An Introduction to Complex Systems Science and Its Applications
The standard assumptions that underlie many conceptual and quantitative frameworks do not hold for many complex physical, biological, and social systems. Complex systems science clarifies when and why such assumptions fail and provides alternative frameworks for understanding the properties of compl...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Hindawi Limited
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132943 |
| _version_ | 1811095965061349376 |
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| author | Siegenfeld, Alexander F. Bar-Yam, Yaneer |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Siegenfeld, Alexander F. Bar-Yam, Yaneer |
| author_sort | Siegenfeld, Alexander F. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The standard assumptions that underlie many conceptual and quantitative frameworks do not hold for many complex physical, biological, and social systems. Complex systems science clarifies when and why such assumptions fail and provides alternative frameworks for understanding the properties of complex systems. This review introduces some of the basic principles of complex systems science, including complexity profiles, the tradeoff between efficiency and adaptability, the necessity of matching the complexity of systems to that of their environments, multiscale analysis, and evolutionary processes. Our focus is on the general properties of systems as opposed to the modeling of specific dynamics; rather than provide a comprehensive review, we pedagogically describe a conceptual and analytic approach for understanding and interacting with the complex systems of our world. This paper assumes only a high school mathematical and scientific background so that it may be accessible to academics in all fields, decision-makers in industry, government, and philanthropy, and anyone who is interested in systems and society. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:35:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/132943 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:35:59Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Hindawi Limited |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1329432022-10-02T08:21:59Z An Introduction to Complex Systems Science and Its Applications Siegenfeld, Alexander F. Bar-Yam, Yaneer Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics The standard assumptions that underlie many conceptual and quantitative frameworks do not hold for many complex physical, biological, and social systems. Complex systems science clarifies when and why such assumptions fail and provides alternative frameworks for understanding the properties of complex systems. This review introduces some of the basic principles of complex systems science, including complexity profiles, the tradeoff between efficiency and adaptability, the necessity of matching the complexity of systems to that of their environments, multiscale analysis, and evolutionary processes. Our focus is on the general properties of systems as opposed to the modeling of specific dynamics; rather than provide a comprehensive review, we pedagogically describe a conceptual and analytic approach for understanding and interacting with the complex systems of our world. This paper assumes only a high school mathematical and scientific background so that it may be accessible to academics in all fields, decision-makers in industry, government, and philanthropy, and anyone who is interested in systems and society. National Science Foundation (Grant 1122374) 2021-10-12T20:06:54Z 2021-10-12T20:06:54Z 2020-07 2020-02 2021-02-28T08:01:11Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1076-2787 1099-0526 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132943 Siegenfeld, Alexander F. and Yaneer Bar-Yam, “An Introduction to Complex Systems Science and Its Applications,” Complexity (July 2020): 6105872. © 2020 Alexander F. Siegenfeld and Yaneer Bar-Yam en http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/6105872 Complexity Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Copyright © 2020 Alexander F. Siegenfeld and Yaneer Bar-Yam. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. text/xml application/pdf Hindawi Limited Hindawi |
| spellingShingle | Siegenfeld, Alexander F. Bar-Yam, Yaneer An Introduction to Complex Systems Science and Its Applications |
| title | An Introduction to Complex Systems Science and Its Applications |
| title_full | An Introduction to Complex Systems Science and Its Applications |
| title_fullStr | An Introduction to Complex Systems Science and Its Applications |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Introduction to Complex Systems Science and Its Applications |
| title_short | An Introduction to Complex Systems Science and Its Applications |
| title_sort | introduction to complex systems science and its applications |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132943 |
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