Complexity

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1. orielJul 2024
   This has been a topic of interest for me for almost a decade so far.

   See also: non-linear dynamics, dynamical systems

   The study of Complexity in the US Sciences is fairly recent, with the notable kickoff of the Santa Fe Institute [1]. They have all the resources there, from classes to scientific conferences.

   A few book recommendations I've picked up over the years:

   - Lewin, Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos [2] (recommended for a gentle introduction with history)

   - Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science [3]

   - Holland, Emergence: From Chaos To Order [4]

   - Holland, Signals and Boundaries: Building Blocks for Complex Adaptive Systems [5]

   - Holland, Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity [6] (unread but part of the series)

   - Miller, Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life [7]

   - Strogatz, Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: With Applications To Physics, Biology, Chemistry, And Engineering [11] (edit: forgot i had this on my desk)

   Also a shoutout to Stephen Wolfram, reading one of his articles [8] about underlying structures while stuck at an airport proved to be a pivotal moment in my life.

   - Wolfram's New Kind of Science, as an exploration of simple rules computed to the point of complex behavior. [9]

   - Wolfram's Physics Project, a later iteration on NKS ideas with some significant and thorough publication of work. [10]

   Links:

   [1] https://www.santafe.edu/

   [2] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226476553

   [3] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143113453

   [4] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738201421

   [5] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262525933

   [6] https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Order-Adaptation-Builds-Comple...

   [7] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691127026

   [8] https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2015/12/what-is-spacetim...

   [9] https://www.wolframscience.com/nks/

   [10] https://wolframphysics.org/

   [11] https://www.amazon.com/Nonlinear-Dynamics-Chaos-Applications...

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2. evrydayhustlingSep 2018
   Those who enjoyed this should check out Roger Lewin's "Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos". It's a bit dated now but covers the founding of the Santa Fe Institute, which was more or less founded to answer an even more fundamental question: what are the varieties of persisting configurations of information that we can describe (ideally, mathematically).

   (Any persisting state of matter we can recognize must also be a state of information... But we can race ahead in discovering data configurations before we identify physical phenomena that embody then!)

   One of the more compelling insights in that book are parallel discoveries by Wolfram and others about ways of categorizing systems into high entropy and low entropy states -- plus a thin membrane of stable configurations in between that admit both constant change and useful summary.

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3. taliesinbJun 2011
   I assume you've read GEB. That wanders all over the map, and is fascinating for it.

   "Complexity" by Roger Lewin is a sort of journalistic take on the early history of the slightly vague field of complexity science. But its fairly interesting.

   "The Computational Beauty of Nature" by Microsoft R&D dude Rob Flake might also be a good candidate.

   "The Jaguar and the Quark" by Gell-Mann, complexity theorist and Feynman nemesis, is enjoyable too.

   A complexity theorist friend of mine also recommended Rudy Rucker's "The Lifebox, The Seashell, and the Soul" to me, but I haven't read it.

   "Darwin Among the Machines" by Freeman Dyson's son (!) is frigging great, but that's now getting off topic.

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4. albertcardonaNov 2007
   Some researchers have implemented in software toy ecosystems which eventually developed viruses and parasites and prey-predator cycles and what not. The very first one, by the way, was implemented in Lisp (cited and commented upon in the book "Complexity" by Roger Lewin.)

   Now doing it with Windows machines adds a sarcastic/sadistic tone to the whole thing.

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