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Think Complexity, 2nd Edition

July 2018

Beginner

198 pages

4h 33m

English

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Who Is This Book For?Changes from the First EditionUsing the CodeConventions Used in This BookO’Reilly SafariHow to Contact UsContributor List
The Changing Criteria of ScienceThe Axes of Scientific ModelsDifferent Models for Different PurposesComplexity EngineeringComplexity Thinking
What Is a Graph?NetworkXRandom GraphsGenerating GraphsConnected GraphsGenerating ER GraphsProbability of ConnectivityAnalysis of Graph AlgorithmsExercises
Stanley MilgramWatts and StrogatzRing LatticeWS GraphsClusteringShortest Path LengthsThe WS ExperimentWhat Kind of Explanation Is That?Breadth-First SearchDijkstra’s AlgorithmExercises
Social Network DataWS ModelDegreeHeavy-Tailed DistributionsBarabási-Albert ModelGenerating BA GraphsCumulative DistributionsExplanatory ModelsExercises
A Simple CAWolfram’s ExperimentClassifying CAsRandomnessDeterminismSpaceshipsUniversalityFalsifiabilityWhat Is This a Model Of?Implementing CAsCross-CorrelationCA TablesExercises
Conway’s GoLLife PatternsConway’s ConjectureRealismInstrumentalismImplementing LifeExercises
DiffusionReaction-DiffusionPercolationPhase ChangeFractalsFractals and Percolation ModelsExercises
Critical SystemsSand PilesImplementing the Sand PileHeavy-Tailed DistributionsFractalsPink NoiseThe Sound of SandReductionism and HolismSOC, Causation, and PredictionExercises
Schelling’s ModelImplementation of Schelling’s ModelSegregationSugarscapeWealth InequalityImplementing SugarscapeMigration and Wave BehaviorEmergenceExercises

Traffic JamsRandom PerturbationBoidsThe Boid AlgorithmArbitrationEmergence and Free WillExercises
Simulating EvolutionFitness LandscapeAgentsSimulationNo DifferentiationEvidence of EvolutionDifferential SurvivalMutationSpeciationSummaryExercises
Prisoner’s DilemmaThe Problem of NicePrisoner’s Dilemma TournamentsSimulating Evolution of CooperationThe TournamentThe SimulationResultsConclusionsExercises

Appendix A. Reading List

The following are selected books related to topics in this book. Most are written for a non-technical audience.

Axelrod, Robert, Complexity of Cooperation, Princeton University Press, 1997.
Axelrod, Robert, The Evolution of Cooperation, Basic Books, 2006.
Bak, Per, How Nature Works, Copernicus (Springer), 1996.
Barabási, Albert-László, Linked, Perseus Books Group, 2002.
Buchanan, Mark, Nexus, W. W. Norton & Company, 2002.
Dawkins, Richard, The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press, 2016.
Epstein, Joshua and Axtell, Robert, Growing Artificial Societies, Brookings Institution Press & MIT Press, 1996.
Fisher, Len, The Perfect Swarm, Basic Books, 2009.
Flake, Gary William, The Computational Beauty of Nature, MIT Press, 2000.
Goldstein, Rebecca, Incompleteness, W. W. Norton & Company, 2005.
Goodwin, Brian, How the Leopard Changed Its Spots, Princeton University Press, 2001.
Holland, John, Hidden Order, Basic Books, 1995.
Johnson, Steven, Emergence, Scribner, 2001.
Kelly, Kevin, Out of Control, Basic Books, 2002.
Kosko, Bart, Fuzzy Thinking, Hyperion, 1993.
Levy, Steven, Artificial Life, Pantheon, 1992.
Mandelbrot, Benoit, Fractal Geometry of Nature, Times Books, 1982.
McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch, The Theory That Would Not Die, Yale University Press, 2011.
Mitchell, Melanie, Complexity: A Guided Tour, Oxford University Press, 2009.
Waldrop, M. Mitchell, Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos, Simon & Schuster, 1992.
Resnick, Mitchell, Turtles, ...