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Barry Wellman
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FRSC NetLab Network INSNA Founder
University of Toronto Toronto Canada
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman twitter: @barrywellman
NETWORKED:The New Social Operating System. Lee Rainie & Barry Wellman
MIT Press http://amzn.to/zXZg39 Print $15 Kindle $9
Old/NewCyberTimes http://bit.ly/c8N9V8
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Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 14:28:37 -0600
From: Complexity Digest Administration <[log in to unmask]>
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Subject: [comdig] Latest Complexity Digest Posts
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Big Questions Come In Bundles, Hence They Should Be Tackled Systemically
Problems come in all kinds and sizes. Small problems call for the use of known tools found in circumscribed fields, whereas big problems call for further research, which may require breaching disciplinary walls. This is because every small problem concerns some separable system whose components are so weakly linked with one another, that it may be reduced to an aggregate, at least to a first approximation.
I submit that (a) every problem concerns some system, and (b) analysis works only provided the system components are so loosely linked, that they can be treated as if they were isolated items. These methodological assumptions are key principles of systemism, the philosophy first expounded by d˙˙Holbach in the 18th century, and rescued by Bertalanffy and his companions in the general systems movement in the last century.
Systems and systemism are so little known in the philosophical community, that the vast majority of philosophical dictionaries have ignored them. By contrast, all scientists and technologists have practiced systemism ˙˙ except when they failed for having adopted either of the alternatives to systemism, namely atomism and holism.
A number of examples taken from contemporary science and technology are analyzed, from the entanglement typical of quantum physics to the design of social policies. Along the way we define the concept of a system, and note that (a) analysis is the dual of synthesis rather than its opposite; (b) systemism should not be mistaken for holism, because the former recommends combining the bottom-up with the top-down strategies; (c) systemism encourages the convergence or fusion of disciplines rather than reductionism. The recent replacement of GDP with more complex social indicators as the measure of social progress is regarded as a victory of the systemic view of society.
Finally, I argue that systemism is no less than a component of the philosophical matrix of scientific and technological research, along with epistemological realism, ontological materialism, scientism, and humanism. I also argue in favor of Anatol Rapoport˙˙s view, that systems theory is not a theory proper but a viewpoint or approach that helps pose problems and place them in their context.
Big Questions Come In Bundles, Hence They Should Be Tackled Systemically
Mario Bunge
http://www.systema-journal.org/article/view/346
See it on Scoop.it (http://www.scoop.it/t/papers/p/4034970359/2015/01/11/big-questions-come-in-bundles-hence-they-should-be-tackled-systemically) , via Papers (http://www.scoop.it/t/papers)
Collective behaviors and networks
The goal of this thematic series is to provide a discussion venue about recent advances in the study of networks and their applications to the study of collective behavior in socio-technical systems. The series includes contributions exploring the intersection between data-driven studies of complex networks and agent-based models of collective social behavior. Particular attention is devoted to topics aimed at understanding social behavior through the lens of data about technology-mediated communication. These include: modeling social dynamics of attention and collaboration, characterizing online group formation and evolution, and studying the emergence of roles and interaction patterns in social media environments.
Collective behaviors and networks
Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, Emilio Ferrara and Alessandro Flammini
EPJ Data Science 2014, 3:37 http://dx.doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-014-0037-6
See it on Scoop.it (http://www.scoop.it/t/papers/p/4034974076/2015/01/10/collective-behaviors-and-networks) , via Papers (http://www.scoop.it/t/papers)
Social networks in primates: smart and tolerant species have more efficient networks
Network optimality has been described in genes, proteins and human communicative networks. In the latter, optimality leads to the efficient transmission of information with a minimum number of connections. Whilst studies show that differences in centrality exist in animal networks with central individuals having higher fitness, network efficiency has never been studied in animal groups. Here we studied 78 groups of primates (24 species). We found that group size and neocortex ratio were correlated with network efficiency. Centralisation (whether several individuals are central in the group) and modularity (how a group is clustered) had opposing effects on network efficiency, showing that tolerant species have more efficient networks. Such network properties affecting individual fitness could be shaped by natural selection. Our results are in accordance with the social brain and cultural intelligence hypotheses, which suggest that the importance of network efficiency and
information flow through social learning relates to cognitive abilities.
Social networks in primates: smart and tolerant species have more efficient networks
˙˙ Cristian Pasquaretta, Marine Levé, Nicolas Claidičre, Erica van de Waal, Andrew Whiten, Andrew J. J. MacIntosh, Marie Pelé, Mackenzie L. Bergstrom, Christčle Borgeaud, Sarah F. Brosnan, Margaret C. Crofoot, Linda M. Fedigan, Claudia Fichtel, Lydia M. Hopper, Mary Catherine Mareno, Odile Petit, Anna Viktoria Schnoell, Eugenia Polizzi di Sorrentino, Bernard Thierry, Barbara Tiddi et al.
Scientific Reports 4, Article number: 7600 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep07600
See it on Scoop.it (http://www.scoop.it/t/papers/p/4034967876/2015/01/10/social-networks-in-primates-smart-and-tolerant-species-have-more-efficient-networks) , via Papers (http://www.scoop.it/t/papers)
Links that speak: The global language network and its association with global fame
People have long debated about the global influence of languages. The speculations that fuel this debate, however, rely on measures of language importance˙˙such as income and population˙˙that lack external validation as measures of a language˙˙s global influence. Here we introduce a metric of a language˙˙s global influence based on its position in the network connecting languages that are co-spoken. We show that the connectivity of a language in this network, after controlling for the number of speakers of a language and their income, remains a strong predictor of a language˙˙s influence when validated against two independent measures of the cultural content produced by a language˙˙s speakers.
Links that speak: The global language network and its association with global fame
Shahar Ronen, Bruno Gonçalves, Kevin Z. Hu, Alessandro Vespignani, Steven Pinker, and César A. Hidalgo
PNAS vol. 111 no. 52, E5616˙˙E5622, http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1410931111
See it on Scoop.it (http://www.scoop.it/t/papers/p/4034971361/2015/01/09/links-that-speak-the-global-language-network-and-its-association-with-global-fame) , via Papers (http://www.scoop.it/t/papers)
Pain: A Distributed Brain Information Network?
Understanding how pain is processed in the brain has been an enduring puzzle, because there doesn't appear to be a single ˙˙pain cortex˙˙ that directly codes the subjective perception of pain. An emerging concept is that, instead, pain might emerge from the coordinated activity of an integrated brain network. In support of this view, Woo and colleagues present evidence that distinct brain networks support the subjective changes in pain that result from nociceptive input and self-directed cognitive modulation. This evidence for the sensitivity of distinct neural subsystems to different aspects of pain opens up the way to more formal computational network theories of pain.
Mano H, Seymour B (2015) Pain: A Distributed Brain Information Network? PLoS Biol 13(1): e1002037. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002037
Complexity Digest's insight:
It is interesting that emergence seems to be becoming a less controversial concept in science.
See it on Scoop.it (http://www.scoop.it/t/papers/p/4034966500/2015/01/09/pain-a-distributed-brain-information-network) , via Papers (http://www.scoop.it/t/papers)
PhD Scholarships in Complex Systems @Sydney_Uni
Funding is available for applicants interested in carrying out fundamental and applied research in the field of complex systems. The research will involve theoretical work as well as computer simulations. It will aim to discover fundamental connections between information-theoretic and statistical-mechanical approaches to self-organisation, while investigating a variety of topics in nonlinear critical phenomena, with particular focus on information dynamics during phase transitions.
The PhD will be supervised by Prof. Mikhail Prokopenko. The applicant will join the Complex Systems Research Group (CSRG) at The School of Civil Engineering ˙˙ The University of Sydney. The CSRG group comprises ten academics, and has wide collaborations across the University, Australia, and internationally. It is a vibrant, world-leading group in the fields of guided self-organisation and critical phenomena forecasting.
...
The scholarship also includes covering the fees payable by international students.
See it on Scoop.it (http://www.scoop.it/t/cxannouncements/p/4034784566/2015/01/07/phd-scholarships-in-complex-systems-sydney-uni) , via CxAnnouncements (http://www.scoop.it/t/cxannouncements)
Threshold cascades with response heterogeneity in multiplex networks
Threshold cascade models have been used to describe the spread of behavior in social networks and cascades of default in financial networks. In some cases, these networks may have multiple kinds of interactions, such as distinct types of social ties or distinct types of financial liabilities; furthermore, nodes may respond in different ways to influence from their neighbors of multiple types. To start to capture such settings in a stylized way, we generalize a threshold cascade model to a multiplex network in which nodes follow one of two response rules: some nodes activate when, in at least one layer, a large enough fraction of neighbors is active, while the other nodes activate when, in all layers, a large enough fraction of neighbors is active. Varying the fractions of nodes following either rule facilitates or inhibits cascades. Near the inhibition regime, global cascades appear discontinuously as the network density increases; however, the cascade grows more slowly
over time. This behavior suggests a way in which various collective phenomena in the real world could appear abruptly yet slowly.
Lee, K.-M., Brummitt, C. D., & Goh, K.-I. (2014). Threshold cascades with response heterogeneity in multiplex networks. Physical Review E, 90(6), 062816. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.90.062816
See it on Scoop.it (http://www.scoop.it/t/papers/p/4034396942/2015/01/06/threshold-cascades-with-response-heterogeneity-in-multiplex-networks) , via Papers (http://www.scoop.it/t/papers)
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