Meanwhile there are semantic parsing systems like Boxer and MRS/ERG that 
represent natural language in a symbolic way.   Evolutionary algorithms run on 
digital computers and large language models that encode and interpolate 
metaphors. 

 

From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of steve smith
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2024 12:42 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] new math of complexity

 

Up to some strong interpretations of QM "physics is deterministic but not 
pre-stateable" is the ground I usually stand on.   I don't need to invoke 
non-determinism to believe in open-ended complexity...   combinatoric (roughly 
factorial) arithmetic overwhhelms counting, additive, multiplicative, even 
exponential  arithmetic?  

I am very sympathetic with your (daveW) conceit that evolution can do things 
which engineering generally has not, though I think it is the simple amount of 
(combinatoric) complexity of the "search" algorithm?   I would claim that our 
technosphere is significantly "evolved" but on top of our "engineering" 
efforts, though some might argue that with the exception of a few exceptionally 
significant "engineers" like Archimedes and Da Vinci, most of our technological 
development before the age of enlightenment or the industrial revolution, 
actually was an evolutionary process (cut and try).

It might be a coincidence but I just happened to dial up the latest Lex Fridman 
interview with Sara Walker ( https://search.asu.edu/profile/1731899 ) who some 
may know through her role as associate director of the ASU-SFI Center for 
Biosocial Complex Systems.  



She starts out with simple Materialist/Vitalist contrasts but alludes (nearly) 
to Marcus latest snark: " Simulate from first principles:  https://www.vasp.at/";





On 6/13/24 7:11 AM, Prof David West wrote:

Naive, but honest question:

 

Can a computer program be "complex?"  Jochen seems to assert so, "Every 
developer knows that each piece of code which is added makes the system more 
complex." I would say no, it only makes it more complicated.

 

My answer is partially based on the fact that code must execute on a 
deterministic machine and the code itself (at least its compiled self) is 
nothing more than a virtual machine, still a deterministic system. Even the 
source code is a context free grammar, so none of the things that make natural 
language complex (context sensitivity, metaphor, interpolation) prevail. 
Otherwise the code would not work?

 

A secondary motivation for asking, I am working on an extended monograph/book 
on how to intentionally 'evolve' complex systems like a business and the 
software that supports it,or ULS ( 
https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/library/ultra-large-scale-systems-the-software-challenge-of-the-future/
 ), i.e., systems that cannot be "engineered."

 

davew

 

 

On Wed, Jun 12, 2024, at 5:30 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:

Emergence as a kind of “software in the natural world"? If we mean code by it, 
then yes, certainly. Every developer knows that each piece of code which is 
added makes the system more complex. Therefore we usually try to keep it 
simple. For biological systems it is the DNA code. For cultural systems it is 
the hidden code people do not want to talk about because everything related to 
it is sacred (at least for the group which it defines). The knights templar had 
their own code, the order of the cistercians, the Franciscans and the other 
religious orders and organizations as well. 

 

Cults and sects have their code ( which can be simple political slogans such as 
"Make Your Country Great Again", "Build the wall" and "Lock them up" or simply 
"Do not criticize the supreme leader"). Criminal organizations have their code. 
Ideologies and political parties have their code. Behind every complex organism 
or organization there seems to be some form of code or DNA that generates and 
maintains it. 

 

Whenever something is happening in nature it is either supper or pairing time. 
Obviously  because the underlying "selfish" code has created bodies which have 
the directive to maintain and replicate themselves. If we look at cultural 
systems, for instance at political conventions or at religious congregations, 
then we notice that every time something is really happening at a larger scale 
is that the code becomes active. People come together to read or express laws, 
rules, guidelines and policies.

 

So I would say yes, if there is a secret then it is the code. Definitely. Is 
there a new math for it? IMO it is quite hard to formulate the expression of 
such a code in general mathematically. For example how can you describe 
mathematically if the speech of a president or party leader or priest has 
bigger consequences or not? It is at least as complicated as calculating a path 
integral in Quantum Field Theory.

 

What might be possible is to calculate a probability how a group behavior 
changes depending how frequent a rule is read, remembered and expressed.

 

-J.

 

 

-------- Original message --------

From: Roger Critchlow  <mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]>

Date: 6/12/24 8:05 PM (GMT+01:00)

To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group  
<mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]>

Subject: [FRIAM] new math of complexity

 

Speaking of emergence, any takes on Phillip Ball's article in Quanta?

 

https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-new-math-of-how-large-scale-order-emerges-20240610/

 

I really liked his summary of the current non-explanations for emergence, but I 
haven't had time to read further.

 

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