Complexes

Self-organization can be broadly defined as the ability of a system to display ordered spatiotemporal patterns solely as the result of the interactions among the system components. Processes of this kind characterize both living and artificial systems, making self-organization a concept that is at the basis of several disciplines, from physics to biology and engineering. Placed at the frontiers between disciplines, artificial life (ALife) has heavily borrowed concepts and tools from the study of self-organization, providing mechanistic interpretations of lifelike phenomena as well as useful constructivist approaches to artificial system design. Despite its broad usage within ALife, the concept of self-organization has been often excessively stretched or misinterpreted, calling for a clarification that could help with tracing the borders between what can and cannot be considered self-organization. In this review, we discuss the fundamental aspects of self-organization and list the main ...

//Please forward to whom may be interested. The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has an open call for postdoctoral fellowships to start in  September, 2020 . Candidates should have obtained a PhD degree within the last five years to the date of the beginning of the fellowship. The area of interests of candidates should fall within complex systems, artificial life, information, evolution, cognition, robotics, and/or philosophy. Interested candidates should send CV and a tentative project/research interests (1 paragraph) to cgg-at-unam.mx by  February 10th  (we need some time for paperwork).  Postdoctoral fellowships are between one and two years (after renewal). Spanish is not a requisite. Accepted candidates would be working at the Computer Science Department ( http://turing.iimas.unam.mx  ) of the IIMAS ( http://www.iimas.unam.mx  ), and/or at the Center for Complexity Sciences ( http://c3.unam.mx/  ), both at UNAM's...

A month late, but I share a draft where we propose a simple measure of antifragility and apply it to random and biological Boolean networks. Spoiler: biological networks are antifragile. Abstract: Antifragility is a property that enhances the capability of a system in response to external perturbations. Although the concept has been applied in many areas, a practical measure of antifragility has not been developed yet. Here we propose a simply calculable measure of antifragility, based on the change of "satisfaction" before and after adding perturbations, and apply it to random Boolean networks (RBNs). Using the measure, we found that ordered RBNs are the most antifragile. Also, we demonstrate that seven biological systems are antifragile. Our measure and results can be used in various applications of Boolean networks (BNs) including creating antifragile engineering systems, identifying the genetic mechanism of antifragile biological systems, and developing new treatment st...

My first philosophical text in years, comments welcome. Information theory has been developed for seventy years with technological applications that have transformed our societies. The increasing ability to store, transmit, and process information is having a revolutionary impact in most disciplines. The goal of this work is to compare the formal approach to information with Buddhist philosophy. Considering both approaches as compatible and complementary, I argue that information theory can improve our understanding of Buddhist philosophy and vice versa. The resulting synthesis leads to a worldview based on information that overcomes limitations of the currently dominating physics-based worldview. Gershenson, Carlos, Information in Science and Buddhist Philosophy: Towards a non-Materialistic Worldview (October 4, 2018). https://ssrn.com/abstract=3261381

The  Computer Science Department  of the  Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas  (IIMAS) of the  Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México  (UNAM) has a  open call  for a research professor in  data science  for the new UNAM campus in Mérida, Yucatán . This position, aimed at young researchers, consists of renewable one-year contracts with the possibility of tenure after three years. Application deadline: February 23, 2018 . More information Dr. Edgar Garduño Head of Computer Science Department edgargar AT unam DOT mx

The equal headway instability—the fact that a configuration with regular time intervals between vehicles tends to be volatile—is a common regulation problem in public transportation systems. An unsatisfactory regulation results in low efficiency and possible collapses of the service. Computational simulations have shown that self-organizing methods can regulate the headway adaptively beyond the theoretical optimum. In this work, we develop a computer simulation for metro systems fed with real data from the Mexico City Metro to test the current regulatory method with a novel self-organizing approach. The current model considers overall system’s data such as minimum and maximum waiting times at stations, while the self-organizing method regulates the headway in a decentralized manner using local information such as the passenger’s inflow and the positions of neighboring trains. The simulation shows that the self-organizing method improves the performance over the current one as it adapts...

Two generalizations of the traveling salesman problem in which sites change their position in time are presented. The way the rank of different trajectory lengths changes in time is studied using the rank diversity. We analyze the statistical properties of rank distributions and rank dynamics and give evidence that the shortest and longest trajectories are more predictable and robust to change, that is, more stable. Trajectory stability in the traveling salesman problem Sergio Sánchez, Germinal Cocho, Jorge Flores, Carlos Gershenson, Gerardo Iñiguez, Carlos Pineda https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.06945

Traffic signals are ubiquitous devices that first appeared in 1868. Recent advances in information and communications technology (ICT) have led to unprecedented improvements in such areas as mobile handheld devices (i.e., smartphones), the electric power industry (i.e., smart grids), transportation infrastructure, and vehicle area networks. Given the trend towards interconnectivity, it is only a matter of time before vehicles communicate with one another and with infrastructure. In fact, several pilots of such vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure (e.g. traffic lights and parking spaces) communication systems are already operational. This survey of autonomous and self-organized traffic signaling control has been undertaken with these potential developments in mind. Our research results indicate that, while many sophisticated techniques have attempted to improve the scheduling of traffic signal control, either real-time sensing of traffic patterns or a priori knowledge of tra...

Self-organizing traffic lights have shown considerable improvements compared to traditional methods in computer simulations. Self-organizing methods, however, use sophisticated sensors, increasing their cost and limiting their deployment. We propose a novel approach using simple sensors to achieve self-organizing traffic light coordination. The proposed approach involves placing a computer and a presence sensor at the beginning of each block; each such sensor detects a single vehicle. Each computer builds a virtual environment simulating vehicle movement to predict arrivals and departures at the downstream intersection. At each intersection, a computer receives information across a data network from the computers of the neighboring blocks and runs a self-organizing method to control traffic lights. Our simulations showed a superior performance for our approach compared with a traditional method (a green wave) and a similar performance (close to optimal) compared with a self-organizing ...

We present a set of Matlab/Octave functions to compute measures of emergence, self-organization, and complexity applied to discrete and continuous data. These measures are based on Shannon’s information and differential entropy. Examples from different datasets and probability distributions are provided to show how to use our proposed code. Santamaría-Bonfil, G., Gershenson, C. & Fernández, N. (2017). A package for measuring emergence, self-organization, and complexity based on Shannon entropy. Frontiers in Robotics and AI , 4 :10. http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frobt.2017.00010/full

Highlights • The useful of quantitative indicators of ecological complexity is evaluated. • Chaos should not be confused with complexity. • Light and temperature cause different ranges of complexity in the gradient. • Homoeostasis variation is related to the seasonal changes and transitions. • Autopoiesis reveals groups with higher and lower degree of autonomy. Abstract Measuring complexity is fast becoming a key instrument to compare different ecosystems at various scales in ecology. To date there has been little agreement on how to properly describe complexity in terms of ecology. In this regard, this manuscript assesses the significance of using a set of proposed measures based on information theory. These measures are as follows: emergence, self-organization, complexity, homeostasis and autopoiesis. A combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches was used in the data analysis with the aim to apply these proposed measures. This study system...

//Please forward to whom might be interested CCS'17: The Conference on Complex Systems 2017  Cancun, Mexico. September 17-22.  http://ccs17.unam.mx The flagship conference of the  Complex Systems Society  will go to Latin America for the first time in 2017. The Mexican complex systems community is enthusiast to welcome colleagues to one of our richest destinations: Cancun. The conference will include presentations by the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Mario Molina (environment), Raissa D'Souza (network science), Ranulfo Romo (neuroscience), Jaime Urrutia-Fucugauchi (geophysics), Antonio Lazcano (origins of life), Marta González (human mobility), Dirk Brockmann (epidemiology), Kristina Lerman (information sciences), Stefano Battiston (economics), John Quackenbush (computational biology), Giovanna Miritello (data science), and more TBA. We invite abstract contributions (500 words maximum) for oral presentations or posters in the follow...

//Please forward to whom may be interested.

 The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has an open call for postdoctoral fellowships to start in  September, 2017 . 

Candidates should have obtained a PhD degree within the last five years to the date of the beginning of the fellowship.
 There will be another call to begin March, 2018 closing around June 2017.
 The area of interests of candidates should fall within complex systems, networks, artificial life, urbanism, information, evolution, cognition, robotics, and/or philosophy.

 Interested candidates should send CV and a tentative project/research interests (1 paragraph) to cgg-at-unam.mx by  Tuesday, January 31st  (paperwork has to be made before February 3rd).  Postdoctoral fellowships are between one and two years (after renewal).
 Spanish is not a requisite.
 Accepted candidates would be working at the Computer Science Department ( http://turing.iimas.unam.mx  ) of the ...

We apply game theory to a vehicular traffic model to study the effect of driver strategies on traffic flow. The resulting model inherits the realistic dynamics achieved by a two-lane traffic model and aims to incorporate phenomena caused by driver-driver interactions. To achieve this goal, a game-theoretic description of driver interaction was developed. This game-theoretic formalization allows one to model different lane-changing behaviors and to keep track of mobility performance. We simulate the evolution of cooperation, traffic flow, and mobility performance for different modeled behaviors. The analysis of these results indicates a mobility optimization process achieved by drivers’ interactions. Cortés-Berrueco LE, Gershenson C, Stephens CR (2016) Traffic Games: Modeling Freeway Traffic with Game Theory. PLoS ONE 11 (11): e0165381. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0165381

Cities are changing constantly. All urban systems face different conditions from day to day. Even when averaged regularities can be found, urban systems will be more efficient if they can adapt to changes at the same speeds at which these occur. Technology can assist humans in achieving this adaptation. Inspired by cybernetics, we propose a description of cities as adaptive systems. We identify three main components: information, algorithms, and agents, which we illustrate with current and future examples. The implications of adaptive cities are manifold, with direct impacts on mobility, sustainability, resilience, governance, and society. Still, the potential of adaptive cities will not depend so much on technology as on how we use it. Adaptive Cities: A Cybernetic Perspective on Urban Systems Carlos Gershenson, Paolo Santi, Carlo Ratti http://arxiv.org/abs/1609.02000

Urban mobility systems are composed multiple elements with strong interactions, i.e. their future is co-determined by the state of other elements. Thus, studying components in isolation, i.e. using a reductionist approach, is inappropriate. I propose five recommendations to improve urban mobility based on insights from the scientific study of complex systems: use adaptation over prediction, regulate interactions to avoid friction, use sensors to recover real time information, develop adaptive algorithms to exploit that information, and deploy agents to act on the urban environment. Improving Urban Mobility by Understanding its Complexity Carlos Gershenson http://arxiv.org/abs/1603.04267

ALife XV: The Fifteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems will take place in Cancun, Mexico, on July 4-8, 2016.  The deadline for paper and abstract submissions was extended to  February 29th . This extension is final.  All accepted contributions will be published by MIT Press as open online proceedings. There are two submission options: Full papers (8 pages) should report on new, unpublished work. Extended abstracts (2 pages) can report on previously published work, but offer a new perspective on that work. Submitted or novel work is also acceptable for abstracts. Accepted works will be selected as oral or poster presentations. Submissions can be made also for a  Special Session on ALife and Society . The  Call for Artworks  is out. Accepted Workshops and Tutorials will be announced soon. We are happy to announce that our keynote speakers cover a wide variety of topics and include  R...

//Please forward to whom may be interested.

 The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has an open call for postdoctoral fellowships to start in September, 2016 . 

Candidates should have obtained a PhD degree within the last three years and be under 36 years, both to the date of the beginning of the fellowship.

 The area of interests of candidates should fall within complex systems, artificial life, information, evolution, cognition, robotics, and/or philosophy.

 Interested candidates should send CV and a tentative project/research interests (1 paragraph) to cgg-at-unam.mx by  Monday, February 8th  (if starting in September 2016, otherwise in the coming months, there will be a later call for March, 2017 with a summer deadline).  Postdoctoral fellowships are between one and two years (after renewal).
 Spanish is not a requisite.
 Accepted candidates would be working at the Computer Science Department ( http://turing.iimas.unam.mx  ) o...

Paper/ abstract submission deadline: February 14th, 2016 Notification to authors: March 25th, 2016 Camera ready due: April 24th, 2016 The Fifteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALife XV) will be held in Cancun, Mexico on July 4th-8th, 2016. http://xva.life We cordially invite you to submit your work in either full paper (8 pages) or extended abstract (2 pages) format. Accepted papers and abstracts will be published by MIT Press as  open-access electronic proceedings .  Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following aspects of Artificial Life: – Computational humanities/anthropology/archeology – Evolution of language, computational linguistics – Bio-inspired, cognitive and evolutionary robotics – Self-replication, self-repair and morphogenesis – Artificial chemistry, origins of life – Cellular automata and discrete dynamical systems – Perception, cognition and behavior – Embodied, intera...

The  Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas  (IIMAS) of the  Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México  (UNAM) has an open call for a research professor position in bioinformatics . This position, aimed consists of renewable one-year contracts with the possibility of tenure after three years. The aim of these positions is to create a research group in the new campus of UNAM in Mérida, Yucatán , part of the Science and Technology Park of Yucatán . Application deadline: October 12, 2015. More details (in Spanish) at this link .