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Introduction to the Theory of Complex Systems
This book is a comprehensive introduction to quantitative approaches to complex adaptive systems. Practically all areas of life on this planet are constantly confronted with complex systems, be it ecosystems, societies, traffic, financial markets, opinion formation and spreading, or the internet and social media. Complex systems are systems composed of many elements that interact strongly with each other, which makes them extremely rich dynamical systems showing a huge range of phenomena. Properties of complex systems that are of particular importance are their efficiency, robustness, resilience, and proneness to collapse.
The quantitative tools and concepts needed to understand the co-evolutionary nature of networked systems and their properties are challenging. The book gives a self-contained introduction to these concepts, so that the reader will be equipped with a toolset that allows them to engage in the science of complex systems. Topics covered include random and path-dependent processes, co-evolutionary dynamics, dynamics of networks, the theory of scaling, and approaches from statistical mechanics and information theory. The book extends beyond the early classical literature in the field of complex systems and summarizes the methodological progress made over the past 20 years in a clear, structured, and comprehensive way.
The quantitative tools and concepts needed to understand the co-evolutionary nature of networked systems and their properties are challenging. The book gives a self-contained introduction to these concepts, so that the reader will be equipped with a toolset that allows them to engage in the science of complex systems. Topics covered include random and path-dependent processes, co-evolutionary dynamics, dynamics of networks, the theory of scaling, and approaches from statistical mechanics and information theory. The book extends beyond the early classical literature in the field of complex systems and summarizes the methodological progress made over the past 20 years in a clear, structured, and comprehensive way.
448 pages, Hardcover
Published December 4, 2018
25 people are currently reading
676 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 26, 2020
Giving this four stars because even though I only understood about 20% of the book, it fascinated me and occasionally blew my mind.
However, any reviewer that says that only basic math is needed to read this book is clearly detached from reality.
It's really really heavy stuff. I have a hunch though that someone with the right maths foundation would be presented with some very useful tools here. The explanations about how certain formulas are derived and used seemed to be dense, but elaborate enough.
If I manage to retire early and decided to deepen my knowledge about complex systems, I would read this book again, at a snails pace, and then brush up my math in the process.
However, any reviewer that says that only basic math is needed to read this book is clearly detached from reality.
It's really really heavy stuff. I have a hunch though that someone with the right maths foundation would be presented with some very useful tools here. The explanations about how certain formulas are derived and used seemed to be dense, but elaborate enough.
If I manage to retire early and decided to deepen my knowledge about complex systems, I would read this book again, at a snails pace, and then brush up my math in the process.
October 21, 2020
Fantastic reference for those approaching the complex systems field. It requires some calculus and statistics knowledge, but you don’t need to understand all the maths to intuitively grasp the - many, and super interesting - concepts. The authors have been amazing at packaging a lot in a textbook whose narrative feels very cohesive. All sections come with reminders and helpful summaries.
March 5, 2021
Great book on complex systems. There are tons of equations and proofs throughout the book, none of which I could grasp. However, the writings surrounding those equations were understandable and extremely instructive. Thoroughly enjoyed this - a rare 5/5!
March 7, 2025
First textbook I’ve read entirely on my own. Definitely interesting with a lot of useful concepts. I think a lot of the specifics will unfortunately slip from me as I’m not actively using them, so I’m sure I’ll be revisiting this again. Still it gave me a great grasp of how ideas from physics, evolution, and statistics are being combined in this field, which at the end of the day is exactly what I was looking for.
April 3, 2020
Chapter 6 is skipped, and seems to be very important to learn in future to learn about the generalization of entropy.
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October 4, 2020recommendation: Memetics: Hacking Belief Systems
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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