Connectance of Large Dynamic (Cybernetic) Systems: Critical Values for Stability

MANY systems being studied today are dynamic, large and complex: traffic at an airport with 100 planes, slum areas with 104 persons or the human brain with 1010 neurones. In such systems, stability is of central importance, for instability usually appears as a self-generating catastrophe. Unfortunately, present theoretical knowledge of stability in large systems is meagre: the work described here was intended to add to it.