complex

Complexity/Chaos Theory = the non-linear dynamics of complex adaptive systems; it is an attempt to explain the dynamical behavior of complex systems by discovering the laws governing such behavior, which can range from the chaotic to the rigidly ordered, with a critical "edge-of-chaos" region in the middle where order and disorder co-exist. At the edge-of-chaos region, complex dynamical systems become adaptive, solve problems and evolve by mutation and selection. Such systems are called Complex Adaptive Systems, or CAS.

The underlying hypotheses of CAS are predicated upon an idealized mathematical model devised and popularized by (among others) Stuart Kauffman of the Santa Fe Institute for Complexity, and Stephen Wolfram, now the CEO of Wolfram Research at the Univ. of Illinois. Kauffman's model is called the Autonomous, Synchronous, discrete, Boolean Network and can be tested rigorously and exhaustively by computer simulation to uncover regularities and patterns which apply to all complex systems. These Boolean Networks are characterized by certain properties and features which make them particularly useful for analyzing the dynamical behavior of real-world complex systems.

Kauffman also asserts that order can arise spontaneously in complex systems, without any selection operating to move the system in one direction or the other. He calls this well-documented phenomenon "order for free" and it occurs without any violation of the 2^nd law of thermodynamics. Complex systems represented by Random (autonomous, synchronous, discrete) Boolean networks with particular properties (low connectivity among the participating elements, and a bias towards a particular logical switching rule, the OR function), show extraordinary spontaneous order.

Kauffman maintains that this spontaneous order is highly susceptible to selective factors in the environments of complex systems, and so the emergence of even more complex systems readily occurs. He hypothesizes with loads of experimental evidence accumulated from both computer simulations with Boolean Networks, and from naturally occurring complex systems such as cellular genomes, that a vast readily available reservoir of spontaneous order not only preceded selection but was a necessary "substrate" for selection. He asserts that the evolution of life was highly probable, and not the extremely improbable event assumed by most.

Scientific American Articles:
Adapting to Complexity. Jan., 1993
Antichaos and Adaptation. Aug., 1991
Self-Organized Criticality. Jan., 1991
Genetic Algorithms. July, 1992
Artificial Intelligence. Jan., 1990 (two opposing articles)
From Complexity to Perplexity. June, 1995
Computing with DNA. Aug., 1998

Kauffman, S.	At Home in the Universe. The Origins of Order. Investigations.
Waldrop, Mitchell M.	Complexity : The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos
Holland, John H.	Hidden Order : How Adaptation Builds Complexity
Coveney,Peter and Roger Highfield	Frontiers of Complexity : The Search for Order in a Chaotic World
Casti, John L.	Complexification : Explaining a Paradoxical World Through the Science of Surprise
Cohen, J., and I. Stewart.	The Collapse of Chaos : Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World
Kelly, K.	Out of Control : The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World
Mitchell, M.	An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms (Complex Adaptive Systems)
Michalewicz, Z.	Genetic Algorithms + Data Structures = Evolution Programs
Wolfram, Stephen	Cellular Automata and Complexity
Wolfram, Stephen	A New Kind of Science
William Roetzheim	Why Things Are: How Complexity Theory answers Life's Toughest Questions
Roger Lewin	Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos

Complexity Theory

Nonlinear Dynamics and Complex Adaptive Systems

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Bibliography for Complexity Theory Class

(Books and Scientific American articles)

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