scholarly journals Gaia as a complex adaptive system

2002 ◽  
Vol 357 (1421) ◽  
pp. 683-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy M. Lenton ◽  
Marcel van Oijen
Keyword(s):  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Adaptive System ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Spatial Interaction ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Adaptive Behaviour ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Self Organizing

We define the Gaia system of life and its environment on Earth, review the status of the Gaia theory, introduce potentially relevant concepts from complexity theory, then try to apply them to Gaia. We consider whether Gaia is a complex adaptive system (CAS) in terms of its behaviour and suggest that the system is self–organizing but does not reside in a critical state. Gaia has supported abundant life for most of the last 3.8 Gyr. Large perturbations have occasionally suppressed life but the system has always recovered without losing the capacity for large–scale free energy capture and recycling of essential elements. To illustrate how complexity theory can help us understand the emergence of planetary–scale order, we present a simple cellular automata (CA) model of the imaginary planet Daisyworld. This exhibits emergent self–regulation as a consequence of feedback coupling between life and its environment. Local spatial interaction, which was absent from the original model, can destabilize the system by generating bifurcation regimes. Variation and natural selection tend to remove this instability. With mutation in the model system, it exhibits self–organizing adaptive behaviour in its response to forcing. We close by suggesting how artificial life (‘Alife’) techniques may enable more comprehensive feasibility tests of Gaia.

Price discovery by the market's mind: an investor's perspective on numerical archetypes

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-153
Author(s):  
Patrick Schotanus
Keyword(s):  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Intelligent Agents ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Price Discovery ◽  
Adaptive System ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Complex Adaptive

The aim of this paper is to contribute to Jung's later work, with a particular focus on the numerical archetypes viewed from an investor's perspective. It attempts to achieve this via a three-pronged approach. First, placing complex psychology in the framework of complexity theory allows a robust acknowledgement and treatment of ‘elusive’ macroscopic properties, i.e. archetypal dynamics, involved in the ordering of a mind as a complex adaptive system. Second, modern insights in number sense (the direct intuition of what numbers mean) provide neuroscientific support for numerical archetypes and clarify their primacy. Third, this paper points to the empirical relevance of numerical archetypes in price discovery, the self-organizing principle of the capital markets (which allocate resources in modern society). The resulting proposition is that the (collective) mind's unconscious and conscious forces can be considered as ‘intelligent’ agents. The competition between these two domains provides the necessary condition to endogenously generate innovative outcomes, the essential capability of complex adaptive systems. According to this view producing such adaptive novelty is achieved in the form of intuitive insights and imagination, which result in a vast array of symbols, e.g. prices in the case of the market's mind.

scholarly journals Navigating the Turbulent Waters of School Reform Guided by Complexity Theory

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. White ◽  
James A. Levin
Keyword(s):  
School Reform ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive System ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Design Experiment ◽  
Underrepresented Minority ◽  
Complex Adaptive

The goal of this research study has been to develop, implement, and evaluate a school reform design experiment at a continuation high school with low-income, low-performing underrepresented minority students. The complexity sciences served as a theoretical framework for this design experiment. Treating an innovative college preparatory program as a nested complex adaptive system within a larger complex adaptive system, the school, we used features of complex adaptive systems (equilibrium, emergence, self-organization, and feedback loops) as a framework to design a strategy for school reform. The goal was to create an environment for change by pulling the school far from equilibrium using a strategy we call “purposeful perturbations” to disrupt the stable state of the school in a purposeful way. Over the four years of the study, several tipping points were reached, and we developed agent-based simulation models that capture important dynamic properties of the reform at these points. The study draws upon complexity theory in multiple ways that have supported improved education for low-achieving students.

scholarly journals Inojezični razvoj i teorije dinamičnih sustava

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 287
Author(s):  
Marijana Bašić
Keyword(s):  
System Theory ◽  
Complex Systems ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Dynamic Systems ◽  
Adaptive System ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Dynamic Systems Theory ◽  
Complex Adaptive

U ovome se radu raspravlja o dosadašnjim teorijskim spoznajama o inojezičnome razvoju iz perspektive teorije dinamičnih sustava (engl. Dynamic systems theory, tj. DST), o pokušaju oblikovanja razvojnoga indeksa, o pojavi teorijskoga pluralizma u okviru kojega se ukazalo na sličnosti između složenih nepravocrtnih sustava koji se pojavljuju u prirodi i pri ovladavanju inim jezikom te o različitim načinima mjerenja složenosti, točnosti i tečnosti, tj. STOT-a (engl. complexity, accuracy and fluency, tj. CAF). Opisuju se nove metode istraživanja inojezičnoga razvoja te daje detaljan pregled najvažnijih recentnih istraživanja u okviru teorije dinamičnih sustava, odnosno teorije kaosa ili složenosti (engl. Chaos/complexity theory, tj. C/ CT), teorije složenih prilagodljivih sustava (engl. Complex adaptive system theory, tj. CAS) i (nad)teorije složenih sustava (engl. Complex systems supra-theory).

Understanding Games Through Complexity Thinking Approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
Ghada Ahmed Deghedi
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Adaptive System ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Complex Dynamic ◽  
Detailed Understanding ◽  
Complexity Thinking ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Different Levels

The complexity theory and the concept of emergence is a theoretical framework that offers a vocabulary and tool for analyzing games as systems. Rather than dealing with a game as one complex adaptive system, this article uses the complexity thinking approach to study a game as a complex system composed of different levels of subsystems. Each level can be considered a complex system in itself; moreover, the interaction between a game's subsystems creates complex, dynamic, and often unpredictable behavior. For a detailed understanding of a game system and how complex it is, this article focuses on the concepts of complexity and emergence at three levels of a game system: the design level, play level and metagame level. This explanation is meant to guide game designers in incorporating the various emergent consequences of game play from the beginning of the design process.

scholarly journals Promoting Disaster Resilience: Operation Mechanisms and Self-Organizing Processes of Crowdsourcing

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhijun Song ◽  
Hui Zhang ◽  
Chris Dolan
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Adaptive System ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
The Self ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Self Organizing

It is often difficult to realize effective governance and management within the inherent complexity and uncertainty of disasters. The application of crowdsourcing, through encouraging voluntary support from the general public, advances efficient disaster governance. Twelve international case studies of crowdsourcing and natural disaster governance were collected for in-depth analysis. Influenced by Complex Adaptive System theory, we explored the self-organizing operation mechanisms and self-organization processes of crowdsourcing within disaster governance. The self-organizing operation mechanisms of crowdsourcing are influenced by the multi-directional interaction between the crowdsourcing platform, the initiator (who commences the crowdsourcing process) and the contractor (who undertakes disaster reduction tasks). The benefits of crowdsourcing for governance structure and self-organization processes in natural disaster governance are reflected in three perspectives: strengthening communication and coordination, optimizing emergency decision-making, and improving the ability to learn and adapt. This paper discusses how crowdsourcing can promote disaster resilience from the perspective of the complex adaptive system to enrich the theoretical research on crowdsourcing and disaster resilience.

Complexity Theory

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Strevens
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Statistical Physics ◽  
Adaptive System ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Dissipative Structures ◽  
General Notion ◽  
Difference Making ◽  
System P ◽  
Complex Adaptive

Complexity theory attempts to explain, at the most general possible level, the interesting features of complex systems. Two such features are the emergence of simple or stable behavior of the whole from relatively complex or unpredictable behavior of the parts and the emergence of sophisticated behavior of the whole from relatively simplistic behavior of the parts. Often, both kinds of emergence are found nested in the same system. Concerning the emergence of simplicity, this essay examines Herbert Simon’s explanation from near-decomposability and a stochastic explanation that generalizes the approach of statistical physics. A more general notion of an abstract difference-making structure is introduced with examples, and a discussion of evolvability follows. Concerning the emergence of sophistication, this chapter focuses on, first, the energetics approach associated with dissipative structures and the “fourth law of thermodynamics” and, second, the notion of a “complex adaptive system.”

Hybridität als Motor und als Ergebnis von Sprachwandel

Glottotheory ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Csaba Földes
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Adaptive System ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Explanatory Variable ◽  
Essential Factor ◽  
Language Functions ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Linguistic Innovation

AbstractThis paper deals with constellations in which, as consequences of linguistic interculturality, elements of two or more languages encounter each other and result in something partially or completely new, an – occasionally temporary – “third quality”, namely hybridity. The paper contributes to the meta-discourse and theory formation by questioning the concept, term and content of “linguistic hybridity”. It also submits a proposal for a typology of linguistic-communicative hybridity that consists of the following prototypical main groups, each with several subtypes: (1) language-cultural, (2) semiotic, (3) medial, (4) communicative, (5) systematic, (6) paraverbal and (7) nonverbal hybridity. At last, the paper examines hybridity as an explanatory variable for language change. In conclusion, hybridity is generally a place of cultural production, with special regard to communication and language it is potentially considered as an incubator of linguistic innovation. Hybridity can be seen as the engine and as the result of language change, or language development. It represents an essential factor by which language functions and develops as a complex adaptive system. Hybridity operates as a continuous cycle. By generating innovation, it triggers language change, which in turn, leads to further and new hybridizations. The processuality of hybridity creates diversity, while at the same time it can cause the vanishing of diversity.

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