Category Archives: Complex Systems

Subject Matter Networks

“In a complex world the optimal social form is the multi-organizational network and emergent practices must be continuously developed through cooperation. In such an environment, the lone expert is at a disadvantage. He or she cannot learn and adapt as fast as … Continue reading

Posted in Collaboration, Collective Intelligence, Complex Systems, Cooperation, Innovation | Leave a comment

Thinking With Your Eyes

Lothar Krempel, of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, is leading a highly multi-disciplinary effort to create a scientific method of visualization of network data. While statistical methods, like multidimensional scaling, factor analysis, and correspondence … Continue reading

Posted in Augmented Cognition, Complex Systems, Design, Visualization | Leave a comment

Game Theory on Networks: An In Silico Laboratory

Dan Katz, from Michigan Political Science, the Center for the Study of Complex Systems, and Computational Legal Studies, is including a simulation platform that I wrote in NetLogo as part of the curriculum at the ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political … Continue reading

Posted in Agent-Based Models, Complex Systems, Computation, Cooperation, Evolution, Game Theory, Prisoner's Dilemma, Programming, Social Networks | Leave a comment

Narrative Networks, Social Identity and Complexity in Collective Action

I recently gave a NSF sponsored talk at Duke Computer Science in conjunction with the HarambeeNet SocialNets in Education Project.  I raised the question regarding the evolution of cooperative behavior beyond a certain level of social complexity and suggested that … Continue reading

Posted in Collaboration, Collective Intelligence, Complex Systems, Cooperation, Evolution, Identity, Narrative, Public Good, Social Networks | Leave a comment

Rethinking Individuality

Gregory Todd Jones’ 8 minute (O.K., 8 and a half minute) talk on the evolution of complexity and “Rethinking Individuality” at TEDxAtlanta hosted by Unboundary. Read an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article about the event here.

Posted in Altruism, Collaboration, Complex Systems, Cooperation, Evolution, Institutional Design | 1 Comment

Generating Predictability

Christoph Engel, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn and Professor of Law at the University of Bonn, is a bit of a multidisciplinary maverick as it comes to the intellectual leaders of think … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Complex Systems, Institutional Design | Leave a comment

Generative Social Science

If you enjoyed Josh Epstein and Robert Axtell’s Growing Artificial Societies, you’ll love Epstein’s newer work which “consolidates his interdisciplinary research activities in the last decade.” The book begins with some foundational material which lays out Epstein’s notion of generative … Continue reading

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The Emergence of Costly Punishment

Christoph Hauert, at the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard (update: now at British Columbia), and colleagues have a recent paper which addresses the “second order social dilemma” that arises from cooperators who may free-ride by failing to engage in … Continue reading

Posted in Agent-Based Models, Complex Systems, Computation, Game Theory | Leave a comment

Computational Models of Life

Check out the Center for Models of Life (C-MOL), a center under the Danish National Research Foundation, located at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen. Researchers at the Center use methods from physics to develop models dealing … Continue reading

Posted in Complex Systems, Computation, Evolution | Leave a comment