Fit for What

The previous chapter argued that, if we really want to understand the evolution of complex systems, then we need to look more closely at environmental complexity. What we see might help us understand, not only how increasingly complex systems have evolved, but also the nature of those systems. The purpose of this chapter is to explain how we have tried to understand complexity. First, I will consider some traditional conceptions of complexity, and of where it comes from. Next, I will consider briefly how mathematicians and scientists have described complexity in a more formal sense. Then I will consider how this has led to a revolution in conceptions of complexity. Finally, I will describe how these concepts are revolutionising so many aspects of science, our views of the world and of the nature of living things in it.

[1]  James P. Crutchfield,et al.  What Lies Between Order and Chaos? , 2003, Art and Complexity.

[2]  Jonathan D Victor,et al.  Approaches to Information-Theoretic Analysis of Neural Activity , 2006, Biological theory.

[3]  M. Sancho,et al.  From linearity to complexity: Towards a new economics , 2002 .

[4]  Philip Ball,et al.  Flow: Nature's Patterns: A Tapestry in Three Parts , 2009 .

[5]  Melanie Mitchell,et al.  Complexity - A Guided Tour , 2009 .

[6]  L. Mahadevan,et al.  Self-Organization of a Mesoscale Bristle into Ordered, Hierarchical Helical Assemblies , 2009, Science.

[7]  I. Prigogine,et al.  Order out of chaos , 1984 .

[8]  R. Lewontin,et al.  The Ontogeny of Information , 2000 .

[9]  G. V. van Orden,et al.  Self-organization of cognitive performance. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[10]  I. Prigogine,et al.  Exploring Complexity: An Introduction , 1989 .

[11]  Richard P. Taylor,et al.  Fractal analysis of Pollock's drip paintings , 1999, Nature.

[12]  Mikhail Prokopenko,et al.  An information-theoretic primer on complexity, self-organization, and emergence , 2009 .

[13]  A. Reading.  The Biological Nature of Meaningful Information , 2006 .

[14]  Robert Boyd,et al.  Group Report: The Cultural and genetic Evolution of Human Cooperation , 2003 .

[15]  A. Mauron.  Is the Genome the Secular Equivalent of the Soul? , 2001, Science.

[16]  L. Hood,et al.  Gene expression dynamics in the macrophage exhibit criticality , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[17]  R. Landauer,et al.  Thinking in Complexity: The Complex Dynamics of Matter, Mind, and Mankind , 1995 .