Wolfgang Banzhaf and Lidia Yamamoto
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029438
- eISBN:
- 9780262329460
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029438.001.0001
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
The field of Artificial Life (ALife) is now firmly established in the scientific world, but it has yet to achieve one of its original goals: an understanding of the emergence of life on Earth. The ...
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The field of Artificial Life (ALife) is now firmly established in the scientific world, but it has yet to achieve one of its original goals: an understanding of the emergence of life on Earth. The new field of Artificial Chemistries draws from chemistry, biology, computer science, mathematics, and other disciplines to work toward that goal. For if, as it has been argued, life emerged from primitive, prebiotic forms of self-organization, then studying models of chemical reaction systems could bring ALife closer to understanding the origins of life. In Artificial Chemistries (ACs), the emphasis is on creating new interactions rather than new materials. The results can be found both in the virtual world, in certain multiagent systems, and in the physical world, in new (artificial) reaction systems. This book offers an introduction to the fundamental concepts of ACs, covering both theory and practical applications. After a general overview of the field and its methodology, the book reviews important aspects of biology, including basic mechanisms of evolution; discusses examples of ACs drawn from the literature; considers fundamental questions of how order can emerge, emphasizing the concept of chemical organization (a closed and self-maintaining set of chemicals); and surveys a range of applications, which include computing, systems modeling in biology, and synthetic life. An appendix provides a Python toolkit for implementing ACs.Less
The field of Artificial Life (ALife) is now firmly established in the scientific world, but it has yet to achieve one of its original goals: an understanding of the emergence of life on Earth. The new field of Artificial Chemistries draws from chemistry, biology, computer science, mathematics, and other disciplines to work toward that goal. For if, as it has been argued, life emerged from primitive, prebiotic forms of self-organization, then studying models of chemical reaction systems could bring ALife closer to understanding the origins of life. In Artificial Chemistries (ACs), the emphasis is on creating new interactions rather than new materials. The results can be found both in the virtual world, in certain multiagent systems, and in the physical world, in new (artificial) reaction systems. This book offers an introduction to the fundamental concepts of ACs, covering both theory and practical applications. After a general overview of the field and its methodology, the book reviews important aspects of biology, including basic mechanisms of evolution; discusses examples of ACs drawn from the literature; considers fundamental questions of how order can emerge, emphasizing the concept of chemical organization (a closed and self-maintaining set of chemicals); and surveys a range of applications, which include computing, systems modeling in biology, and synthetic life. An appendix provides a Python toolkit for implementing ACs.
Roger White, Guy Engelen, and Inge Uljee
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029568
- eISBN:
- 9780262331371
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029568.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Cities and regions are highly complex but ordered systems. They are thus best understood by modelling within the framework of the theory of complex, self-organizing systems. This theory suggests that ...
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Cities and regions are highly complex but ordered systems. They are thus best understood by modelling within the framework of the theory of complex, self-organizing systems. This theory suggests that fractal structure is a signature of self-organized systems, and that systems that are far from thermodynamic equilibrium have open futures. These two phenomena have important consequences for the calibration and validation of realistic models, with the open futures phenomenon raising fundamental methodological issues that are addressed in the book. The models themselves are cellular automata (CA) based, because CA are inherently spatial, high resolution, and dynamic. The basic model focuses on land use change, using multiple urban land use classes, with the dynamics driven by linked demographic, economic, and natural system models. Subsequently, a zone-based model of the spatial dynamics of population and economic activity is inserted to constrain the CA model regionally. Ultimately, the dynamics of population and economic activity are modelled together with land use in an activity based variable grid CA which captures spatial interaction effects at all scales, not just local, and permits multiple activities on a single cell. These models show how the complex but ordered urban and regional structure emerges; thus they constitute an advance in urban theory. They also provide a platform that planners can use to investigate the likely effectiveness of proposed plans and policies. Applications to a number of cities and regions are discussed, and applications to Flanders, implemented as part of the official planning process, are described in detail.Less
Cities and regions are highly complex but ordered systems. They are thus best understood by modelling within the framework of the theory of complex, self-organizing systems. This theory suggests that fractal structure is a signature of self-organized systems, and that systems that are far from thermodynamic equilibrium have open futures. These two phenomena have important consequences for the calibration and validation of realistic models, with the open futures phenomenon raising fundamental methodological issues that are addressed in the book. The models themselves are cellular automata (CA) based, because CA are inherently spatial, high resolution, and dynamic. The basic model focuses on land use change, using multiple urban land use classes, with the dynamics driven by linked demographic, economic, and natural system models. Subsequently, a zone-based model of the spatial dynamics of population and economic activity is inserted to constrain the CA model regionally. Ultimately, the dynamics of population and economic activity are modelled together with land use in an activity based variable grid CA which captures spatial interaction effects at all scales, not just local, and permits multiple activities on a single cell. These models show how the complex but ordered urban and regional structure emerges; thus they constitute an advance in urban theory. They also provide a platform that planners can use to investigate the likely effectiveness of proposed plans and policies. Applications to a number of cities and regions are discussed, and applications to Flanders, implemented as part of the official planning process, are described in detail.
John-Christopher Spender
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199669165
- eISBN:
- 9780191749346
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669165.003.0013
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies, Knowledge Management
Max’s PhD re-framed Weber’s (and Needham’s) classic question of why China failed to generate an industrial revolution in a remarkably novel way. His codification-diffusion matrix suggested Western ...
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Max’s PhD re-framed Weber’s (and Needham’s) classic question of why China failed to generate an industrial revolution in a remarkably novel way. His codification-diffusion matrix suggested Western economic institutions were better able to generate, manage, and apply their knowledge assets - the key driver. Notably, Max attacked Williamson’s markets and hierarchy thesis for his failure to consider federation as a third viable mode of institutional knowledge governance. In his second phase Max explored institutional contrasts between China and the West empirically and the codification-diffusion matrix evolved a third epistemological dimension - abstraction - to become the I-Space. In his third phase, drawing again on French thermodynamics and entropy theory, Max probed the I-Space’s self-regulating and self-organizing properties. Thus his thinking eventually returned to the complexity theory approach anticipated in his PhD. Finally these three phases formed the supporting arc of an entirely novel knowledge-based view of organizing.Less
Max’s PhD re-framed Weber’s (and Needham’s) classic question of why China failed to generate an industrial revolution in a remarkably novel way. His codification-diffusion matrix suggested Western economic institutions were better able to generate, manage, and apply their knowledge assets - the key driver. Notably, Max attacked Williamson’s markets and hierarchy thesis for his failure to consider federation as a third viable mode of institutional knowledge governance. In his second phase Max explored institutional contrasts between China and the West empirically and the codification-diffusion matrix evolved a third epistemological dimension - abstraction - to become the I-Space. In his third phase, drawing again on French thermodynamics and entropy theory, Max probed the I-Space’s self-regulating and self-organizing properties. Thus his thinking eventually returned to the complexity theory approach anticipated in his PhD. Finally these three phases formed the supporting arc of an entirely novel knowledge-based view of organizing.
Walter C. Clemens
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813167466
- eISBN:
- 9780813167756
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813167466.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Chapter Ten focuses on fitness – the capacity to cope with complex challenges and opportunities so as to enhance one’s own survival and other interests. Clemens discusses the fitness of North Korea ...
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Chapter Ten focuses on fitness – the capacity to cope with complex challenges and opportunities so as to enhance one’s own survival and other interests. Clemens discusses the fitness of North Korea and South Korea in-depth. By using the UN Human Development Index and Freedom House rankings, Clemens demonstrates how the North’s authoritarian ways has corrupted its fitness, whereas the South’s self-organization and global interdependence has allowed the country to thrive. Clemens ends the chapter by discusses ways in which North Korea could improve its fitness and human development.Less
Chapter Ten focuses on fitness – the capacity to cope with complex challenges and opportunities so as to enhance one’s own survival and other interests. Clemens discusses the fitness of North Korea and South Korea in-depth. By using the UN Human Development Index and Freedom House rankings, Clemens demonstrates how the North’s authoritarian ways has corrupted its fitness, whereas the South’s self-organization and global interdependence has allowed the country to thrive. Clemens ends the chapter by discusses ways in which North Korea could improve its fitness and human development.
Giovanna Colombetti
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019958
- eISBN:
- 9780262318419
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019958.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
In this chapter I draw on the conceptual tools of dynamical systems theory to conceptualize emotional episodes as self-organizing patterns of the entire organism. I first overview how dynamical ...
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In this chapter I draw on the conceptual tools of dynamical systems theory to conceptualize emotional episodes as self-organizing patterns of the entire organism. I first overview how dynamical systems concepts have been used in “dynamical affective science” to model emotions. Although existing proposals apply at very different levels of description, they all characterize the organism as complex, self-organizing, open, and plastic, realizing emotional episodes that are softly assembled, context dependent, and highly variable, yet patterned and recurrent. I then elaborate on the implications of this dynamical conceptualization for the debate on the nature of the emotions discussed in the previous chapter. This dynamical conceptualization notably posits neither internal causes of emotional episodes and of their different aspects, nor a distinction between alleged basic and nonbasic emotions; rather, it treats all emotions as complex organismic patterns subject to both evolutionary and developmental pressures. I conclude with a discussion of how dynamical systems concepts also help characterize the relationship between emotions and moods.Less
In this chapter I draw on the conceptual tools of dynamical systems theory to conceptualize emotional episodes as self-organizing patterns of the entire organism. I first overview how dynamical systems concepts have been used in “dynamical affective science” to model emotions. Although existing proposals apply at very different levels of description, they all characterize the organism as complex, self-organizing, open, and plastic, realizing emotional episodes that are softly assembled, context dependent, and highly variable, yet patterned and recurrent. I then elaborate on the implications of this dynamical conceptualization for the debate on the nature of the emotions discussed in the previous chapter. This dynamical conceptualization notably posits neither internal causes of emotional episodes and of their different aspects, nor a distinction between alleged basic and nonbasic emotions; rather, it treats all emotions as complex organismic patterns subject to both evolutionary and developmental pressures. I conclude with a discussion of how dynamical systems concepts also help characterize the relationship between emotions and moods.
