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Complexity Explained

complexityexplained.github.io

71–80 of 128 posts

Re: Complexity Explained

#71

This website was a neat resource. The whole point of complexity science is that there are domains with computational irreducibility where in order to estimate system behaviors we can not rely on formulaic models, in complexity science we instead make use of computer models via simulation to try and approach dynamics. As potential further reading, one of the cited authors gave a lecture on intersections of AI and comp…

AI originally grew out of complexity science, in the form of cybernetics - hence cybernetics' popular association with AI.

Re: Complexity Explained

#72

I hope to see the end of LaTex only explanations. The site already has simulations so one must assume it has code that could codify those LaTex eqs. Perhaps a ‘things ever ___ should know about ___’ is needed for mathematicians and notation. Ala, “some disciplines use the same symbols for different functions” and “many symbols are intended to obfuscate details for ease of hand writing”. Perhaps this is meant as a col…

When you say "LaTeX", do you mean... maths? I'm confused about what's your criticism.

Re: Complexity Explained

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found the material from the Systems Innovation group instructive on the presence and application of some of the aspects of complexity in the real world: https://www.systemsinnovation.io/course

Thanks for the link! I'm looking for a course that really does get into the weeds about applying complexity theory to create value for my work. Would you recommend one of their listed courses in particular?

I think most of the video media inside the courses are also available on youtube - maybe you can stroll through those to see if any reach the level of detail you could use?

https://www.youtube.com/c/ComplexityLearningLab/videos

Re: Complexity Explained

#75
post #6

Nice idea, however the readability/contrast... Author, please read: https://contrastrebellion.com/

Holy hell that website is awfully designed. Why does it try to snap my scrolling position to what it thinks is the right position? It doesn’t even work, it jumps around like hell, I try to click through the examples and it just kicks me to the bottom. This is exactly the same idiocy of bad and unaccessible design for aesthetic purposes that the site complains about. The irony is palpable.

Re: Complexity Explained

#76

It covers how little it contains with how flashy it is.

Certain topics like "complexity theory" or even "artificial intelligence" attract this sort of thing. It's easy to appear that you're saying insightful things without actually saying anything at all.

Re: Complexity Explained

#77

Complexity theory is interesting and useful. However, because it's approximately descriptive, rather than accurately predictive, the field is haunted by quantum woo merchants, grand metaphysical unifiers, quasi-ecological musings and Buddha-lite pantheism. Which is neither interesting nor useful, except perhaps as a sociological phenomenon. Discuss.

I don't think there's anything wrong with thinking about the philosophical side of complexity theory, I do quite a lot and arguably fall into the second and fourth categories you've described. You are, of course, free to not be interested in metaphysical philosophy.

Woo merchants latch onto anything science-sounding that they can, as they're trying to steal authority by use of jargon, so I don't think that's unique to systems science - but their influence is of course extremely toxic as they both kill people and erode the authority of the subjects they steal from.

Re: Complexity Explained

#78
post #23

I recently had the (possibly flawed) epiphany that all behavior is emergent . If you think about it, all things that we consider objects are just semi-permanent aggregations of fundamental particles that we recognize and label as objects for convenience of thought. When the patterns in such aggregations are outside the space and time scales that allow human minds to recognize them, the only label available is "comple…

This is the reality of bottom up organisation, and is basically a completely different metaphysics to the current Western modernist one. Going further down this path of thought will lead you to ideas like constructivism, teleology, and non-dualism - all ideas that have long philosophical histories but are currently out of vogue.

Is this not similar to the philosophy of capitalism (at least as posited by Adam Smith) upon which much of modern Western thought rests? Arguably it's also very much reflected in John Locke's work as well as many philosophical foundations for democratic institutions.

Re: Complexity Explained

#79

How does complexity theory benefit real people? Unlike theories of physics or economics, it doesn't appear to describe how anything actually works , rather that things are just more complex than they seem. For instance, complexity theory just points out that the double pendulum is hard to predict without adding value, while controls theory was more useful by stabilizing the double pendulum. So what are some real-worl…

Complexity theory is fascinating in itself (talking about how efficiently solvable or complex a problem is in an absolute, mathematical way), but also can spur a lot of research. As an example, integer factoring is strongly believed to be hard for classical computers (in a well defined complexity theory sense). When Peter Shor presented an efficient quantum algorithm for integer factoring in 1994 it was a breakthroug…

Complex systems theory is not complexity theory from theoretical computer science.

Re: Complexity Explained

#80
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the reality of bottom up organisation, and is basically a completely different metaphysics to the current Western modernist one. Going further down this path of thought will lead you to ideas like constructivism, teleology, and non-dualism - all ideas that have long philosophical histories but are currently out of vogue.

Is this not similar to the philosophy of capitalism (at least as posited by Adam Smith) upon which much of modern Western thought rests? Arguably it's also very much reflected in John Locke's work as well as many philosophical foundations for democratic institutions.

yes there are some Western philosophical foundations which treat organisation as bottom-up at certain levels of abstraction - Adam Smith on the economic level, Locke and Hobbes on the sociopolitical level, and so on. I think we have a good cultural understanding of human beings as existing in a network. But we don't consistently apply this perspective. For example:

- individualism treats individuals as good or bad, successful or unsuccessful based on their outcomes without regard for the structural incentives around that person.

- we still categorically divide between "life" and "not-life", treating life (and especially consciousness) as a conundrum and "not-life" as dead matter. We try our best not to look at the fuzzy edges between life and not-life. I would argue that this is a hang-over from Abrahamic dualism (the spiritual inhabiting the material), and that there is no distinction but instead a continuum from less-organised to more-organised. We do the same as the above with many other issues of category.

- Identity isn't concrete in bottom-up organisation. The Ship of Theseus, for example, is not a paradox when you take a bottom-up metaphysical approach. The illusion of identity is only propagation of a pattern.

TL;DR - yes, we do have some ideas around bottom-up organisation, but they're not applied consistently or across the board.

If you think all this sounds like woo, then you are at least in agreement that these ideas are not Western modernist canon.

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