2021/02/15
A few things you should know about complex systems
"Complexity science, also called complex systems science, studies how a large collection of components – locally interacting with each other at small scales – can spontaneously self-organize to exhibit non-trivial global structures and behaviors at larger scales, often without external intervention, central authorities or leaders. The properties of the collection may not be understood or predicted from the full knowledge of its constituents alone. Such a collection is called a complex system and it requires new mathematical frameworks and scientific methodologies for its investigation." A very nice explanation of key concepts with acompanying simulations.
Labels: #ComplexSystems
The Hard Lessons of Modeling the Coronavirus Pandemic
"In the fight against COVID-19, disease modelers have struggled against misunderstanding and misuse of their work. They have also come to realize how unready the state of modeling was for this pandemic." Full article @ Quanta Magazine.
2021/02/08
Michael Goldhaber, Simon and the attention economy
"Most of this came to him in the mid-1980s, when Mr. Goldhaber, a former theoretical physicist, had a revelation. He was obsessed at the time with what he felt was an information glut — that there was simply more access to news, opinion and forms of entertainment than one could handle. His epiphany was this: One of the most finite resources in the world is human attention. To describe its scarcity, he latched onto what was then an obscure term, coined by a psychologist, Herbert A. Simon: 'the attention economy.'" Full article @ NY times.
Labels: #Internet
2021/02/03
To Understand This Era, You Need to Think in Systems
Even though Zeynep Tufekci is a bit dismissive of the existence of complex systems science as a discipline and even departments, this is a great podcast on the Ezra Klein series.
Labels: #SystemsScience, #SystemsThinking
