Disentangling complexity from randomness and chaos

DOI10.3390/E14020177MaRDI QIDQ405986zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Publication date 8 September 2014

Published in Entropy (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.3390/e14020177

complexity complexity definition entropy

Algorithmic information theory (Kolmogorov complexity, etc.) (68Q30) Cellular automata (computational aspects) (68Q80) Foundations of equilibrium statistical mechanics (82B03) Measures of information, entropy (94A17)

Review text

Summary: This study aims to disentangle complexity from randomness and chaos, and to present a definition of complexity that emphasizes its epistemically distinct qualities. I will review existing attempts at defining complexity and argue that these suffer from two major faults: a tendency to neglect the underlying dynamics and to focus exclusively on the phenomenology of complex systems; and linguistic imprecisions in describing these phenomenologies. I will argue that the tendency to discuss phenomenology removed from the underlying dynamics is the main root of the difficulties in distinguishing complex from chaotic or random systems. In my own definition, I will explicitly try to avoid these pitfalls. The theoretical contemplations in this paper will be tested on a sample of five models: the random Kac ring, the chaotic CA30, the regular CA90, the complex CA110 and the complex Bak-Sneppen model. Although these modelling studies are restricted in scope and can only be seen as preliminary, they still constitute one of the first attempts to investigate complex systems comparatively.

Recommendations

Cites work

Cited in

(4)

This page was built for publication: Disentangling complexity from randomness and chaos

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q405986)