Related papers: Engineering Emergence
Using each node's degree as a proxy for its importance, the topological hierarchy of a complex network is introduced and quantified. We propose a simple dynamical process used to construct networks which are either maximally or minimally…
Complex systems can be modelled at various levels of detail. Ideally, causal models of the same system should be consistent with one another in the sense that they agree in their predictions of the effects of interventions. We formalise…
Networks have in recent years emerged as an invaluable tool for describing and quantifying complex systems in many branches of science. Recent studies suggest that networks often exhibit hierarchical organization, where vertices divide into…
All networks can be analyzed at multiple scales. A higher scale of a network is made up of macro-nodes: subgraphs that have been grouped into individual nodes. Recasting a network at higher scales can have useful effects, such as decreasing…
The spatial character of territorial systems plays a crucial role in the emergence of their complexities. This contribution aims at illustrating to what extent different types of complexities can be exhibited in models of such systems. We…
Complex systems exhibit macroscopic behaviors that emerge from the coordinated interactions of their individual components. Understanding the microscopic origins of these emergent properties remains a significant challenge, especially in…
We explore the relationship between causality, symmetry, and compression. We build on and generalize the known connection between learning and compression to a setting where causal models are not identifiable. We propose a framework where…
Complex systems universally exhibit emergence, where macroscopic dynamics arise from local interactions, but a predictive law governing this process has been absent. We establish and verify such a law. We define a system's causal power at a…
Emergent behavior that appears at a given level of organization may be characterized as arising from an organizationally lower level in such a way that it transcends a mere increase in the behavioral degree of complexity. It is therefore to…
A celebrated and controversial hypothesis conjectures that some biological systems --parts, aspects, or groups of them-- may extract important functional benefits from operating at the edge of instability, halfway between order and…
Accountability is an often called for property of technical systems. It is a requirement for algorithmic decision systems, autonomous cyber-physical systems, and for software systems in general. As a concept, accountability goes back to the…
In this review, we discuss modularity and hierarchy in biological systems. We review examples from protein structure, genetics, and biological networks of modular partitioning of the geometry of biological space. We review theories to…
Although most networks in nature exhibit complex topology the origins of such complexity remains unclear. We introduce a model of a growing network of interacting agents in which each new agent's membership to the network is determined by…
This paper explores the issues around the construction of large-scale complex systems which are built as 'systems of systems' and suggests that there are fundamental reasons, derived from the inherent complexity in these systems, why our…
Contemporary complexity theory has been instrumental in providing novel rigorous definitions for some classic philosophical concepts, including emergence. In an attempt to provide an account of emergence that is consistent with complexity…
This short communication analyzes the importance of resolving meso-scale structure in a complex system with multi-scale structure. Similar mechanisms for the formation of meso-scale structures in different systems are found and a general…
Emergent design failures are ubiquitous in complex systems, and often arise when system elements cluster. Approaches to systematically reduce clustering could improve a design's resilience, but reducing clustering is difficult if it is…
We introduce a hierarchy of fast-growing complexity classes and show its suitability for completeness statements of many non elementary problems. This hierarchy allows the classification of many decision problems with a non-elementary…
A number of elements towards a classification of the quality of emergence in emergent collective systems are provided. By using those elements, several classes of emergent systems are exemplified, ranging from simple aggregations of simple…
When we look at the world around us, we see complex physical systems and emergent phenomena. Emergence occurs when a system is observed to have properties that its parts do not have on their own. These properties or behaviors emerge only…