how the remaining wings interact. Looking only at individual wings will not tell you much about the capabilities of the insect.

TED@SãoPaulo talk on Living Cities

2012-08-15T14:56:00.000-05:00

Last June I had the privilege to participate in a wonderful evening in São Paulo where local TEDx organizers from all over Brazil gathered to attend TED's worldwide talent search.

There were extremely interesting and moving 6 minute talks from a very broad range of themes and topics. I gave a talk on our work on Living Cities and their potential for solving urban problems.

There were almost 300 talks in 14 cities worldwide. 20 of those will be selected to present in TED2013. TED@SãoPaulo was the only event held in Latin America, and I am the only Mexican competing for a place in TED2013.

Please watch, rate, comment, and share my talk before August 31st, to help the organizers decide:
http://talentsearch.ted.com/video/Carlos-Gershenson-Bringing-urba;TEDSao-Paulo

You can find related work at
http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.3659
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0021469
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007292

Paper Published: Self-Organizing System-on-Chip Design

2012-08-02T12:19:00.000-05:00

Self-organization in the context of computing systems refers to a technological approach to deal with the increasing complexity associated with the deployment, maintenance, and evolution of such systems. The terms self-organizing and autonomous are often used interchangeably in relation to systems that use organic principles (self-configuration, self-healing, and so on) in their design and operation. In the specific case of system on chip (SoC) design, organic principles are clearly in the solution path for some of the most important challenges in areas like logic organization, data movement, circuits, and software. In this article, we start by providing a definition of the concept of self-organization as it applies to SoCs, explaining what it means and how it may be applied. We then provide a survey of the various recent papers, journal articles, and books on the subject and close by pointing out possible future directions, challenges and opportunities for self-organizing SoCs.

De La Guardia, R. and Gershenson, C. (2012). Self-organizing sys- tems on chip. Intel Technology Journal, 16(2):182–201.

http://noggin.intel.com/technology-journal/2012/162/exploring-control-and-autonomic-computing

Uncertainty after the presidential elections in Mexico

2012-07-31T13:05:00.001-05:00

Enrique Peña Nieto obtained the majority of votes on July 1st. However, there is huge evidence of electoral crimes committed by his party (paying people for votes, conditioning public services for votes, use of public resources for campaigns, etc.) and an obvious excess of campaign spending limits.

The Electoral Federal Court has to announce a result on the election by September 6th, with a large sector of the population demanding new elections, which would imply an interim president.

New draft: Measuring the Complexity of Ultra-Large-Scale Evolutionary Systems

2012-07-31T12:59:00.002-05:00

Ultra-large scale (ULS) systems are becoming pervasive. They are inherently complex, which makes their design and control a challenge for traditional methods. Here we propose the design and analysis of ULS systems using measures of complexity, emergence, self-organization, and homeostasis based on information theory. We evaluate the proposal with a ULS computing system provided with genetic adaptation mechanisms. We show the evolution of the system with stable and also changing workload, using different fitness functions. When the adaptive plan forces the system to converge to a predefined performance level, the nodes may result in highly unstable configurations, that correspond to a high variance in time of the measured complexity. Conversely, if the adaptive plan is less "aggressive", the system may be more stable, but the optimal performance may not be achieved.

Measuring the Complexity of Ultra-Large-Scale Evolutionary Systems, Michele Amoretti, Carlos Gershenson. Submitted to INFOCOM2013.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.6656

Call for Papers: CASM Special Issue on Multidisciplinary Applications of Complex Networks Modeling, Simulation, Visualization & Analysis

2012-06-09T22:12:00.002-05:00

CALL FOR PAPERS

Complex Adaptive Systems Modeling

Special Issue on Multidisciplinary Applications of Complex

Networks Modeling, Simulation, Visualization & Analysis

Complex Network methods for Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) have a widespread prevalence across literature spanning several disciplines from Biology and Social Sciences to Communication Networks. These network models are primarily developed using interaction data of various components or agents in a CAS. Subsequently analysis of these networks is performed using various network tools. This inaugural special issue of Springer Complex Adaptive Systems Modeling (CASM) comprises of papers in the domain of complex networks modeling, simulation, visualization and analysis.

Deadline for submissions: 1st October 2012

http://www.casmodeling.com/

http://www.casmodeling.com/sites/10349/pdf/H9012_DF_CASM_CFP_Global_A4.pdf

Forgery by political parties in Mexico

2012-06-07T09:58:00.002-05:00

In recent days, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) the presidential candidate from the Mexican left parties gave a jump in the polls (at least those which are not obviously biased). This was mainly because of the self-organized movement "#YoSoy132", initiated by students and now followed by thousands of people in all the country, mainly rejecting the imposition of a candidate by the media (Enrique Peña Nieto, EPN from PRI) and by the circles of power (even expresident Vicente Fox from PAN called to vote for him, obviously causing outrage in his party. The thing is that if AMLO wins, most probably he'll end un in jail).

Seeing the support for AMLO grow, the other two main parties (PRI and PAN) started a similar strategy to that of 2006, discrediting AMLO with a "dirty war". A few days ago each party released a TV spot where they forged in one case a conversation and in another an AMLO speech (video in Spanish here).

What can you expect from political parties practicing forgery to discredit their opponents? Dishonesty at least. And incompetent dishonesty, at that, since the forgery was so obvious, in both cases.

Biased media & social networks in Mexico

2012-05-20T22:38:00.001-05:00

The presidential elections in Mexico next July 1st are heating up the political landscape.

It has always been a tradition that most media support some candidate, in this case Enrique Peña Nieto (EPN) from PRI, who is ahead in their questionable polls. However, the information spreading on social networks is something they still cannot control.

On Friday, May 11th, EPN went to the Universidad Iberoamericana, one of the most recognized private universities in the country, where the students demonstrated their rejection towards him. Of course, none of this was seen in most media, one newspaper even Photoshopping their frontpage picture:

However, with half the students filming every moment with their smartphones, the real deal spread like wildfire on social networks and youtube. One of the claims to EPN was a police operation in the town of Atenco in the outskirts of Mexico City, while EPN was governor of the State of Mexico. State and federal police arrested dozens of people, raped about fifty women, and even killed some of the citizens. Even when EPN justified the spilled blood, there was no legal consequence. [The reason that triggered the Atenco conflict was the plan to build a new airport for Mexico City, paying landowners about $500 USD per acre. The people refused, they were repressed, and even so they kept their lands.]

Yesterday there were "Anti-EPN" demonstrations in several cities, with about 46,000 in Mexico City. In some places people were beaten by EPN followers. Today there were demonstrations in support of Andres Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) in several cities all over the world (London, Washington, Paris, Dubai, Oslo, Brussels, Istambul, etc.) and all over the country. We will see how the media cover these. For yesterday's demonstration, one major newspaper suggested that it was organized by Josefina Vasquez Mota (JVM) supporters, a declaration which has been ridiculized in twitter.

It is clear that Internet and social networks are making it more difficult for the government and the media to manipulate the citizens. However, in Mexico only about one third of people have Internet access, and a large percentage of those are under voting age. Social networks are having an impact which makes the situation different from the last election six years ago. The question is whether this impact will be large enough to spread the news beyond Internet users, in the rural areas, where people on average have less education and are manipulated more easily. I wonder how can we learn from the Arab Spring.

Elections: Mexico 2012

2012-05-12T12:24:00.001-05:00

I've been meaning to start posting about the upcoming presidential elections to be held in Mexico on July 1st. The current government of Felipe Caledrón (who began his presidency in 2006 amidst proofs of fraud) has been characterized by a stagnation of the economy and a war declared against (most of) the drug cartels, leading to at least 60,000 people killed so far. Only in Ciudad Juárez, we had ten times the murder rate than in Baghdad during the recent U.S. occupation. Last year, a complaint was filed at the International Court in The Hague against Felipe Calderón and others, accusing them of crimes against humanity.

The perspective is not positive for Calderón, since he cannot go abroad like other ex-presidents, and most probably his party (PAN) will lose the presidency, given the failures of the two previous presidents: Calderón and Vicente Fox (2000-2006).

The candidates:

Josefina Vázquez Mota "JVM" (PAN), former minister of education and leader of her party's group in the lower congress.
Enrique Peña Nieto "EPN" (PRI, PVEM), former governor of the State of Mexico (2005-2011), and former administrator for his predecessor and uncle Arturo Montiel, who was accused of corruption and illegal enrichment during his term as governor, during which Peña was managing the finances of the state. His party PRI was in power for more than 70 years until 2000. He is also supported by the Green party (PVEM), which is right wing and their main political campaign is about legalizing death penalty and life sentences (senseless in a country where less than 10% of murders are ever punished).
Andres Manuel López Obrador "AMLO" (PRD, PT, MC), former mayor of Mexico City (2000-2005) and alleged winner of the 2006 presidential elections.
Gabriel Quadri de la Torre "GQT" (PANAL). Ecologist by profession, he is supported by the party of the leader of the teacher's union, Elba Esther Gordillo, who was a key player in the 2006 fraud, and has also been accused of corruption and suspected murder.

Polls have been suspiciously manipulated, giving differences of 10%-20% per poll, positioning EPN in first place (39-65%), JVM or AMLO in 2nd (10-33%), and Quadri last (0.5-9%). With such dramatic variances we cannot believe none. In any case, there has been a massive support by the media and the federal electoral institute of EPN, and even so, his popularity has been decreasing constantly in recent months.

Last sunday we had the first presidential debate, better reviewed in The Colbert Report.

Will keep on posting as news unfold, one key difference between this election and previous ones are the massive spread of news by social networks. We get to know things we usually wouldn't get to know via established media, and you will see Twitter treding topics related to Mexico in the coming weeks.

New draft: Complexity and Information: Measuring Emergence, Self-organization, and Homeostasis at Multiple Scales

2012-05-10T09:17:00.000-05:00

Concepts used in the scientific study of complex systems have become so widespread that their use and abuse has led to ambiguity and confusion in their meaning. In this paper we use information theory to provide abstract and concise measures of complexity, emergence, self-organization, and homeostasis. The purpose is to clarify the meaning of these concepts with the aid of the proposed formal measures. In a simplified version of the measures (focussing on the information produced by a system), emergence becomes the opposite of self-organization, while complexity represents their balance. We use computational experiments on random Boolean networks and elementary cellular automata to illustrate our measures at multiple scales.

Gershenson, C. & N. Fernández (2012). Complexity and Information: Measuring Emergence, Self-organization, and Homeostasis at Multiple Scales. C3 Report 2012.03. http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.2026

The Past, Present and Future of Cybernetics and Systems Research

2012-04-12T10:13:00.001-05:00

Summary of "The Past, Present and Future of Cybernetics and Systems Research"
Symposium M at European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research (EMCSR), Vienna, Austria, April 12, 2012.
Organizer: Carlos Gershenson

This guided reflection on the challenges and opportunities of cybernetics and systems research (CSR) included initial interventions by panelists Peter Erdi, Helena Knyazeva, Stefan Thurner, Peter Csermely, and Alexander Lazlo. Afterwards, the floor was opened to interventions from the general public and further interventions by panelists.

Commentaries were made from a broad variety of perspectives, but several general ideas can be distilled from the discussion. CSR have strongly influenced all scientific disciplines. As an example, the term "system" is used commonly in daily language. One of the breakthroughs of CSR lies in the search of commonalities across disciplines. Even when this was achieved to a certain degree, there is still a lack of a common language to communicate successfully, especially between the natural and social sciences.

Currently, the scientific study of complex systems has several commonalities with CSR. It could be argued that complexity has inherited many of the aims of CSR, and they can be distinguished roughly by complexity being dominated more by natural sciences and CSR more by social sciences, although there is a strong overlap. One of the aspects that has propagated complexity has been its ability to contrast its theories and dispose those that do not match observations. This is a challenge for CSR, where theories should also be contrasted with real data. Nevertheless, this is becoming feasible due to the increased accessibility to several sources of information.

It was suggested that CSR researchers should be humble (since our knowledge and cognitive abilities are limited), cautious (not to believe blindly in our models), an open minded (towards other disciplines and approaches). As our future unfolds, CSR has the opportunity to solve big problems of our globalized society. This makes CSR an ambitious endeavor. However, in order to find our limits we have to go beyond them.