English

Complexity

Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems 2021-02-26 v2

Abstract

There is no single definition of complexity (Edmonds 1999; Gershenson 2008; Mitchell 2009; De Domenico, et al., 2019), as it acquires different meanings in different contexts. A general notion is the amount of information required to describe a phenomenon (Prokopenko, et al. 2008) , but it can also be understood as the length of the shortest program required to compute that description, as the time required to compute that description, as the minimal model to statistically describe a phenomenon, etc.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1003.5947,
  title  = {Complexity},
  author = {Carlos Gershenson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1003.5947},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

To be published in Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, 3rd ed. (Springer)

R2 v1 2026-06-21T15:04:47.239Z