Complexity Digest 2012.06

2012/03/16

Editor-in-Chief: Carlos Gershenson
Founding Editor: Gottfried Mayer

Dear Readers,
With the purposes of encouraging the contributions from the complexity community, accelerating the information spread, and modernizing our system, we are strongly considering migrating ComDig to www.scoop.it/u/complexity-digest
Please visit the site, follow/subscribe, suggest items, and send comments/suggestions to editor@comdig.unam.mx

For individual e-mail subscriptions go to Subscriptions.
Previous issue 2012.05

Content

  1. Navigating the Anthropocene: Improving Earth System Governance, Science
  2. From Local to Global Dilemmas in Social Networks, PLoS ONE
  3. Universal Theory on Growth and Mixing, PNAS
  4. Using Protein Interaction Networks to Understand Complex Diseases, Computer
  5. Jennifer Pahlka: Coding a better government, TED.com
    1. Jonathan Haidt: Religion, evolution, and the ecstasy of self-transcendence, TED.com
    2. Our Place in the Cosmos, Google Tech Talks
    3. Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work, TED.com
  6. The Future of Complexity Engineering, Central European Journal of Engineering
  7. Learning, Social Intelligence and the Turing Test - why an "out-of-the-box" Turing Machine will not pass the Turing Test, arXiv
  8. Experimental verification of Landauer’s principle linking information and thermodynamics, Nature
  9. The Logic of Fashion Cycles, PLoS ONE
    1. Adaptive strategies for cumulative cultural learning, Journal of Theoretical Biology
  10. Self-Organization at the Nanoscale Scale in Far-From-Equilibrium Surface Reactions and Copolymerizations, arXiv
  11. Complexity science and theory development for the futures field, Futures
  12. Entropy and equilibrium state of free market models, Eur. Phys. J. B
  13. Removing spurious interactions in complex networks, Phys. Rev. E
  14. Exploring complex networks by means of adaptive walkers, arXiv
  15. Identifying influential spreaders and efficiently estimating the number of infections in epidemic models: a path counting approach, arXiv
  16. The role of strong and weak ties in Facebook: a community structure perspective, arXiv
  17. Evolutionary game dynamics in populations with different learners, Journal of Theoretical Biology
  18. Win-Stay-Lose-Learn Promotes Cooperation in the Spatial Prisoner's Dilemma Game, PLoS ONE
  19. Book Announcements
    1. Noisy Information and Computational Complexity, Cambridge University Press
    2. Complexity, Analysis and Control of Singular Biological Systems, Springer
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Event Announcements
    3. Video Announcements
    4. Other Announcements

  1. Navigating the Anthropocene: Improving Earth System Governance, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Science assessments indicate that human activities are moving several of Earth's sub-systems outside the range of natural variability typical for the previous 500,000 years. Human societies must now change course and steer away from critical tipping points in the Earth system that might lead to rapid and irreversible change. This requires fundamental reorientation and restructuring of national and international institutions toward more effective Earth system governance and planetary stewardship.

  2. From Local to Global Dilemmas in Social Networks, PLoS ONE Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Social networks affect in such a fundamental way the dynamics of the population they support that the global, population-wide behavior that one observes often bears no relation to the individual processes it stems from. Up to now, linking the global networked dynamics to such individual mechanisms has remained elusive.

  3. Universal Theory on Growth and Mixing, PNAS Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Summary: What do humpback whales returning to calve in the waters of Maui have to do with the ground state energy of a quantum system? Both exhibit a mathematical property called the "reduction phenomenon", which can be described very simply: mixing reduces growth, and differential growth selects for reduced mixing. The phenomenon underlies the Reduction Principle for the evolution of recombination, mutation, and dispersal rates, as well as recent results in reaction-diffusion models of dispersal. Animals returning to their birth places to give birth exemplify operation of the Reduction Principle through philopatry. In molecular genetics it is manifest as error-free DNA repair. In cultural evolution models it is manifest as traditionalism. Yet, departures from reduction are abundant, such as recombination and dispersal. How can sense be made of the complexity of outcomes? Two new papers describes mathematical results that extend the reduction phenomenon to infinite dimensional operators, and investigate departures from reduction which follow the "Principle of Partial Control". A new population statistic, the "fitness-abundance covariance", links ecological properties to the reduction phenomenon.
    See Also: The Evolution of Dispersal in Random Environments and The Principle of Partial Control, Lee Altenberg DOI: 10.1890/11-1136.1

  4. Using Protein Interaction Networks to Understand Complex Diseases, Computer Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Recent developments in biotechnology have enabled interrogation of the cell at various levels, leading to many types of "omic" data that provide valuable information on multiple genetic and environmental factors and their interactions.

  5. Jennifer Pahlka: Coding a better government, TED.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    About this talk: Can government be run like the Internet, permissionless and open? Coder and activist Jennifer Pahlka believes it can -- and that apps, built quickly and cheaply, are a powerful new way to connect citizens to their governments -- and their neighbors.

    1. Jonathan Haidt: Religion, evolution, and the ecstasy of self-transcendence, TED.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      About this talk: Psychologist Jonathan Haidt asks a simple, but difficult question: why do we search for self-transcendence? Why do we attempt to lose ourselves? In a tour through the science of evolution by group selection, he proposes a provocative answer.

    2. Our Place in the Cosmos, Google Tech Talks Next Article Bookmark and Share

      About this talk: The lecture "Our Place in the Cosmos" explains how we (and, for that matter, all complex life forms) are connected to the Universe around us. This connection relies on the fact that our Milky Way and other galaxies like it play host to cosmic recycling processes that involve the formation of stars and their planetary systems inside nebulae (dense gas/dust clouds), nuclear fusion reactions that occur within stars, and the death of massive stars in explosions known as supernovae. As a result of these processes the Earth contains elements like carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, all of which are essential ingredients of protein molecules that are basic building blocks of life on Earth. To understand our origin we must therefore understand how galaxies form as part of the so-called cosmic web and evolve via galaxy cannibalism: merging and destruction of small satellite galaxies whereby their stars are incorporated into larger galaxies. This portion of the story will take us back to the earliest imaginable times in the history of the Universe. The talk will be illustrated with the latest astronomical images obtained using space-/ground-based telescopes and state-of-the-art computer simulations.

    3. Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work, TED.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      About this talk: We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards? In this fast-moving and entertaining talk from TEDxBloomington, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity.

  6. The Future of Complexity Engineering, Central European Journal of Engineering Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Complexity Engineering encompasses a set of approaches to engineering systems which are typically composed of various interacting entities often exhibiting self-* behaviours and emergence. The engineer or designer uses methods that benefit from the findings of complexity science and often considerably differ from the classical engineering approach of ‘divide and conquer’. This article provides an overview on some very interdisciplinary and innovative research areas and projects in the field of Complexity Engineering, including synthetic biology, chemistry, artificial life, self-healing materials and others. It then classifies the presented work according to five types of nature-inspired technology, namely: (1) using technology to understand nature, (2) nature- inspiration for technology, (3) using technology on natural systems, (4) using biotechnology methods in software engineering, and (5) using technology to model nature. Finally, future trends in Complexity Engineering are indicated and related risks are discussed.

  7. Learning, Social Intelligence and the Turing Test - why an "out-of-the-box" Turing Machine will not pass the Turing Test, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: The Turing Test (TT) checks for human intelligence, rather than any putative general intelligence. It involves repeated interaction requiring learning in the form of adaption to the human conversation partner. It is a macro-level post-hoc test in contrast to the definition of a Turing Machine (TM), which is a prior micro-level definition. This raises the question of whether learning is just another computational process, i.e. can be implemented as a TM. Here we argue that learning or adaption is fundamentally different from computation, though it does involve processes that can be seen as computations. (…) We conclude three things, namely that: a purely "designed" TM will never pass the TT; that there is no such thing as a general intelligence since it necessary involves learning; and that learning/adaption and computation should be clearly distinguished.

  8. Experimental verification of Landauer’s principle linking information and thermodynamics, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: In 1961, Rolf Landauer argued that the erasure of information is a dissipative process. A minimal quantity of heat, proportional to the thermal energy and called the Landauer bound, is necessarily produced when a classical bit of information is deleted. A direct consequence of this logically irreversible transformation is that the entropy of the environment increases by a finite amount. Despite its fundamental importance for information theory and computer science, the erasure principle has not been verified experimentally so far (…) This result demonstrates the intimate link between information theory and thermodynamics. It further highlights the ultimate physical limit of irreversible computation.

  9. The Logic of Fashion Cycles, PLoS ONE Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: Many cultural traits exhibit volatile dynamics, commonly dubbed fashions or fads. Here we show that realistic fashion-like dynamics emerge spontaneously if individuals can copy others' preferences for cultural traits as well as traits themselves.

    1. Adaptive strategies for cumulative cultural learning, Journal of Theoretical Biology Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Here we explore how cumulative culture influences the relative merits of various pure and conditional learning strategies, including pure asocial and social learning, critical social learning, conditional social learning and individual refiner strategies.

  10. Self-Organization at the Nanoscale Scale in Far-From-Equilibrium Surface Reactions and Copolymerizations, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: An overview is given of theoretical progress on self-organization at the nanoscale in reactive systems of heterogeneous catalysis observed by field emission microscopy techniques and at the molecular scale in copolymerization processes. The results are presented in the perspective of recent advances in nonequilibrium thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, allowing us to understand how nanosystems driven away from equilibrium can manifest directionality and dynamical order.

  11. Complexity science and theory development for the futures field, Futures Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Complexity science unifies some forty diverse features that arise from the evolution of the civil system and these underlie theory development in the futures field. The main features of an evolutionary methodology deal with emergence, macrolaws, civil or societal transitions, macrosystem design, and the absorption of extreme events. The following principles apply: (1) The civil system is an open system in which investment capital is the system growth parameter that drives it away from equilibrium, with the formation of spatial structure. (2) The historical circumstances of human settlements provide a path dependency in respect of natural resources, defence, energy, transport, or communications. (3) Emergent properties arise within a complex adaptive system from which a theory of the system can be formulated, and these are not deducible from the features of the transacting entities. (4) Futures research identifies the conditions that will lead to an irreversible civil or societal phase transition to a new stage of development. (5) Emergent behaviour in the macrostructure at regional or continental levels can be influenced through critical intervention points in the global macrosystems.

  12. Entropy and equilibrium state of free market models, Eur. Phys. J. B Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Many recent models of trade dynamics use the simple idea of wealth exchanges among economic agents in order to obtain a stable or equilibrium distribution of wealth among the agents. In particular, a plain analogy compares the wealth in a society with the energy in a physical system, and the trade between agents to the energy exchange between molecules during collisions. In physical systems, the energy exchange among molecules leads to a state of equipartition of the energy and to an equilibrium situation where the entropy is a maximum. On the other hand, in a large class of exchange models, the system converges to a very unequal condensed state, where one or a few agents concentrate all the wealth of the society while the wide majority of agents shares zero or almost zero fraction of the wealth. So, in those economic systems a minimum entropy state is attained. We propose here an analytical model where we investigate the effects of a particular class of economic exchanges that minimize the entropy. By solving the model we discuss the conditions that can drive the system to a state of minimum entropy, as well as the mechanisms to recover a kind of equipartition of wealth.

  13. Removing spurious interactions in complex networks, Phys. Rev. E Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Identifying and removing spurious links in complex networks is meaningful for many real applications and is crucial for improving the reliability of network data, which, in turn, can lead to a better understanding of the highly interconnected nature of various social, biological, and communication systems. In this paper, we study the features of different simple spurious link elimination methods, revealing that they may lead to the distortion of networks’ structural and dynamical properties. Accordingly, we propose a hybrid method that combines similarity-based index and edge-betweenness centrality. We show that our method can effectively eliminate the spurious interactions while leaving the network connected and preserving the network's functionalities.

  14. Exploring complex networks by means of adaptive walkers, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Finding efficient algorithms to explore large networks with the aim of recovering information about their structure is an open problem. Here, we investigate this challenge by proposing a model in which random walkers with previously assigned home nodes navigate through the network during a fixed amount of time. We consider that the exploration is successful if the walker gets the information gathered back home, otherwise, no data is retrieved. Consequently, at each time step, the walkers, with some probability, have the choice to either go backward approaching their home or go farther away. We show that there is an optimal solution to this problem in terms of the average information retrieved and the degree of the home nodes and design an adaptive strategy based on the behavior of the random walker. Finally, we compare different strategies that emerge from the model in the context of network reconstruction. Our results could be useful for the discovery of unknown connections in large scale networks.

  15. Identifying influential spreaders and efficiently estimating the number of infections in epidemic models: a path counting approach, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: We introduce a new method to efficiently approximate the number of infections resulting from a given initially-infected node in a network of susceptible individuals, based on counting the number of possible infection paths of various lengths to each other node in the network. We analytically study the properties of our method systematically, in particular demonstrating different forms for SIS and SIR disease spreading (e.g. under the SIR model our method counts self-avoiding walks). In comparison to existing methods to infer the spreading efficiency of different nodes in the network (based on degree, k-shell decomposition analysis and different centrality measures), our method directly considers the spreading process, and as such is unique in providing estimation of actual numbers of infections. Crucially, in simulating infections on various real-world networks with the SIR model, we show that our walks-based method improves the inference of effectiveness of nodes over a wide range of infection rates compared to existing methods. We also analyse the trade-off between estimate accuracy and computational cost of our method, showing that the better accuracy here can still be obtained at a comparable computational cost to other methods.

  16. The role of strong and weak ties in Facebook: a community structure perspective, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: In this paper we report our findings on the analysis of two large datasets representing the friendship structure of the well-known Facebook network. In particular, we discuss the quantitative assessment of the strength of weak ties Granovetter's theory, considering the problem from the perspective of the community structure of the network. We describe our findings providing some clues of the validity of this theory also for a large-scale online social network such as Facebook.

  17. Evolutionary game dynamics in populations with different learners, Journal of Theoretical Biology Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: We study evolutionary game theory in a setting where individuals learn from each other. We extend the traditional approach by assuming that a population contains individuals with different learning abilities.

  18. Win-Stay-Lose-Learn Promotes Cooperation in the Spatial Prisoner's Dilemma Game, PLoS ONE Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: [...] we introduce an aspiration-based win-stay-lose-learn strategy updating rule into the spatial prisoner's dilemma game. The rule is simple and intuitive, foreseeing strategy changes only by dissatisfied players, who then attempt to adopt the strategy of one of their nearest neighbors, while the strategies of satisfied players are not subject to change.

  19. Book Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Noisy Information and Computational Complexity, Cambridge University Press Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Summary:
      This book deals with the computational complexity of mathematical problems for which available information is partial, noisy and priced. The author develops a general theory of computational complexity of continuous problems with noisy information and gives a number of applications; he considers deterministic as well as stochastic noise. He also presents optimal algorithms, optimal information, and complexity bounds in different settings: worst case, average case, mixed worst-average, average-worst, and asymptotic. Particular topics include: the existence of optimal linear (affine) algorithms, optimality properties of smoothing spline, regularization and least squares algorithms (with the optimal choice of the smoothing and regularization parameters), adaption versus nonadaption, and relations between different settings. The book integrates the work of researchers over the past decade in such areas as computational complexity, approximation theory, and statistics, and includes many new results as well.

    2. Complexity, Analysis and Control of Singular Biological Systems, Springer Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Summary:
      This book follows the control of real-world biological systems at both ecological and phyisological levels concentrating on the application of now-extensively-investigated singular system theory. Much effort has recently been dedicated to the modelling and analysis of developing bioeconomic systems and the text establishes singular examples of these, showing how proper control can help to maintain sustainable economic development of biological resources. The book begins from the essentials of singular systems theory and bifurcations before tackling the use of various forms of control in singular biological systems using examples including predator-prey relationships and viral vaccination and quarantine control. Researchers and graduate students studying the control of complex biological systems are shown how a variety of methods can be brought to bear and practitioners working with the economics of biological systems and their control will also find the monograph illuminating.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. The B36/S125 "2x2" Life-Like Cellular Automaton, Nathaniel Johnston, 2012/03/, arXiv:1203.1644
      2. The evolvability of business and the role of antitrust, Ian Wilkinson, 2012/03/6, arXiv:1203.1311
      3. Does natural selection favour the Rescorla�Wagner rule?, Trimmer PC, McNamara JM, Houston AI, Marshall JAR, February 2012, Journal of Theoretical Biology, in Press, DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2012.02.014

    2. Event Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. 6th International Workshop on Natural Computing, Tokyo, Japan, 2012/03/28-30
      2. IPCAT 2012: Ninth International Conference on Information Processing in Cells and Tissues, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2012/03/31-04/02
      3. 21st European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research, Vienna, Austria, 2012/04/10-13
      4. Collective Intelligence 2012, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2012/04/18-20
      5. NeFF-Workshop on Non-linear and model-free Interdependence Measures in Neuroscience and TRENTOOL course, Frankfurt, Germany, 2012/04/26-27
      6. The Fifth IFAC Symposium on Fractional Differentiation and Its Applications - FDA12, Nanjing, China, 2012/05/14-17
      7. The Science of Complexity: Understanding the Global Financial Crisis, Arlington, Virginia, 2012/05/16-18
      8. International Spring School in Natural Computing (SSNC 2012), Tarragona, Spain, 2012/05/28-06/1
      9. 1st Annual Conference on Complexity and Human Experience: Modeling Complexity in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Charlotte, NC, USA, 2012/05/30-06/01
      10. MABS’12 - The Thirteenth International Workshop on Multi-Agent-Based Simulation â€" Multi-Agent Simulation of/and the Society, Valencia, Spain, 2012/06/4-5
      11. 2012 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence, Brisbane, Australia, 2012/06/10-15
      12. CiE 2012 Turing Centenary conference: How the World Computes, Cambridge, UK, 2012/06/18-23
      13. International Conference on Information Society (i-Society 2012), London, UK, 2012/06/25-28
      14. 8th International Conference on Intelligent Environments (IE'12), Guanajuato, Mexico, 2012/06/26-29
      15. Cellular Automata Algorithms & Architectures (CAAA 2012), Madrid, Spain, 2012/07/2-6
      16. Third Summer School of the European Social Simulation Association (ESSA), Toulouse, France, 2012/07/2-6
      17. 2012 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2012), Philadelphia, USA, 2012/07/7-11
      18. 25th European Conference on Operational Research, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2012/07/8-11
      19. ALife XIII: The Thirteenth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, East Lansing, Michigan, USA, 2012/08/19-22
      20. The Fourth International Conference on Advanced Cognitive Technologies and Applications: COGNITIVE 2012, Nice, France, 2012/07/22-27
      21. 12th International Conference on Adaptive Behaviour (SAB2012), Odense, Denmark, 2012/08/27-31
      22. The 11th International Conference on Artificial Immune Systems - ICARIS 2012, Taormina, Italy, 2012/08/28-31
      23. 12th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving From Nature (PPSN2012), Taormina, Italy, 2012/09/1-5
      24. ECCS'12: European Conference on Complex Systems, Brussels, Belgium, 2012/09/3-7
      25. 6th IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems (SASO 2012), Lyon, France, 2012/09/10-14
      26. Interdisciplinary Symposium on Complex Systems, Kos island, Greece, 2012/09/19-25
      27. 10th International Conference on Cellular Automata for Research and Industry (ACRI 2012), Santorini Island, Greece, 2012/09/24-27
      28. 1st International Conference on the Theory and Practice of Natural Computing, TPNC 2012, Tarragona, Spain, 2012/10/1-5
      29. International Joint Conference on Computational Intelligence, Barcelona, Spain, 2012/10/5-7
      30. IBERAMIA 2012: 13th Ibero-American Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, 2012/11/13-16
      31. SCIS-ISIS2012: The 6th Int. Conf. on Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems, and The 13th Int. Symp. on Advanced Intelligent Systems., Kobe, Japan, 2012/11/20-24

    3. Video Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Complexity Digest videos and Webcast Archive.
      2. Lakeside Labs videos.
      3. FuturICT videos.
      4. Brain-Mind Institute webinars
      5. IFISC@uib.es seminars.
      6. ASSYST Digital Library.
      7. TED Talks.
      8. Edge Videos
      9. CERN Webcast Service.
      10. Dean LeBaron's Video Casts.

    4. Other Announcements Bookmark and Share


Also available in: Simple HTML format | TXT format | TXT format with links | Print