Complexity Digest 2007.42

01-Nov-2007

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Content

  1. The Outsourced Brain, NY Times
    1. News: Business Head In The Clouds, Nature
  2. Anterior Prefrontal Function And The Limits Of Human Decision-Making, Science
    1. Social Decision-Making: Insights From Game Theory And Neuroscience, Science
    2. Decision Theory: What "Should" the Nervous System Do?, Science
  3. Social Media as Windows on the Social Life of the Mind, arXiv
  4. Energy Flow And The Organization Of Life, Complexity
    1. Empirical Multiscale Networks of Cellular Regulation, PLoS Comput Biol
  5. Analysis, Modeling, Emergence & Integration In Complex Systems, Complexity
    1. Wolfram's 2,3 Turing Machine Is Universal, Wolfram Research Press Release
  6. Parkinson's: How Deep Brain Stimulation Interferes With Decision-making, ScienceDaily
  7. Using Maths To Tackle Cancer, Nature
    1. Cancer: Mixing Cocktails, Nature
  8. From Wheat To Web: Children Of The Revolution, Nature
  9. Global Change: Tinkering With the Climate to Get Hearing at Harvard Meeting, Science
    1. Time To Ditch Kyoto, Nature
    2. Why Is Climate Sensitivity So Unpredictable?, Science
  10. Crime and Punishment: the Economic Burden of Impunity, arXiv
  11. Evolution: The Sharp End of Altruism, Science
    1. The Coevolution of Parochial Altruism and War, Science
  12. Humans And Monkeys Share Machiavellian Intelligence, Innovations-report
  13. Population Ecology: Group Living And Hungry Lions, Nature
    1. Group Formation Stabilizes Predator-Prey Dynamics, Nature
  14. 'Nervous' Birds Take More Risks, Innovations-report
  15. Revisiting Levy Flight Search Patterns Of Wandering Albatrosses, Bumblebees And Deer, Nature
  16. Secrets Behind Butterfly Wing Patterns Uncovered, ScienceDaily
  17. Digging The Scene: Dinos Burrowed, Built Dens, Science
  18. Plant Biology: Plumbing The Pattern Of Roots, Nature
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. Military Guide to Terrorism: Future Terror Trends (Part Six - Conclusion), The Family Security Foundation, Inc
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Other Announcements

  1. The Outsourced Brain, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: I realized I could outsource those mental tasks I didn't want to perform. Life is a math problem, and I had a calculator.

    Until that moment, I had thought that the magic of the information age was that it allowed us to know more, but then I realized the magic of the information age is that it allows us to know less. It provides us with external cognitive servants ¡X silicon memory systems, collaborative online filters, consumer preference algorithms and networked knowledge. We can burden these servants and liberate ourselves.

    1. News: Business Head In The Clouds, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: 'Cloud computing' is being pitched as a new nirvana for scientists drowning in data. But can it deliver?

      Dennis Gannon, a computer scientist at Indiana University in Bloomington, knows all about bringing huge amounts of computer power to bear on complex scientific problems. He has at his disposal, for the purpose, Big Red, one of the world's largest supercomputers, right there on the campus.

  2. Anterior Prefrontal Function And The Limits Of Human Decision-Making, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The frontopolar cortex (FPC), the most anterior part of the frontal lobes, forms the apex of the executive system underlying decision-making. Here, we review empirical evidence showing that the FPC function enables contingent interposition of two concurrent behavioral plans or mental tasks according to respective reward expectations, overcoming the serial constraint that bears upon the control of task execution in the prefrontal cortex. This function is mechanistically explained by interactions between FPC and neighboring prefrontal regions.

    1. Social Decision-Making: Insights From Game Theory And Neuroscience, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: By combining the models and tasks of Game Theory with modern psychological and neuroscientific methods, the neuroeconomic approach to the study of social decision-making has the potential to extend our knowledge of brain mechanisms involved in social decisions and to advance theoretical models of how we make decisions in a rich, interactive environment. Research has already begun to illustrate how social exchange can act directly on the brain's reward system, how affective factors play an important role in bargaining and competitive games, and how the ability to assess another's intentions is related to strategic play.

    2. Decision Theory: What "Should" the Nervous System Do?, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The purpose of our nervous system is to allow us to successfully interact with our environment. This normative idea is formalized by decision theory that defines which choices would be most beneficial. We live in an uncertain world, and each decision may have many possible outcomes; choosing the best decision is thus complicated. Bayesian decision theory formalizes these problems in the presence of uncertainty and often provides compact models that predict observed behavior. With its elegant formalization of the problems faced by the nervous system, it promises to become a major inspiration for studies in neuroscience.

  3. Social Media as Windows on the Social Life of the Mind, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: This is a programmatic paper, marking out two directions in which the study of social media can contribute to broader problems of social science: understanding cultural evolution and understanding collective cognition. Under the first heading, I discuss some difficulties with the usual, adaptationist explanations of cultural phenomena, alternative explanations involving network diffusion effects, and some ways these could be tested using social-media data. Under the second I describe some of the ways in which social media could be used to study how the social organization of an epistemic community supports its collective cognitive performance.

  4. Energy Flow And The Organization Of Life, Complexity Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Understanding the emergence and robustness of life requires accounting for both chemical specificity and statistical generality. We argue that the reverse of a common observation - that life requires a source of free energy to persist - provides an appropriate principle to understand the emergence, organization, and persistence of life on earth. Life, and in particular core biochemistry, has many properties of a relaxation channel that was driven into existence by free energy stresses from the earth's geochemistry. Like lightning or convective storms, the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus fluxes through core anabolic pathways make sense as the order parameters in a phase transition (...).
    • Source: Energy Flow And The Organization Of Life, H. Morowitz, E. Smith - desmithasantafe.edu, DOI: 10.1002/cplx.20191, Complexity, Sep.-Oct. 2007, Online 2007/10/08
    • Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinayahoo.co.in

    1. Empirical Multiscale Networks of Cellular Regulation, PLoS Comput Biol Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: In a eukaryotic organism such as the mouse, the complete transcriptional network contains ~ 15,000 genes and up to 225 million regulatory relationships between pairs of genes. Determining all of these relationships is currently intractable using traditional experimental techniques, and, thus, a comprehensive description of the entire mouse transcriptional network is elusive. Alternatively, one can apply the limited amount of experimental data to determine the entire transcriptional network at a less detailed, higher level. This is analogous to considering a map of the world resolved to the kilometer rather than to the millimeter.

  5. Analysis, Modeling, Emergence & Integration In Complex Systems, Complexity Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Analysis and Modeling is the first phase of understanding or developing a system. It is also, maybe more importantly, the foundation of understanding a natural science or system. It's abstract and conceptually difficult but, being foundational, (...). Complex Systems have a natural hierarchy of levels and multiple subsystems. The character and functionality of each level or subsystem emerges across its boundaries. (...) Integrated interdisciplinary collaboration is essential for making sense of complex systems; but collaboration among disciplines is difficult, because of their different ways of thinking. This creates a dilemma, understanding complex systems is one horn; integrated interdisciplinary collaboration is the other. (...)

    1. Wolfram's 2,3 Turing Machine Is Universal, Wolfram Research Press Release Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Wolfram Research and Stephen Wolfram today announced that 20-year-old Alex Smith of Birmingham, UK has won the US $25,000 Wolfram 2,3 Turing Machine Research Prize. (...) This result ends a half-century quest to find the simplest universal Turing machine.
      It demonstrates that a remarkably simple system can perform any computation that can be done by any computer.

  6. Parkinson's: How Deep Brain Stimulation Interferes With Decision-making, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: For those who suffer with the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's disease, Deep Brain Stimulation offers relief from the tremors and rigidity that can't be controlled by medicine. (...) DBS implants affect the region of the brain called the subthalamic nucleus (...). "This particular area of the brain is needed for what's called a 'hold-your-horses' signal," Frank said. "When you're making a difficult choice, with a conflict between two or more options, an adaptive response for your system to do is to say 'Hold on for a second. I need to take a little more time to figure out which is the best option.'" (...)

  7. Using Maths To Tackle Cancer, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Book Reviewed-Dynamics of Cancer: Incidence, Inheritance, and Evolution by Steven A. Frank, Princeton University Press: 2007. 400 pp.

    The reason for our long and generally cancer-free lives is a series of anticancer defence mechanisms that have co-evolved with our increasing complexity. Most of these defences are wired into the intracellular signalling circuits that govern cell behaviour, although the organization of our tissues and immune systems contributes too. At least five or six of these mechanisms must be breached before a full-blown tumour appears.

    1. Cancer: Mixing Cocktails, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A major hurdle in treating cancer is that tumour cells acquire drug resistance. To overcome this problem, one strategy might be to fine-tune the right mixture of drugs that target specific molecules.

      Certain cancers are caused by oncogenic primary or 'driver' mutations in specific kinases - enzymes that regulate the activity of other proteins. Consequently, kinase inhibitors have been used in the clinic as effective single-agent drugs to shrink tumours. Kinase 'addiction' persists in advanced cancer, and patients who relapse after initially responding to kinase-inhibitor therapy often develop secondary mutations in the target kinase that confer drug resistance without impairing the kinase's oncogenicity.

  8. From Wheat To Web: Children Of The Revolution, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: M. S. Swaminathan transformed agriculture in India in the 1960s. Now Daemon Fairless finds him at the heart of another high-tech scheme to help the rural poor. (...)

    Swaminathan's belief is that information and communications technologies (ICTs), if properly implemented, will help bridge India's growing urban-rural divide and forge better links between researchers and rural poor people.

  9. Global Change: Tinkering With the Climate to Get Hearing at Harvard Meeting, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Should scientists and engineers seriously consider large-scale alterations of the climate to stave off the worst effects of global warming? Several dozen top U.S. climate scientists will explore that controversial question next month in a 2-day invitation-only workshop at Harvard University designed to explore whether direct interventions might be needed to supplement efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

    1. Time To Ditch Kyoto, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The Kyoto Protocol is a symbolically important expression of governments' concern about climate change. But as an instrument for achieving emissions reductions, it has failed. It has produced no demonstrable reductions in emissions or even in anticipated emissions growth. And it pays no more than token attention to the needs of societies to adapt to existing climate change. The impending United Nations Climate Change Conference being held in Bali in December - to decide international policy after 2012 - needs to radically rethink climate policy.

      Kyoto's supporters often blame non-signatory governments, especially the United States and Australia, for its woes. But the Kyoto Protocol was always the wrong tool for the nature of the job.

      • Source: Time To Ditch Kyoto, Gwyn Prins, Steve Rayner, DOI: 10.1038/449973a, Nature 449, 973-975, 07/10/25

    2. Why Is Climate Sensitivity So Unpredictable?, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Uncertainties in projections of future climate change have not lessened substantially in past decades. Both models and observations yield broad probability distributions for long-term increases in global mean temperature expected from the doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide, with small but finite probabilities of very large increases. We show that the shape of these probability distributions is an inevitable and general consequence of the nature of the climate system, and we derive a simple analytic form for the shape that fits recent published distributions very well.

  10. Crime and Punishment: the Economic Burden of Impunity, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Crime is an economically important activity, sometimes called the industry of crime. It may represent a mechanism of wealth distribution but also a social and economic charge because of the cost of the law enforcement system. Sometimes it may be less costly for the society to allow for some level of criminality. A drawback of such policy may lead to a high increase of criminal activity that may become hard to reduce. We investigate the level of law enforcement required to keep crime within acceptable limits and show that a sharp phase transition is observed as a function of the probability of punishment. We also analyze the growth of the economy, the inequality in the wealth distribution (the Gini coefficient) and other relevant quantities under different scenarios of criminal activity and probability of apprehension.

  11. Evolution: The Sharp End of Altruism, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Which would you prefer: a society of selfish but tolerant freetraders, or a warrior society in which people help one another but are hostile to outsiders? If you value both altruism and tolerance, neither seems ideal. Societies of tolerant altruists, however, are exceedingly rare in the simulation presented by Choi and Bowles on page 636 of this issue (1). Instead, altruism flourishes only in the company of outgroup hostility (parochialism), with war as both the engine of this coevolutionary process and its legacy. For a compatriot, the parochial altruist who risks his life is a shining knight, whereas the outsider encounters the sharp end of this altruism.

    1. The Coevolution of Parochial Altruism and War, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Altruism - benefiting fellow group members at a cost to oneself - and parochialism - hostility toward individuals not of one's own ethnic, racial, or other group - are common human behaviors. The intersection of the two - which we term "parochial altruism" - is puzzling from an evolutionary perspective because altruistic or parochial behavior reduces one's payoffs by comparison to what one would gain by eschewing these behaviors. But parochial altruism could have evolved if parochialism promoted intergroup hostilities and the combination of altruism and parochialism contributed to success in these conflicts.

  12. Humans And Monkeys Share Machiavellian Intelligence, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: When it comes to their social behavior, people sometimes act like monkeys, or more specifically, like rhesus macaques, a type of monkey that shares with humans strong tendencies for nepotism and political maneuvering, (...). "After humans, rhesus macaques are one of the most successful primate species on our planet; our Machiavellian intelligence may be one of the reasons for our success" wrote (...). Rhesus macaques live in complex societies with strong dominance hierarchies and long-lasting social bonds between female relatives. Individuals constantly compete for high social status and the power that comes with it using ruthless aggression, nepotism, and complex political alliances. (...)

  13. Population Ecology: Group Living And Hungry Lions, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Ecologists have necessarily had to simplify matters in looking at predator-prey dynamics. Study of a situation in which predator and prey live in groups reveals that a key process was previously overlooked. (...)

    Fryxell et al. examine how group living in prey, in predators and in both kinds of species influences the shape of the functional response and the interaction between predator and prey populations. They show theoretically that gregarious living in either the prey or the predator species reduces the rate of prey consumption by each predator.

    1. Group Formation Stabilizes Predator-Prey Dynamics, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Theoretical ecology is largely founded on the principle of mass action, in which uncoordinated populations of predators and prey move in a random and well-mixed fashion across a featureless landscape. The conceptual core of this body of theory is the functional response, predicting the rate of prey consumption by individual predators as a function of predator and/or prey densities. This assumption is seriously violated in many ecosystems in which predators and/or prey form social groups. Here we develop a new set of group-dependent functional responses to consider the ecological implications of sociality and apply the model to the Serengeti ecosystem.

  14. 'Nervous' Birds Take More Risks, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Scientists have shown that birds with higher stress levels adopt bolder behaviour than their normally more relaxed peers in stressful situations. (...) studied zebra finches, which had been selectively bred to produce three distinct types - 'laid-back', 'normal' and 'stressed' - based on their levels of stress hormone. The group was surprised to find that the 'stressed' birds were bolder and took more risks in a new environment than the group that was usually more laid-back. (...) Like other animals including humans, birds respond to stress, created by the appearance of a predator or a change in their environment for example, by producing a hormone. (...)

  15. Revisiting Levy Flight Search Patterns Of Wandering Albatrosses, Bumblebees And Deer, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The study of animal foraging behaviour is of practical ecological importance1, and exemplifies the wider scientific problem of optimizing search strategies. Levy flights are random walks, the step lengths of which come from probability distributions with heavy power-law tails, such that clusters of short steps are connected by rare long steps. Levy flights display fractal properties, have no typical scale, and occur in physical, and chemical systems. An attempt to demonstrate their existence in a natural biological system presented evidence that wandering albatrosses perform Levy flights when searching for prey on the ocean surface.

  16. Secrets Behind Butterfly Wing Patterns Uncovered, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The genes that make a fruit fly's eyes red also produce red wing patterns in the Heliconius butterfly found in South and Central America, finds a new study (...) discovered that genes involved in making insect eye pigments evolved over time to also make wing pigments in butterflies. This finding sheds light on the genetic causes of wing patterns and why, in the Heliconius, those patterns can vary widely from region to region. "We found that evolution is achieved primarily through recycling old genes into new functions, as opposed to evolving entirely new genes from scratch," Reed said. (...)

  17. Digging The Scene: Dinos Burrowed, Built Dens, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    PROFILE OF A MUCKRAKER. An S-shaped mass of sandstone that contains the fossils of three dinosaurs (arrows, above) is hardened sediment that filled the burrow of Oryctodromeus cubicularis (below), a newly described dinosaur. L. Hall/Montana State Univ.
    Paleontologists have unearthed an ancient, sediment-filled burrow that holds remains of the creatures that dug it. The find is the first indisputable evidence that some dinosaurs maintained an underground lifestyle for at least part of their lives. (...)

    Further excavation revealed that the sandstone mass was S-shaped and about 2.1 meters long. For most of its length, the sinuous feature had an oval cross section about 30 centimeters wide and about 40 cm tall. However, at its lower end - where the dinosaur bones were found - it broadened to a width of 45 cm.

  18. Plant Biology: Plumbing The Pattern Of Roots, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The results of a powerful combination of computer modelling and experimental tests can account for the establishment of gradients of the plant molecule auxin and for major patterning elements in the plant root.

    Morphogens are molecules that govern pattern formation in organisms. They are perhaps best known through the textbook models of morphogen action that can generate a pattern as simple as the tripartite French flag or as complex as a segmented fruitfly embryo.

  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Military Guide to Terrorism: Future Terror Trends (Part Six - Conclusion), The Family Security Foundation, Inc Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The Report of the Future of Terrorism Task Force, published in January 2007, assesses future threats to the United States for the next five years. The lead finding of the report states, "There is every indication that the number and magnitude of attacks on the United States, its interest and its allies will likely increase." Predicting the nature, timing, or location of the next attack is beyond the scope of this report, however, the task force spotlights, "The most significant terrorist threat to the homeland today stems from a global movement, underpinned by a Jihadist/Salafist ideology."

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. The Impact of Agricultural Soil Erosion on the Global Carbon Cycle, K. Van Oost, T. A. Quine, G. Govers, S. De Gryze, J. Six, J. W. Harden, J. C. Ritchie, G. W. McCarty, G. Heckrath, C. Kosmas, J. V. Giraldez, J. R. Marques da Silva, R. Merckx, 07/10/26, Science : 626-629. A survey of agricultural soil erosion across the United States and Europe implies that such erosion provides at most a small sink for CO2 and thus cannot offset emissions.
      2. Why Nonlinear Biomedical Physics?, Z. Czernicki, W. Klonowski, L. Liebovitch, 2007, 1:3, online 2007/07/05, Nonlinear Biomedical Physics, DOI: 10.1186/1753-4631-1-3
      3. On a New Type of Information Processing for Efficient Management of Complex Systems, Victor Korotkikh and Galina Korotkikh, 2007/10/22, arXiv, DOI: 0710.3961
      4. Sexual Reproduction from the Male (Men) Point of View, D. Stauffer and S. Cebrat, 2007/10/22, arXiv, DOI: 0710.3988
      5. Scents And Scents-Ability: Pollution Disrupts Chemical Social Recognition And Shoaling In Fish, A. J. W. Ward, A. J. Duff, J. S. Horsfall, S. Currie, 2007/10/23, Proceedings B: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1283
      6. Modelling Interactions In Fungi, R. E. Falconer, J. L. Bown, N. A. White, J. W. Crawford, 2007/10/23, Interface, DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2007.1210
      7. Hearing 'Messages' Embedded In Noise Could Be Early Sign Of Schizophrenia, 2007/10/25, ScienceDaily
      8. How The Brain Generates The Human Tendency For Optimism, 2007/10/25, ScienceDaily
      9. Ten Simple Rules for Doing Your Best Research, According to Hamming, Thomas C. Erren, Paul Cullen, Michael Erren, Philip E. Bourne, 2007/10/26, PLoS Comput Biol 3(10): e213, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030213
      10. 'Where Do I Know You From?' Recognition Shows Distinct Memory Processes, 2007/10/26, ScienceDaily
      11. Made In China: From World Sweatshop To A Global Manufacturing Center?, Y.-W. Sung - ywsungacuhk.edu.hk, Fall 2007, Online 2007/10/09, Asian Economic Papers, DOI: 10.1162/asep.2007.6.3.43
      12. Climate Change As The 'New' Security Threat: Implications For Africa, O. Brown, A. Hammill, R. Mcleman, Nov. 2007, online 2007/10/22, International Affairs, DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2007.00678.x
      13. Warlordism And Terrorism: How To Obscure An Already Confusing Crisis? The Case Of Somalia, R. Marchal, Nov. 2007, online 2007/10/22, International Affairs, DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2007.00675.x
      14. Life, Information, Entropy, And Time: Vehicles For Semantic Inheritance, A. R. Crofts - a-croftsalife.uiuc.edu, Sep.-Oct. 2007, Online 2007/10/08, Complexity, DOI: 10.1002/cplx.20180

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Reseau Nationale des Systemes Complexes , (in French), 2007
      2. World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 07/01/24-28
      3. TED Talks, TED Conferences LLC , since 2006
      4. Talking Robots: The PodCast on Robotics and AI, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, 06/11/03
      5. Potentials of Complexity Science for Business, Governments, and the Media 2006, Budapest, Hungary, 06/08/03-05
      6. 6th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 06/06/25-30
      7. Artificial Life X, 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, Bloomington, IN, USA. 2006/06/03-07
      8. 6th Understanding Complex Systems Symposium, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 06/05/15-18
      9. Ralph Abraham on Complexity Digest, , Calcutta, India, 05/12/27
      10. An Afternoon with Michael Crichton, Washington, 05/11/06
      11. Illuminating the Shadow of the Future, Ann Arbor, Mi 05/09/23-25
      12. Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems - Brainstorming Meeting, Paris, France 05/09/19-23
      13. Complexity, Science & Society Conference 2005, U. Liverpool, UK 2005/09/11-14
      14. ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK 2005/09/5-9
      15. T. Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder, The Washington Center for Complexity & Public Policy, 05/08/27, QuickTime video (10:38 min), Podcast
      16. North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity 2005 Conference, Virtual Conference Network, St. Pete's Beach, Florida, 05/06/09-11
      17. Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network, Urbana-Champaign, Il, UIUC, 05/05/16-19
      18. Nonlinearity, Fluctuations, and Complexity, with a celebration of the 65th birthday of Gregoire Nicolis. , Complexity Session, Universite' Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, 05/03/16
      19. 1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7
      20. From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
      21. Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
      22. International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
      23. Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
      24. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      25. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
      26. Edge Videos

    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Intl Conf on Complex Systems 2007, Boston, MA, USA, 07/10/28-11/02
      2. The Huntsville Simulation Conference 2007, Huntsville, Alabama, 07/10/30-11/01
      3. 2007 IEEE/WIC/ACM Intl Joint Conf on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology (WI-IAT'07), Silicon Valley, USA, 07/11/02-05
      4. Theory In Cognitive Neuroscience, Wildbad Kreuth (Bavaria), Germany, 07/11/04-07
      5. 7th Intl Conf on Epigenetic Robotics: Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems , Piscataway, NJ, 07/11/05-07
      6. KSS 2007 - 8th Intl Symposium on Knowledge and Systems Sciences, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan, 07/11/05-07
      7. NetLogo Workshop at Agent 2007 Conference, Evanston, IL, USA, 07/11/12-14
      8. Australia New Zealand Systems Conference 2007 "Systemic development: Local solutions in a global environment", Auckland, New Zealand, 07/12/02-05
      9. Expanding Secondary Use of Health Data: An NSF Biomedical Informatics Workshop, Corbett, Oregon, 07/12/04-05
      10. The 3rd Indian Intl Conf on Artificial Intelligence (IICAI-07), Pune, INDIA, 07/12/17-19
      11. The 1st Conf on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-08), Memphis, Tennessee, USA, 08/03/01-03
      12. The 3rd International Nonlinear Sciences Conference (INSC), Tokyo, Japan, 08/03/13-15
      13. 19th European Meeting On Cybernetics And Systems Research, (EMCSR 2008), Vienna, Austria, 08/03/25-28
      14. 2nd KES Intl Symp on Agent and Multi-Agent Systems : Technologies and Applications, Incheon, Korea, 08/03/26-28
      15. 1st Intl Conf on Social Entrepreneurship & Complexity, Garden City, NY, USA, 08/04/10-12
      16. The 12th World Multi-Conf on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics: WMSCI 2008, Orlando, Florida, USA, 08/06/29-07/02
      17. From Animals To Animats 10 - The 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'08), Osaka, Japan, 08/07/07-12
      18. Stochastic Resonance 2008, Perugia, Italy, 08/08/17-21

    4. Other Announcements Bookmark and Share

      1. " Wolfram Research is Now the Official Math Brain Trust for the Hit CBS Series NUMB3RS. 07/10/05
      2. A short notice from Dean LeBaron

        Dear ComDig Readers,

        Our editor, Dr. Gottfried Mayer, is affectionately esteemed by many of you -- as readers, you know he devotes himself unselfishly to widening our knowledge of complexity science. He was recently diagnosed with advanced colon cancer and given a timetable of a very few years. Knowing Gottfried, you can imagine that, in addition to the customary processes of chemotherapy, he would explore other frontier therapies, especially those arising out of interdisciplinary applications of complexity. These are expensive ... if he can find them.

        Many of you have sent your good wishes and indicated your desire to assist. With Gottfried's permission, I am posting this note with information, below, about how to send contributions to him. Please indicate the source since Gottfried will want to express his warm gratitude.

        I know that Gottfried, the good scientist that he is, will explain from time to time what he is doing and what the results are ... and we will follow his progress with great interest and hope.

        Dean LeBaron
        Publisher, Complexity Digest

        Bank Information:

        If your contribution is made by check:
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      3. Intl Master of Science in Methods For Management Of Complex Systems - Academic Year 2007-2008, Institute for Advanced Study, Pavia, Italy, 08/01/01
      4. News notes on Agent-based Computational Economics (ACE) for July 2007 are now available on-line, 07/08/04
      5. National Humanities Center Launches Humanities/Sciences Website, 07/04, As part of its ongoing "Autonomy, Singularity, Creativity: The Human & The Humanities" project (ASC), the National Humanities Center makes public a new website for the initiative which significantly expands the potential pool of humanists and scientists engaged in the exploration and examination of topics surrounding the question of human being.

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