Summary of Melanie Mitchell's Complexity

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The mysteries of ant colonies are a microcosm for the mysteries of many natural and social systems that we think of as complex. No one knows how any community of social organisms comes together to collectively build the elaborate structures that increase their survival probability.

#2 The ant colony is a great example of a complex system. The ants in a colony, each performing their own relatively simple actions, work together to build astoundingly complex structures that are important for the survival of the colony as a whole.

#3 The brain is a complex system made up of many different types of cells in addition to neurons. The actions of neurons and the patterns of connections among groups of neurons are what cause perception, thought, feelings, and consciousness.

#4 The immune system is another example of a system that is extremely complex, but that works together in an effective and efficient manner without any central control. The star players of the immune system are white blood cells, otherwise known as lymphocytes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822546127

IRB Media

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Insights on Melanie Mitchell's Complexity

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 17

Insights from Chapter 18

Insights from Chapter 19

Insights from Chapter 20

Insights from Chapter 21

Insights from Chapter 22

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The mysteries of ant colonies are a microcosm for the mysteries of many natural and social systems that we think of as complex. No one knows how any community of social organisms comes together to collectively build the elaborate structures that increase their survival probability.

#2

The ant colony is a great example of a complex system. The ants in a colony, each performing their own relatively simple actions, work together to build astoundingly complex structures that are important for the survival of the colony as a whole.

#3

The brain is a complex system made up of many different types of cells in addition to neurons. The actions of neurons and the patterns of connections among groups of neurons are what cause perception, thought, feelings, and consciousness.

#4

The immune system is another example of a system that is extremely complex, but that works together in an effective and efficient manner without any central control. The star players of the immune system are white blood cells, otherwise known as lymphocytes.

#5

The immune system is a complex system that is able to learn what threats are present in the environment and produce long-term immunity to those threats. It is still unknown how the system avoids attacking the body.

#6

Economies are complex systems made up of people buying and selling goods. They are constantly trying to increase their profitability by learning about the behavior of other individuals and companies. This self-organizing behavior has been called the invisible hand by eighteenth-century economist Adam Smith.

#7

The World Wide Web, like the systems described above, is a self-organizing social system. It can be thought of as a network of individuals, with little or no central oversight, who perform simple tasks such as posting Web pages and linking to other Web pages.

#8

A complex system is a system in which large networks of components with no central control and simple rules of operation produce complex collective behavior. Such systems are often called self-organizing.

#9

There is no agreed-on quantitative definition of complexity, and thus no single science of complexity or a single complexity theory exists yet. However, an essential feature of forming a new science is a struggle to define its central terms.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

Dynamical systems theory is the study of systems that exhibit complex changing behavior at the macroscopic level. It describes in general terms the ways in which systems can change, what types of macroscopic behavior are possible, and what kinds of predictions about that behavior can be made.

#2

The Scientific Revolution, which was launched by the work of Galileo and others, was based on the idea that experiments should be conducted to test theories. The most important person in the history of dynamics was Isaac Newton, who invented calculus and the science of dynamics.

#3

The study of motion is called mechanics. Newton’s three laws are the foundations of dynamics, which explains the motion of objects in terms of the basic notions of force and mass. They apply not just to earthly objects but to those in the heavens as well.

#4

The existence of chaotic systems is a fact of science today. They are systems that are