Dynamics of hierarchical systems. An evolutionary approach (Q5903070)

The book tackles a rather complex phenomenon - that of dynamics of hierarchically organized systems. It is, however, not the structural, but the functional hierarchy that is the main concern of the author. The problem is treated in a rather general manner and many different approaches are combined in its analysis. The volume consists of seven chapters and one appendix. The introductory chapter presents and illustrates the basic notions of organization and complexity. The second chapter is devoted to an elementary exposition of deterministic dynamics and statistical physics. Irreversibility, dissipation, symmetry breaking, steady states, limit cycles etc. are presented here. Thermodynamic entropy, stability and complexity are treated in some detail, too. The third chapter is rather special: it is devoted to the role of spherical electromagnetic waves as information carriers. The following fourth chapter presents elements of information and coding theory. Application of the theory is illustrated by many examples such as information transfer through the lossless channel, uniform channel, binary erasure channel, genetic channel etc. It continues with an exposé of modelling of stochastic time series with some applications for analysing the biological rhytms and self-organization. The fifth chapter brings elements of game theory with some applications to evolutionary strategies, natural selection etc. It is closed by the model of spreading of rumours. The next chapter is devoted to a concise presentation of nonlinear dynamics and the theory of deterministic chaos. KAM theorem, strange attractors, fractal dimensionality, self-similarity, Lyapunov exponents and all that can be found here. It is completed by some applications of this theory to reliable information processing and by some speculations about its possible role for analysing brain processes. The concluding epilogue is devoted to some contemplations about possible relevance of the deterministic chaos in biology. It faithfully reflects the present ''state of the art'', where the number of unresolved problems highly outnumbers the number of the answered questions. The supplementary appendix treats in some detail the role of external noise in the dynamics of hierarchical systems.