Material for the Organizing of the

Complexity NoE

CONTENTS:

-(Edited) One-liners extracted from recent internet papers repositories

(as objective data on current community interests)

-Basics of Complexity (main concepts and mechanisms)

-Detailed Examples of 2 Specific Directions:

-Distributed Control Systems of Interacting Agents

-Web-Internet Intelligence

Edited selection of

“Random” key phrases from

last 3 months

articles repositories

SPATIALLY DISTRIBUTED AGENTS

Extending game theory to spatially distributed stochastic players.

- Spatial Segregation,

- equilibrium selection in spatial games

Looking for extended structures rather than mere correlations.

Localization of information and

identification of information flow patterns in

information processing / storing / learning

distributed systems.

NETWORKS

Representing systems of agents in terms of networks (links= interactions)

Analyzing chemical / ecological / genetic / proteonics / quasispecies

systems in terms of such networks.

Finding  new dynamical basis for network topology / organization.

geometrical shape functional properties topological characteristics dynamical relevance.

most connected most important? Other rules?

Efficient immunization of populations and computers .

STATISTICAL “MECHANICS”Departures from naive white/ normal noise, gaussian errors Applying statistical mechanics, rather than just statistics in “data mining”.

Applying Entropy and other Stat Mech concepts to financial systems

(e.g. efficient market detailed balance).

Adopting phase-transitions terminology and methodology in information systems:

processing , storage, evolution, efficiency, robustness.

Game Theory methods Statistical mechanics methods (prisoner dilemma, optimization of learning, etc).

Efficient / Collective Learning / adapting

viagenetic algorithms / co-evolutionary dynamics.

MASSIVE DATA UNDERSTANDING

 What is Meaning ? Richer approach than the purely cognitive one

(statistical emergence).

 Emergence of meaning from simple mechanical individual elements.

Introducing rudimentary psychological elements in agents based models. Statistical mechanics of intelligent agents; semantic networks?

New kind of Information Theory: local, noisy comparisons => robust filter

Identifying mates, communities, via

collective / emergent data mining.

Percolation-like behavior = crucial property of

discrete spatially distributed systems;

dramatic transitions un-seen by mean field

(where everybody speaks (a little) to everybodyand people buy/ get sick (a little)).

WEB and INTERNET

Properties of Large-Scale Peer-to-Peer Systems.

Internet Traffic as an spatially extended statistical mechanics system of interacting agents.

Packet dynamics on various networks geometries and communication protocols.

Design, prediction and control of

networks and protocols. Avoiding crashes.

TRAFFIC FLOW

Microsimulations of Car flow with

realistic drivers.

human decision factors

control measures, traffic lights

jams dynamics

Traffic state identification from incomplete information

Human Crowds as excitable media

COMPLEXITY NoE BASICS

COMPLEXITY NoE  

-The Complexity community

-interdisciplinary character BUT

-common problematics and methodology.

-potential for synthesizing a large portion of reality intoa well defined and integrated discipline.

-Supporting Complexity is scientifically and socially justified.

-The support has to be awarded to Complexity as such:

- there is no hope that funds allocated to the classical fields will end up being used for the advancement of Complexity.

Initiation and Scope of Complexity

When "More Is Different" (1972 Phil Anderson) - life emerges from chemistry,- chemistry from physics,- conscience from life,- social conscience/ organization from individual conscience etc.

• microscopic interactions in many phenomena may be different

• yet be explained as realizations of a common dynamical mechanism (e.g. in physics: Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking. )

Complexity in Artificial Artifactsemergence of complexity may take place in human created artifacts , e.g.• collections of simple instructions turn into a complex distributed software environment,

• collections of hardware elements turn into a world wide network,

• collections of switches / traffic lights turn into communication / traffic systems etc,

the laws of emergence are independent of whether they are implemented on elementary objects consisting of •silicon,

•vacuum tubes, or

• neurons.

Discreteness and Autocataliticity as Complexity Origins •discrete character of the individuals is

crucial for emergence

•continuum approach => uniform static world, microscopic granularity => macroscopic collective objects

- adaptive properties - survival and development.

•mechanism : auto-catalyticity. time variations of a quantity ~ (stochastic factor) x current value.

Power laws and their origin•1897 Pareto :wealth: NOT the usual fixed scale distributions

(Gaussian, Exponential) BUT "power law" distribution. 

•Similar effects : meteorite sizes, earthquakes, word frequencies, human populations connections / relations and lately internet links.

• power laws = conceptual bridge between -microscopic elementary interactions and -macroscopic emergent properties.

GENERIC MECHANISMS

•autocatalytic character of the elementary interactions

•stochastic systems of logistic Lotka-Volterra type.

Davis [1941] No. 6 of the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics, 1941.

No one however, has yet exhibited a stable social order, ancient or modern, which has not followed the Pareto pattern at least approximately. (p. 395)Snyder [1939]:

Pareto’s curve is destined to take its place as one of the great generalizations of human knowledge

Montroll [one of the great of this century stat mech] (in “Social dynamics and quantifying of social forces”)

“almost all the social phenomena, except in their relatively brief abnormal times obey the logistic growth''.

Universal Dynamics of Concept Networks  Dynamical networks "lingua franca" among complexity workers.

nodes = system parts / properties the links = relationships.

changes in the networks (nodes, links) = evolution of systemSequences of changes of the network =>

novel network = novel object

a handful of universal sequences = most novelty emergence (ideas / products / proteonics / society)

global network features system collective properties  • (quasi-)disconnected network components

(almost-)independent emergent objects

• scaling properties of the network power laws,

• long-lived (meta-stable) network topological features (super-)critical slowing down dynamics

=> knowledge of the relevant emerging features of the network devise methods to

- expedite by orders of magnitude desired processes or

- delay / stop un-wanted ones.

Multiscale decomposition as Expression of UnderstandingThe time to -separate two stones connected by a weak thread

is much shorter than the time that it takes for -each of the stones to decay to dust.

Together Follow dynamics of O(106yrs) with time steps of O(sec).

Solutionrepresentation of each sub-process at the appropriate scale.

Identifying and labeling the relevant collective objects at each scale = >expression of the understanding of the emergent dynamics

organizes automatically vast amounts of correlated information: - internet - fNMR

The Algebraic multigrid representation of a given network at coarser scales

basic steps:• freezing together a pair of strongly connected nodes into a single representative node.

• repeating this operation iteratively,

•ends up with nodes which stand for large compounds of strongly connected microscopic objects.

•The algorithmic advantage is that the rigid motions of the collective objects are represented on the coarse network by the motion of just one object.

•One can separate in this way the various time scales.

2 EXAMPLES OF DIRECTIONS(with the help of Eran Shir)

(distributed control and internet / web)

Described in more detail

When IT gets a mind of IT-self SURPRISE: a bunch of man-made artifacts

develop a mind of themselves - immense variability in the nature of the elementary componentsyet - their complex collective features are analogous.

 PROBLEM-The knowledge of the field in charge with the components is not adequate to deal with the overall system.

OPPORTUNITY: complexity + IT Design the simple interactions between the elementary components such as toEvolve collectively towards a desired global behavior.

CHALLANGE: design interaction protocols and feedback mechanisms that insure the self-organization of the work in an optimal way.

Horizontal Interaction Protocols and Self-Organized Societiesold world distinct organizations: • big ones -- strict hierarchical chain of command • small ones -- everybody in close "horizontal" personal contact.

Hope: local protocols may lead to the emergence of some

global "self-organizing" order. identification of modern " Hammurapi codes of laws" which to regulate (and defend) the new "distributed" society.

New world:-third sector (public non-profit organizations), -fast developing specialized activities, -ad-hoc merging and splitting of organizations,• need for “horizontal” (non-hierarchical) communication

in large organizations ! •nobody knows how to make and keep under

control a non-hierarchical large organization.

The emergence of traffic jams from single cars the network of streets is highly documented and the cars motion can be measured with perfect precision. Yet the formation of jams is not a trivial sum of these.

SIMILAR motion of masses of humans in structured places, especially under pressure (in stadiums as match ends, or in theaters during alarms).

Importance: many human lives.

Traffic Lights on the Spot 

Centralization = major paradigm for control theory deterministic,

and can be developed in a straightforward manner.

portable communication abilities and processing power paradigm shift :

traffic information, instructions, regulations and signals transmitted (and enforced) directly to your car :

Your car will slow and stop at "red lights" (unless you explicitly choose to override)

Reciprocally, the traffic regulator program will take into account your travel plans, constraints, and the condition of your car

in issuing its orders to the other cars.

Unmanned Aerial Traffic3D fit for self-organized (flock) motion:

- less intricate obstacles and easier collision avoidance then 2D- the danger for hurting humans is less direct in unmanned vehicles-humans do not have a head start in 3D navigation skills compared to computers (as opposed to hundreds of thousands of years in 2D).

dramatic improvement of collective -navigation,

-intelligence -ground objects identification

Releasing central control will allow:-adaptive creation, joining and splitting of large flocks -travel at arbitrary distance from home.-Reduce reaction time -enlarge significantly the set of possible tasks -possibility to share flock members location and visual information

=> ad-hoc super-organism

From Integrated Robot Flocks to Dividuals

While 1 human > 1 robot one may have 100 humans < 100 robots.

- simpler objects sharing information more efficient than -a collection of more intelligent object with limited communication

-robots do not first transform the information in words. can share and integrate directly visual, and other non-linearly structured information. -the amount, speed and precision of the data they can share are virtually unlimited.

-Human communication channels not sufficient for fast, precise and efficient integration of their knowledge / information / intelligence.-robots with their capability to determine and share their exact relative position and transmit in detail the raw data "they see“.

Dividuals Flocks of communicating robots NOT as an integrated flock, BUT as spatially divided individuals (call them dividuals) 

Unlike biological creatures, the artificial ones do not have to be spatially connected:

-can have a lot of eyes and ears spread over the entire hunting field.

-do not need to carry-over the reproduction organs when the teeth (mounted on legs) go to kill the pray

(the stomach too can be brought-in only later, in case there is a killing).

Hunting becomes more like farming…

The Internet Challange

Making the Net Work Billions of dollars are lost every year in damage due to -bottlenecks, -congestions, -Denial Of Service caused by

-malicious attacks, - negligence, mistake or simply by

- mis-design. applications and businesses do not move to the Internet due to it

Network design resides today in the realm of computer engineering the algorithms themselves are limited to their “bag of tricks”. FUTURE: algorithms, which treat Internet as a statistical ensemble:•flexible, •vibrant, •trustworthy Internet.

Encounters of the Web kindScience Fiction paradigm:  planet-wide distributed computer system super-brain

Yet, we do believe that a large enough collection of interacting elements can produce more than their sum:

web could develop emergent properties much beyond the cognitive capabilities of its components.

individual computer < the individual human But:"parapsychological" properties of the computers: -any image perceived by one of them at one location of the planet can be immediately shared as such by all.

-they can share their internal state with a precision and candor that even married couples of humans can only envy.

Recognizing and “Contacting” Emergent Web Intelligencepsychological obstacle: People’s insensitivity to even slightly different forms of "intelligence".( In fact various ethnic / racial groups have repeatedly denied one another such capabilities in the past.)

Instead of trying to force upon the computers the human version of intelligence (as tried unsuccessfully for 30 years by AI), one should be more receptive to the kind of intelligence the collections of computer artifacts are "trying" to emerge.

An useful attitude is to approach the contact with web in the same way we would approach a contact with a extraterrestrial potentially intelligent being.

A complementary attitude is to study the collective activity of the web from a cognitive point of view, even to the level of drawing inspiration from known psychological processes and structures.