[FRIAM] Measures of Complexity

[phil henshaw]

Title: Message

Seth,

 

Here's my suggestions to add to your measures of 'complexity', largely expanding on a couple of the last items in your list.    I realized on rereading your introduction that you were speaking as if having a growing number of measures might indicate confusion.    I think the opposite is more generally the case for science, that being able to measure something in different ways shows it's starting to come into focus.    I guess we'll see!    My list is thematic,  but I'm sure there are other themes.   If someone was thinking to fill out such a list comprehensively that would be interesting.

 

...2nd ed.   Glad I saved this for a day.  I ran across the wonderful 1969 list by E.P. Odum again (from The Strategy of Ecosystem Development) of mostly measurable characteristics of complexity in ecologies, and it reminded me of all the other lists collected by people from each of the several 'failed' general theories of complex systems that have come and gone since .    Maybe they should all be collected and thrown into a heap so see what grows?   I think they probably all have real value, even if not all quite set up as measures in the normally expected sense.

 

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- add under:

Measures and indicators to assist in complex system identification, location and structural mapping

 

Statistical scales of complex order

        Ascendancy (Ulanowicz - growth & development, general models of association)

        Attribute interaction & dependence (Jakulin -data mining, general measures of association)

 

Measures for any kind of self-organizing or adaptive system developing by growth;

        Physics of Happening (Henshaw -general observation method w/ various borrowings)

 

I. >From Shapes identifiable in time-series data curves:

0) continuity, data curves having math and/or visually recognized flowing shape

1) continuity along with growth (¸¸¸¸.·), stabilization (.·´ ¯) , destabilization ( ¯ `·.) and decay (`·.¸¸)

       mathematically definable as periods when all implied derivatives are of same sign

2) fluctuation, often with nested scales, indicating and locating homeostasis

3) divergence, indicating and locating structural imbalance with developing instability

4) inflection points of (1) indicating developmental structure transformation

5) trends of (1) in comfort or frequency of adaptive demands or adaptive delays

6) trends of (1) in 'dark matters' for system response (ballooning unknowns & distractions)

7) discontinuity between continuities, intrusion of outside systems

 

+masc..

8) isolated transient fluctuation =? local reversal of a flow direction

9) segments of (1) appearing in isolation =? reflects a larger system

10) repeated overshoot & collapse =? structural vulnerability, stuck in the past

11) all the particular measures unique to each kind of emergence

II. Environmental features:

resources (opportunities in general) appearing in successively larger or successively smaller units

resource pools allowing 'any-old-time' exchange or requiring 'just-in-time' exchange

emergence/changes-of-kind, diverse lasting changes occurring quickly at the same time

* tracing progressions of scale & kind in causal loops connecting points in a sequence *

    (cobbling dimensions)

once is an accident, twice and experiment & three times a habit (with a niche)

III.  Structural indicators:

distinguishing causal links of opportunity vs. ones of necessity

identifying passive resource pools as structural elements facilitating exchange

impetus and limits originating from switching gears inside vs. forcing and constraints from outside

the co-evolving mirror images of a system and its niche, with an identifiable boundary

system boundaries defined by the extent of growth system loops and what they envelop

playfulness vs. disorder, resilience vs. rigidity

 

IV. As a parent:

when things get too quiet it's time to see what's happening!

 

 

- all comment welcome -

 

 

Phil Henshaw                       ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave
NY NY 10040                      
tel: 212-795-4844                
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]         
explorations: www.synapse9.com   

 

re: http://web.mit.edu/esd.83/www/notebook/Complexity.PDF

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