Natural Complexity

Author : Paul Charbonneau
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2017-05-16
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781400885497

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Natural Complexity by Paul Charbonneau Pdf

This book provides a short, hands-on introduction to the science of complexity using simple computational models of natural complex systems—with models and exercises drawn from physics, chemistry, geology, and biology. By working through the models and engaging in additional computational explorations suggested at the end of each chapter, readers very quickly develop an understanding of how complex structures and behaviors can emerge in natural phenomena as diverse as avalanches, forest fires, earthquakes, chemical reactions, animal flocks, and epidemic diseases. Natural Complexity provides the necessary topical background, complete source codes in Python, and detailed explanations for all computational models. Ideal for undergraduates, beginning graduate students, and researchers in the physical and natural sciences, this unique handbook requires no advanced mathematical knowledge or programming skills and is suitable for self-learners with a working knowledge of precalculus and high-school physics. Self-contained and accessible, Natural Complexity enables readers to identify and quantify common underlying structural and dynamical patterns shared by the various systems and phenomena it examines, so that they can form their own answers to the questions of what natural complexity is and how it arises.

Author : M. Mitchell Waldrop
Publisher : Open Road Media
Page : 492 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2019-10-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781504059145

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Complexity by M. Mitchell Waldrop Pdf

“If you liked Chaos, you’ll love Complexity. Waldrop creates the most exciting intellectual adventure story of the year” (The Washington Post). In a rarified world of scientific research, a revolution has been brewing. Its activists are not anarchists, but rather Nobel Laureates in physics and economics and pony-tailed graduates, mathematicians, and computer scientists from all over the world. They have formed an iconoclastic think-tank and their radical idea is to create a new science: complexity. They want to know how a primordial soup of simple molecules managed to turn itself into the first living cell—and what the origin of life some four billion years ago can tell us about the process of technological innovation today. This book is their story—the story of how they have tried to forge what they like to call the science of the twenty-first century. “Lucidly shows physicists, biologists, computer scientists and economists swapping metaphors and reveling in the sense that epochal discoveries are just around the corner . . . [Waldrop] has a special talent for relaying the exhilaration of moments of intellectual insight.” —The New York Times Book Review “Where I enjoyed the book was when it dove into the actual question of complexity, talking about complex systems in economics, biology, genetics, computer modeling, and so on. Snippets of rare beauty here and there almost took your breath away.” —Medium “[Waldrop] provides a good grounding of what may indeed be the first flowering of a new science.” —Publishers Weekly

Author : G. Edward Barton,Robert C. Berwick,Eric Sven Ristad
Publisher : Bradford Books
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 1987
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 0262524058

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Computational Complexity and Natural Language by G. Edward Barton,Robert C. Berwick,Eric Sven Ristad Pdf

A nontechnical introduction to complexity theory: its strengths, its weaknesses, and how it can be used to study grammars.

Author : John Tyler Bonner
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2020-12-08
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691222110

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The Evolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection by John Tyler Bonner Pdf

John Tyler Bonner makes a new attack on an old problem: the question of how progressive increase in the size and complexity of animals and plants has occurred. "How is it," he inquires, "that an egg turns into an elaborate adult? How is it that a bacterium, given many millions of years, could have evolved into an elephant?" The author argues that we can understand this progression in terms of natural selection, but that in order to do so we must consider the role of development--or more precisely the role of life cycles--in evolutionary change. In a lively writing style that will be familiar to readers of his work The Evolution of Culture in Animals (Princeton, 1980), Bonner addresses a general audience interested in biology, as well as specialists in all areas of evolutionary biology. What is novel in the approach used here is the comparison of complexity inside the organism (especially cell differentiation) with the complexity outside (that is, within an ecological community). Matters of size at both these levels are closely related to complexity. The book shows how an understanding of the grand course of evolution can come from combining our knowledge of genetics, development, ecology, and even behavior.

Author : W.J. Savitch,E. Bach,W.E. Marsh,Gila Safran-Naveh
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 462 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9789400934016

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The Formal Complexity of Natural Language by W.J. Savitch,E. Bach,W.E. Marsh,Gila Safran-Naveh Pdf

Ever since Chomsky laid the framework for a mathematically formal theory of syntax, two classes of formal models have held wide appeal. The finite state model offered simplicity. At the opposite extreme numerous very powerful models, most notable transformational grammar, offered generality. As soon as this mathematical framework was laid, devastating arguments were given by Chomsky and others indicating that the finite state model was woefully inadequate for the syntax of natural language. In response, the completely general transformational grammar model was advanced as a suitable vehicle for capturing the description of natural language syntax. While transformational grammar seems likely to be adequate to the task, many researchers have advanced the argument that it is "too adequate. " A now classic result of Peters and Ritchie shows that the model of transformational grammar given in Chomsky's Aspects [IJ is powerful indeed. So powerful as to allow it to describe any recursively enumerable set. In other words it can describe the syntax of any language that is describable by any algorithmic process whatsoever. This situation led many researchers to reasses the claim that natural languages are included in the class of transformational grammar languages. The conclu sion that many reached is that the claim is void of content, since, in their view, it says little more than that natural language syntax is doable algo rithmically and, in the framework of modern linguistics, psychology or neuroscience, that is axiomatic.

Author : Peter Godfrey-Smith
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 1998-09-28
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0521646243

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Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature by Peter Godfrey-Smith Pdf

The book examines the relationship between intelligence and environmental complexity.

Author : Alan L. Selman
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9781461244783

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Complexity Theory Retrospective by Alan L. Selman Pdf

In 1965 Juris Hartmanis and Richard E. Stearns published a paper "On the Computational Complexity of Algorithms". The field of complexity theory takes its name from this seminal paper and many of the major concepts and issues of complexity theory were introduced by Hartmanis in subsequent work. In honor of the contribution of Juris Hartmanis to the field of complexity theory, a special session of invited talks by Richard E. Stearns, Allan Borodin and Paul Young was held at the third annual meeting of the Structure in Complexity conference, and the first three chapters of this book are the final versions of these talks. They recall intellectual and professional trends in Hartmanis' contributions. All but one of the remainder of the chapters in this volume originated as a presentation at one of the recent meetings of the Structure in Complexity Theory Conference and appeared in preliminary form in the conference proceedings. In all, these expositions form an excellent description of much of contemporary complexity theory.

Author : Robert Macintosh,Donald Maclean,Ralph Stacey,Douglas Griffin
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 390 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2013-10-16
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781134527267

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Complexity and Organization by Robert Macintosh,Donald Maclean,Ralph Stacey,Douglas Griffin Pdf

In the past decade, complexity-based thinking has exerted an increasing, yet somewhat controversial authority over management theory and practice. This has in some part been due to the influence of a number of high-profile articles and the not inconsiderable hype which has accompanied them. Another feature of the subject’s development has been the diversity of the origins of the thinking and the claims which have been made for it in terms of managerial and organizational implications. Complexity and Organization is the first text to bring this thinking together, presenting some of the most influential writing in the field, showing how the subject has developed and how it continues to influence managerial thinking. Seminal contributions to the field have been brought together in a single accessible volume, allowing readers to access what might otherwise appear a very diverse body of literature. Moreover, the editors, who represent some of the leading thinkers and writers in this field, have combined these readings with a unique commentary, indicating not only the importance of the papers but teasing out the subtle but significant differences and similarities between them. These commentaries take the form of a discussion between the editors, debating the contribution that each paper has made to the field and the influence it has had on management thinking.

Author : Ralph D. Stacey
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2009-12-18
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781135188672

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Complexity and Organizational Reality by Ralph D. Stacey Pdf

Offers an alternative way of thinking about management that is based on the management experience of uncertainty.

Author : Robert J. Rosen
Publisher : Academic Press
Page : 222 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2013-09-03
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781483272344

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Theoretical Biology and Complexity by Robert J. Rosen Pdf

Theoretical Biology and Complexity: Three Essays on the Natural Philosophy of Complex Systems is made up of three short essays—each separately conceived and written, each with distinct thrusts and emphases, but nevertheless closely related in substance and spirit. All three spring from a common concern: to grasp and comprehend the material basis of living systems. The first essay is about the interaction between particles and the consequent observable manifestations. It casts the analysis of the measurement process into an elegant dualism relating modes of description, and explores the consequences of this dualism for what may be called classical physics. The second essay explores the deeper consequences of representing the properties of natural systems through states built up out of observable quantities, and the dynamics that such systems impose on each other through interactions. The final essay argues that traditional modes of system representation, involving fixed sets of states together with imposed dynamical laws, strictly pertains only to an extremely limited class of systems (called simple systems or mechanisms). Systems not in this class are called “complex, and these can only be in some sense approximated, locally and temporally, by simple ones. Such a radical alteration of viewpoint leads to a large number of concrete, practical consequences, some of which are described in the essay.

Author : Nicholas Rescher
Publisher : Transaction Publishers
Page : 246 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1412820081

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Complexity by Nicholas Rescher Pdf

"This volume explores the nature of complexity and considers its bearing on our world and how we manage our affairs within it." "Rescher's overall lesson is that the management of our affairs within a socially, technologically, and cognitively complex environment is plagued with vast management problems and risks of mishap. Although Rescher offers a sobering outlook, he also believes that complexity entails mixed blessings: our imperfect knowledge provides a rationale for putting forth our best efforts. This volume will be of interest to those interested in philosophy, the philosophy of science, science policy studies, and future studies." --Book Jacket.

Author : Martin A. M. Drenthen,F.W. Jozef Keulartz,James Proctor
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 285 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2009-07-23
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9789048126118

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New Visions of Nature by Martin A. M. Drenthen,F.W. Jozef Keulartz,James Proctor Pdf

"New Visions of Nature" focuses on the emergence of these new visions of complex nature in three domains. The first selection of essays reflects public visions of nature, that is, nature as it is experienced, encountered, and instrumentalized by diverse publics. The second selection zooms in on micro nature and explores the world of contemporary genomics. The final section returns to the macro world and discusses the ethics of place in present-day landscape philosophy and environmental ethics. The contributions to this volume explore perceptual and conceptual boundaries between the human and the natural, or between an ‘out there’ and ‘in here.’ They attempt to specify how nature has been publicly and genomically constructed, known and described through metaphors and re-envisioned in terms of landscape and place. By parsing out and rendering explicit these divergent views, the volume asks for a re-thinking of our relationship with nature.

Author : Ashok Sengupta
Publisher : Springer
Page : 358 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2006-08-29
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9783540317579

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Chaos, Nonlinearity, Complexity by Ashok Sengupta Pdf

This book explores non-extensive statistical mechanics in non-equilibrium thermodynamics, and presents an overview of the strong nonlinearity of chaos and complexity in natural systems, drawing on relevant mathematics from topology, measure-theory, inverse and ill-posed problems, set-valued analysis, and nonlinear functional analysis. It offers a self-contained theory of complexity and complex systems as the steady state of non-equilibrium systems, denoting a homeostatic dynamic equilibrium between stabilizing order and destabilizing disorder.

Author : Nikos A. Salingaros
Publisher : Sustasis Press with Off the Common Books
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2017-06-05
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

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Unified Architectural Theory: Form, Language, Complexity by Nikos A. Salingaros Pdf

Author : Andrei P. Kirilyuk
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 570 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 1997
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9660001169

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Universal Concept of Complexity by the Dynamic Redundance Paradigm by Andrei P. Kirilyuk Pdf