Download or read book Evolving Hierarchical Systems written by Stanley N. Salthe and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolving Hierarchical Systems
Download or read book Evolving Hierarchical Systems written by Stanley N. Salthe and published by . This book was released on 1989-11-01 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Evolutionary Theory written by Niles Eldredge and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-09-23 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The natural world is infinitely complex and hierarchically structured, with smaller units forming the components of progressively larger systems: molecules make up cells, cells comprise tissues and organs that are, in turn, parts of individual organisms, which are united into populations and integrated into yet more encompassing ecosystems. In the face of such awe-inspiring complexity, there is a need for a comprehensive, non-reductionist evolutionary theory. Having emerged at the crossroads of paleobiology, genetics, and developmental biology, the hierarchical approach to evolution provides a unifying perspective on the natural world and offers an operational framework for scientists seeking to understand the way complex biological systems work and evolve. Coedited by one of the founders of hierarchy theory and featuring a diverse and renowned group of contributors, this volume provides an integrated, comprehensive, cutting-edge introduction to the hierarchy theory of evolution. From sweeping historical reviews to philosophical pieces, theoretical essays, and strictly empirical chapters, it reveals hierarchy theory as a vibrant field of scientific enterprise that holds promise for unification across the life sciences and offers new venues of empirical and theoretical research. Stretching from molecules to the biosphere, hierarchy theory aims to provide an all-encompassing understanding of evolution and—with this first collection devoted entirely to the concept—will help make transparent the fundamental patterns that propel living systems.
Download or read book Freedom and Evolution written by Adrian Bejan and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-12-06 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book begins with familiar designs found all around and inside us (such as the ‘trees’ of river basins, human lungs, blood and city traffic). It then shows how all flow systems are driven by power from natural engines everywhere, and how they are endlessly shaped because of freedom. Finally, Professor Bejan explains how people, like everything else that moves on earth, are driven by power derived from our “engines” that consume fuel and food, and that our movement dissipates the power completely and changes constantly for greater access, economies of scale, efficiency, innovation and life. Written for wide audiences of all ages, including readers interested in science, patterns in nature, similarity and non-uniformity, history and the future, and those just interested in having fun with ideas, the book shows how many “design change” concepts acquire a solid scientific footing and how they exist with the evolution of nature, society, technology and science.
Download or read book Dynamics of Hierarchical Systems written by John S. Nicolis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The main aim of these lectures is to tri gger the interest of the restless under graduate student of physical, mathematical, engineering, or biological sciences in the new and exciting multidisciplinary area of the evolution of "large-scale" dynamical systems. This text grew out of a synthesis of rather heterogeneous mate rial that I presented on various occasions and in different contexts. For example, from lectures given since 1972 to first- and final-year undergraduate and first year graduate students at the School of Engineering of the University of Patras and from informal seminars offered to an international group of graduate and post doctoral students and faculty members at the University of Stuttgart in the aca demic year 1982-1983. Those who search for rigor or even formality in this book are bound to be rather disappointed. My intention is to start from "scratch" if possible, keeping the rea soning heuristic and tied as closely as possible to physical intuition; I assume as prerequisites just basic knowledge of (classical) physics (at the level of the Berkeley series or the Feynman lectures), calculus, and some elements of probabil ity theory. This does not mean that I intended to write an easy book, but rather to eliminate any difficulty for an eager reader who, in spite of incomplete for malistic training, would like to become acquainted with the physical ideas and con cepts underlying the evolution and dynamics of complex systems.
Download or read book Human Evolution and the Origins of Hierarchies written by Benoît Dubreuil and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-09-06 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Benoît Dubreuil explores the creation and destruction of hierarchies in human evolution. Combining the methods of archaeology, anthropology, cognitive neuroscience and primatology, he offers a natural history of hierarchies from the point of view of both cultural and biological evolution. This volume explains why dominance hierarchies typical of primate societies disappeared in the human lineage and why the emergence of large-scale societies during the Neolithic period implied increased social differentiation, the creation of status hierarchies, and, eventually, political centralisation.
Download or read book Dynamics Among Nations written by Hilton L. Root and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-11 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An innovative view of the changing geopolitical landscape that draws on the science of complex adaptive systems to understand changes in global interaction. Liberal internationalism has been the West's foreign policy agenda since the Cold War, and the West has long occupied the top rung of a hierarchical system. In this book, Hilton Root argues that international relations, like other complex ecosystems, exists in a constantly shifting landscape, in which hierarchical structures are giving way to systems of networked interdependence, changing every facet of global interaction. Accordingly, policymakers will need a new way to understand the process of change. Root suggests that the science of complex systems offers an analytical framework to explain the unforeseen development failures, governance trends, and alliance shifts in today's global political economy. Root examines both the networked systems that make up modern states and the larger, interdependent landscapes they share. Using systems analysis—in which institutional change and economic development are understood as self-organizing complexities—he offers an alternative view of institutional resilience and persistence. From this perspective, Root considers the divergence of East and West; the emergence of the European state, its contrast with the rise of China, and the network properties of their respective innovation systems; the trajectory of democracy in developing regions; and the systemic impact of China on the liberal world order. Complexity science, Root argues, will not explain historical change processes with algorithmic precision, but it may offer explanations that match the messy richness of those processes.
Download or read book Design in Nature written by Adrian Bejan and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2013-01-08 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking book, Adrian Bejan takes the recurring patterns in nature—trees, tributaries, air passages, neural networks, and lightning bolts—and reveals how a single principle of physics, the constructal law, accounts for the evolution of these and many other designs in our world. Everything—from biological life to inanimate systems—generates shape and structure and evolves in a sequence of ever-improving designs in order to facilitate flow. River basins, cardiovascular systems, and bolts of lightning are very efficient flow systems to move a current—of water, blood, or electricity. Likewise, the more complex architecture of animals evolve to cover greater distance per unit of useful energy, or increase their flow across the land. Such designs also appear in human organizations, like the hierarchical “flowcharts” or reporting structures in corporations and political bodies. All are governed by the same principle, known as the constructal law, and configure and reconfigure themselves over time to flow more efficiently. Written in an easy style that achieves clarity without sacrificing complexity, Design in Nature is a paradigm-shifting book that will fundamentally transform our understanding of the world around us.
Download or read book Hierarchy Theory written by Valerie Ahl and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This basic guide introduces the relationships between observation, perception, and learning that form the substance of hierarchy theory. This theory aims to answer the question of whether there is a basic structure to nature, comprising discreet levels of organization within an overall pattern.
Download or read book Dynamics On and Of Complex Networks III written by Fakhteh Ghanbarnejad and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-05-13 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book bridges the gap between advances in the communities of computer science and physics--namely machine learning and statistical physics. It contains diverse but relevant topics in statistical physics, complex systems, network theory, and machine learning. Examples of such topics are: predicting missing links, higher-order generative modeling of networks, inferring network structure by tracking the evolution and dynamics of digital traces, recommender systems, and diffusion processes. The book contains extended versions of high-quality submissions received at the workshop, Dynamics On and Of Complex Networks (doocn.org), together with new invited contributions. The chapters will benefit a diverse community of researchers. The book is suitable for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and professors of various disciplines including sociology, physics, mathematics, and computer science.
Download or read book Memory Evolutive Systems Hierarchy Emergence Cognition written by A C Ehresmann and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2007-05-25 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Memory Evolutive Systems; Hierarchy, Emergence, Cognition provides comprehensive and comprehensible coverage of Memory Evolutive Systems (MEM). Written by the developers of the MEM, the book proposes a mathematical model for autonomous evolutionary systems based on the Category Theory of mathematics. It describes a framework to study and possibly simulate the structure of living systems and their dynamic behavior. This book contributes to understanding the multidisciplinary interfaces between mathematics, cognition, consciousness, biology and the study of complexity. It is organized into three parts. Part A deals with hierarchy and emergence and covers such topics as net of interactions and categories; the binding problem; and complexifications and emergence. Part B is about MEM while Part C discusses MEM applications to cognition and consciousness. The book explores the characteristics of a complex evolutionary system, its differences from inanimate physical systems, and its functioning and evolution in time, from its birth to its death. This book is an ideal reference for researchers, teachers and students in pure mathematics, computer science, cognitive science, study of complexity and systems theory, Category Theory, biological systems theory, and consciousness theory. It would also be of interest to both individuals and institutional libraries. Comprehensive and comprehensible coverage of Memory Evolutive System Written by the developers of the Memory Evolutive Systems Designed to explore the common language between sciences
Download or read book Evolutionary Theory written by Niles Eldredge and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-09-23 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The natural world is infinitely complex and hierarchically structured, with smaller units forming the components of larger systems: genes are components genomes, cells are building blocks of tissues and organs, individuals are members of populations, which, in turn, are parts of species. In the face of such awe inspiring complexity, scientists need tools like the hierarchy theory of evolution, which provides a theoretical framework and an interdisciplinary research program that aims to understand the way complex biological systems work and evolve. The multidisciplinary approach looks at the structure of the myriad intricate interactions across levels of organization that range from molecules to the biosphere. Evolutionary Theory: A Hierarchical Perspective provides an introduction to the theory, which is currently driving a great deal of research in bioinformatics and evolutionary theory. Written by a diverse and renowned group of contributors, and edited by the founder of Hierachy Theory Niles Eldredge, this work will help make transparent the fundamental patterns driving living sytems.
Download or read book Development and Evolution written by Stanley N. Salthe and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Development and Evolution surveys and illuminates the key themes of rapidly changing fields and areas of controversy that the redefining the theory and philosophy of biology. It continues Stanley Salthe's investigation of evolutionary theory, begun in his influential book Evolving Hierarchical Systems, while negating the implicit philosophical mechanisms of much of that work. Here Salthe attempts to reinitiate a theory of biology from the perspective of development rather than from that of evolution, recognizing the applicability of general systems thinking to biological and social phenomena and pointing towards a non-Darwinian and even a postmodern biology.
Download or read book Evolution Order and Complexity written by Kenneth Boulding and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-01-04 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolution, Order and Complexity reflects topical interest in the relationship between the social and natural worlds. It represents the cutting edge of current thinking which challenges the natural/social dichotomy thesis by showing how the application of ideas which derive from biology can be applied and offer insight into the social realm. This is done by introducing the general system theory to the methodological debate on the relation of human and natural sciences.
Download or read book Pathways to the Origin and Evolution of Meanings in the Universe written by Alexei A. Sharov and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2024-04-02 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pathways to the Origin and Evolition of Meanings in the Universe The book explains why meaning is a part of the universe populated by life, and how organisms generate meanings and then use them for creative transformation of the environment and themselves. This book focuses on interdisciplinary research at the intersection of biology, semiotics, philosophy, ethology, information theory, and the theory of evolution. Such a broad approach provides a rich context for the study of organisms and other semiotic agents in their environments. This methodology can be applied to robotics and artificial intelligence for developing robust, adaptable learning devices. In this book, leading interdisciplinary scholars reveal their vision on how to integrate natural sciences with semiotics, a theory of meaning-making and signification. Developments in biology indicate that the capacity to create and understand signs is not limited to humans or vertebrate animals, but exists in all living organisms - the fact that inspired the integration of biology and semiotics into biosemiotics. The authors discuss the nature of semiotic agents (organisms and other autonomous goal-directed units), meaning, signs, information, memory, evolution, and consciousness. Also discussed are issues including the origin of life, potential meaning and its actualization, top-down causality in physics and biology, capacity of organisms to encode their functions, the strategy of organisms to combine homeostasis with direct adaptation to new life-cycle phases or new environments, multi-level memory systems, increase of freedom via enabling constraints, creative modeling in evolution and learning, communication in animals and humans, the origin and function of language, and the distribution and transfer of life in space. This is the first book on biosemiotics in its global conceptual and spatial scope. Biosemiotics is presented using the language of natural sciences, which supports the scientific grounding of semiotic terms. Finally, the cosmic dimension of life and meaning-making leads to a reconsideration of ethical principles and ecological mentality here on earth and in space exploration. Audience Theoretical biologists, ethologists, astrobiologists, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, philosophers, phenomenologists, semioticians, biosemioticians, molecular biologists, linguists, system scientists and engineers.
Download or read book Evolution and Transitions in Complexity written by Gerard A.J.M Jagers op Akkerhuis and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses several recent theoretic advancements in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary integration in the field of evolution. While exploring novel views, the text maintains a close link with one of the most broadly held views on evolution, namely that of “Darwinian evolution.” This work puts forth a new point of view which allows researchers to define in detail the concept of evolution. To create this conceptual definition, the text applies a stringent object-based focus. With this focus, the editor has been able to develop an object-based pattern of evolution at the smallest scale. Subsequently, this smallest scale pattern is used as an innovative basis for generalizations. These generalizations create links between biological Darwinism and generalized Darwinism. The object-based approach that was used to suggest innovations in the field of Darwinian evolution also allowed for contributions to other topics, such as major evolutionary transitions theory, the definition of life and the relationships between evolution, self-organization and thermodynamics. Together, the chapters of this book and the multidisciplinary reflections and comments of various specialists on these chapters offer an exciting palette of innovative ideas.
Download or read book A World Systems Reader written by and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2000-03-01 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together some of the most influential new research from the world-systems perspective. The authors survey and analyze new and emerging topics from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives, from political science to archaeology. Each analytical essay is written in accessible language so that the volume serves as a lucid introduction both to the tradition of world-systems thought and the new debates that are sparking further research today.
