Introduction to Complexity and Complex Systems PDF Download

Author: Robert B. Northrop
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1439894981
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 551

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Book Description
The boundaries between simple and complicated, and complicated and complex system designations are fuzzy and debatable, even using quantitative measures of complexity. However, if you are a biomedical engineer, a biologist, physiologist, economist, politician, stock market speculator, or politician, you have encountered complex systems. Furthermore, your success depends on your ability to successfully interact with and manage a variety of complex systems. In order not to be blindsided by unexpected results, we need a systematic, comprehensive way of analyzing, modeling, and simulating complex systems to predict non-anticipated outcomes. In its engaging first chapters, the book introduces complex systems, Campbell's Law, and the Law of Unintended Consequences, and mathematics necessary for conversations in complex systems. Subsequent chapters illustrate concepts via commonly studied biological mechanisms. The final chapters focus on higher-level complexity problems, and introduce complexity in economic systems. Designed as a reference for biologists and biological engineers, Introduction to Complexity and Complex Systems lends itself to use in a classroom course to introduce advanced students studying biomedical engineering, biophysics, or physiology to complex systems. Engaging and illustrative, this book aids scientists and decision makers in managing biological complexity and complex systems.

Author: Joe Tranquillo
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030025896
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
This book explores the interdisciplinary field of complex systems theory. By the end of the book, readers will be able to understand terminology that is used in complex systems and how they are related to one another; see the patterns of complex systems in practical examples; map current topics, in a variety of fields, to complexity theory; and be able to read more advanced literature in the field. The book begins with basic systems concepts and moves on to how these simple rules can lead to complex behavior. The author then introduces non-linear systems, followed by pattern formation, and networks and information flow in systems. Later chapters cover the thermodynamics of complex systems, dynamical patterns that arise in networks, and how game theory can serve as a framework for decision making. The text is interspersed with both philosophical and quantitative arguments, and each chapter ends with questions and prompts that help readers make more connections. “The text provides a useful overview of complex systems, with enough detail to allow a reader unfamiliar with the topic to understand the basics. The book stands out for its comprehensiveness and approachability. It will be particularly useful as a text for introductory physics courses. Tranquillo’s strength is in delivering a vast amount of information in a succinct manner.... A reader can find information quickly and efficiently—that is, in my opinion, the book’s greatest value.” (Stefani Crabtree, Physics Today)

Author: James Ladyman
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300251106
Category : Computational complexity
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
A clear, concise introduction to the quickly growing field of complexity science that explains its conceptual and mathematical foundations What is a complex system? Although "complexity science" is used to understand phenomena as diverse as the behavior of honeybees, the economic markets, the human brain, and the climate, there is no agreement about its foundations. In this introduction for students, academics, and general readers, philosopher of science James Ladyman and physicist Karoline Wiesner develop an account of complexity that brings the different concepts and mathematical measures applied to complex systems into a single framework. They introduce the different features of complex systems, discuss different conceptions of complexity, and develop their own account. They explain why complexity science is so important in today's world.

Author: Stefan Thurner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780191861062
Category : Social sciences
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Book Description
Complex systems are everywhere. Ecosystems, financial markets, traffic, the economy, the internet and social media are complex systems. This textbook summarizes our understanding of complex systems and the methodological progress made over the past 20 years in a clear, structured, and comprehensive way.

Author: Scott E. Page
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400835143
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
This book provides an introduction to the role of diversity in complex adaptive systems. A complex system--such as an economy or a tropical ecosystem--consists of interacting adaptive entities that produce dynamic patterns and structures. Diversity plays a different role in a complex system than it does in an equilibrium system, where it often merely produces variation around the mean for performance measures. In complex adaptive systems, diversity makes fundamental contributions to system performance. Scott Page gives a concise primer on how diversity happens, how it is maintained, and how it affects complex systems. He explains how diversity underpins system level robustness, allowing for multiple responses to external shocks and internal adaptations; how it provides the seeds for large events by creating outliers that fuel tipping points; and how it drives novelty and innovation. Page looks at the different kinds of diversity--variations within and across types, and distinct community compositions and interaction structures--and covers the evolution of diversity within complex systems and the factors that determine the amount of maintained diversity within a system. Provides a concise and accessible introduction Shows how diversity underpins robustness and fuels tipping points Covers all types of diversity The essential primer on diversity in complex adaptive systems

Author: John Henry Holland
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199662541
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
In this very short introduction, John Holland presents an introduction to the science of complexity. Using examples from biology and economics, he shows how complexity science models the behaviour of complex systems.

Author: Yaneer Bar-yam
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 0429717598
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 866

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Book Description
This book aims to develop models and modeling techniques that are useful when applied to all complex systems. It adopts both analytic tools and computer simulation. The book is intended for students and researchers with a variety of backgrounds.

Author: Rajesh R. Parwani
Publisher: Simplicity Research Institute
ISBN: 9810939337
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
How do scientists model crowd behaviour, epidemics, earthquakes or the internet? What can we learn from the collective intelligence and adaptability of an ant colony? This book answers such questions by highlighting common themes in the study of complex systems. Topics covered include self-organisation, emergence, agent-based simulations, complex networks, phase plane plots, fractals, chaos, measures of complexity, model building, and the scientific method. Explanations are simple and concise, with common misconceptions clarified. Numerous exercises help enthusiasts consolidate their understanding through peer learning. Supplementary resources are at the companion websites www.simplicitysg.net/books and www.facebook.com/simcomty.

Author: James Ladyman
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300256132
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
A clear, concise introduction to the quickly growing field of complexity science that explains its conceptual and mathematical foundations What is a complex system? Although “complexity science” is used to understand phenomena as diverse as the behavior of honeybees, the economic markets, the human brain, and the climate, there is no agreement about its foundations. In this introduction for students, academics, and general readers, philosopher of science James Ladyman and physicist Karoline Wiesner develop an account of complexity that brings the different concepts and mathematical measures applied to complex systems into a single framework. They introduce the different features of complex systems, discuss different conceptions of complexity, and develop their own account. They explain why complexity science is so important in today’s world.

Author: Melanie Mitchell
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199724571
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
What enables individually simple insects like ants to act with such precision and purpose as a group? How do trillions of neurons produce something as extraordinarily complex as consciousness? In this remarkably clear and companionable book, leading complex systems scientist Melanie Mitchell provides an intimate tour of the sciences of complexity, a broad set of efforts that seek to explain how large-scale complex, organized, and adaptive behavior can emerge from simple interactions among myriad individuals. Based on her work at the Santa Fe Institute and drawing on its interdisciplinary strategies, Mitchell brings clarity to the workings of complexity across a broad range of biological, technological, and social phenomena, seeking out the general principles or laws that apply to all of them. Richly illustrated, Complexity: A Guided Tour--winner of the 2010 Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science--offers a wide-ranging overview of the ideas underlying complex systems science, the current research at the forefront of this field, and the prospects for its contribution to solving some of the most important scientific questions of our time.