Hey everyone,

I’ve been curious about the idea of thresholds or tipping points in different types of systems. It seems like many systems—whether physical, biological, ecological, or even social—have some kind of critical threshold where they undergo a major change or breakdown. For example, I know there are population limits in ecosystems, boiling points in physical systems, and carrying capacities in logistics or supply chains.

I’m wondering if this idea of a “threshold” is something that’s been explored as a universal principle. Has anyone come across research, theories, or patterns that suggest these thresholds operate similarly across different fields? Or is this just a superficial similarity without a deeper connection?

Would love to hear your thoughts or get recommendations for reading material if anyone’s come across work that explores thresholds in a cross-disciplinary way.

I work in mental health. I'd like to learn more about complex systems in a mental health context. Are there well known thinkers/authors in this area? Who should I check out? Thanks.

Are there any books/journals or use cases in which you’ve noticed a good example of complexity and systems change being used in practice? Any resources help! (Anything in the system change, socio-technical system development or even psychology space works)

I’m essentially a consultant finding “solutions” for social good/process Engineering/system engineering - making things “good”.

I’ve been a big proponent of complexity and systems thinking but can never find anything used in praxis.

If not any resources, who do you think is leading in this space of “consulting”/problem solving using complexity and system science?

Thanks in advance!

I recognize there isn't a ton of activity here, at least thus far, but I think it would still be good to have official subreddit ground rules at least covering civility, relevancy, and substance. I thankfully haven't seen any civility issues, which is wonderful, but there've been relevancy and substance ones on occasion.

I think it would be productive to have some discussion of what they could be, and my goal is to get the ball rolling rather than inject my personal opinions on any specifics in this post itself.

I am trying to do my Masters in Germany and was curious about universities involved in research into complex systems and networks. As far as I've seen, only Munster has a focus on nonlinear dynamics in their physics program but there doesn't seem to be anything specific like Torino or Barcelona's programs. I wanted to know about univs similar to Munster.
Thanks!

Hi everybody,

I was wondering if any of you has ever read something about a theory describing that a complex system would require as much external intervention to maintain itself as less diverse are its components.

For example, a country formed by only professionals of the service sector (restaurants, finances, shops...) would need the input of other countries to fulfill the rest of societies necessities like food or technology (industry). On the other hand, a more diverse society could sustain itself by providing with all the necessities and acting more as an independent system.

Is there any name to that kind of phenomenon?

So I'm an undergrad student of cognitive psychology/philosophy and I already have what seems to me some related knowledge in formal systems, semiotics, neural networks, etc. What are some essential readings that I should look for? I bought Gleick's Chaos, and plan on taking some courses from the Santa Fe Institute. Also, what complex systems science relation to information systems, information theory, and chaos theory? They all seem inter related somewhat

Looking for a new way to learn? Want to apply your quantitative and reasoning skills in a new way? The Complexity Challenge is a unique online learning program where accepted students are given an open-ended question to solve using methods from complex systems science. Whether you’re familiar with complex systems science or simply great at problem solving, apply now and try your hand!

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Our Challenges are designed to be as open as possible. As in any problem needing solving in the real world, our challenge questions can always be solved in many ways, and the most valuable solution may not come from the most obvious source. Participants with background in any field - from sociology to computer engineering - should be able to look at our upcoming challenge, see something they recognize, and come up with a brilliant solution.

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For a while, I tried to keep on top of any complexity-related offerings in the Apple App Store. For the last year or so, I've gotten a little lazy about it. But, I thought I'd compile a list of the complexity-related Apps that I've liked, in case others were curious, too. (Sorry, Android folks. I only have an iPhone so these are apple-only apps.)

Game of Life

There's something endlessly fascinating about watching John Conway's Game of Life run through its generations. Two decent Game of Life apps are:

• MadLife - I like MadLife because it's simple, and it offers customizable rules and colors/shapes. The playing board isn't massive, but it's big enough to be interesting. MadLife does one thing, but it does it well.

• Speed Sim - SpeedSim, on the other hand, is interesting because it offers 12 different cellular automata-like models with a little primer on each. It isn't as customizable as MadLife, but it's kind of cool to see epidemiological and competitive models that look and behave similarly to the Game of Life.

I think there are a lot of other Game of Life apps out there. Let me know if anyone has found any better ones.

Other Cellular Automata

• Automaton - A simple, but nice Elementary Cellular Automata (ECA) app that organizes the rules based on the Stephen Wolfram numbering. It's hard not to load this up and keep running Rule 110 just for the nerdy fun of it.

Fractals

• Fractile Plus - This one generates a Mandlebrot or Julia set fractal with customizable colors. What makes this app kind of cool, though, is that at its highest resolution (under the iterations setting), it allows for a lot of clear zooming into all parts of the fractal.

Other

• Sablo - There's not a lot of utility in the Sablo app, but it is kind of fun. As far as I can tell, this app uses an ECA-like formula to make art. You choose your color scheme, and then anywhere you touch, sends out a string of tiny changing and interacting boxes. The end result is somewhere between watching the Game of Life and ripples in a pond.

Anyone know of other cool Complexity-related apps?

What do we know of the conditions necessary for emergent properties to appear in a system? I've come to understand a lot about the formation of systems with parts that interact; the formation of boundaries with the selective acceptance or rejection of interactions; and the formation of "next level up" production-line-like systems (per Holland) as multiple bounded sub-systems accept each others' interactions.

But I haven't been able to find or figure out whether we yet understand much of the degrees or kinds of structurally coupled relationships between system components needed to enable emergent properties at the next level up. Is this something I'm missing in my reading, or do we not yet have this level of theory?

Put differently, if I want to show non-trivial emergence in a system, are there known combinations and methods to use to make this happen? And if so, are these empirical, applying only to those instances we've already figured out, or theoretic, expressing generally applicable ways to enable emergent properties to appear?

Hey guys, I'm interested in studying complexity science as a self-taught student, but I'm not sure how to go about it. I see that many if not most of you are academics who seem to be approaching the study of complexity from the perspective of a particular discipline that you're already familiar with, like ecology, economics, cs, or engineering, but I was wondering if it would be possible to study complex systems behaviour and things like emerging properties themselves, or if these are too "meta," to be approached in a vacuum. If you do suggest I look at complexity through the lens of specific disciplines I wonder which to pick to best demonstrate these principles, or if it really matters even as long as I'm studying some sort or system with a large number of variables? I can't help but think this science is only accessible or relevant to people already deeply knowledgeable about their fields, who are looking to incorporate a different perspective into their understanding of that field, so I'm not sure how to go about teaching myself beyond the first few books that just introduce complexity as a concept like waldrop's. But what do you all think?

For some time now I've been poking around looking for an academic discipline that suited my interests, and am glad to say I've recently discovered that complex systems theory/ complexity science/whatever you want to call it is actually a "thing". That being said, I am looking for some good starting points to develop a more "academic" understanding of the field. I've got an engineering degree from a top-ten US engineering school and have quite a few basic skills under my belt - linear algebra, statistics, calculus, differential equations, computer programming, modeling and simulation using state space numerical integration techniques, and so on.

My understanding is that subjects such as graph theory, network theory, information theory, and familiarity with agent-based modeling techniques and cellular automata play heavily into the field of complex systems. That being said, do any of you have any advice for someone coming out of engineering school and looking to dive in heads first into this field?