self-organization

Among the applications are the study of percolation of petroleum and natural gas through semi-porous rock; here the theory has helped predict and improve the productivity of natural gas and oil wells. In two dimensions, the percolation of water through a thin tissue (such as toilet paper) has the same mathematical underpinnings as the flow of electricity through two-dimensional random networks of resistors. I ...

See also:

Percolation, Percolation - Applications of percolation theory

Read more here: » Percolation: Encyclopedia II - Percolation - Applications of percolation theory

Conway became interested in a problem in group theory proposed by mathematician John Leech having to do with the symmetry group of a particular dense packing of spheres in 24 dimensions. Conway found some remarkable properties and published the results in 1968. Conway was also interested in a problem presented in the 1940s by renowned mathematician John von Neumann. Von Neumann tried to find a hypothetical machine that could build copies of itself and succeeded when he found a mathematical model for such a machine with very complicated rules ...

See also:

Conway's Game of Life, Conway's Game of Life - Origins, Conway's Game of Life - Rules of Life, Conway's Game of Life - Description, Conway's Game of Life - The game, Conway's Game of Life - Iteration, Conway's Game of Life - Examples of patterns, Conway's Game of Life - Algorithms, Conway's Game of Life - Variations on Life, Conway's Game of Life - Patterns, Conway's Game of Life - 125/36, Conway's Game of Life - 245/3 245/36, Conway's Game of Life - Bibliography, Conway's Game of Life - External Article Links, Conway's Game of Life - Patterns and Pattern Collections, Conway's Game of Life - Life Program Links, Conway's Game of Life - External Cellular Automata Links

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A CAS is a complex, self-similar collection of interacting adaptive agents. The study of CAS focus on complex, emergent and macroscopic properties of the system. Various definitions have been offered by different researchers: John H. Holland A Complex Adaptive System (CAS) is a dynamic network of many agents (which may represent cells, species, individuals, firms, nations) acting in parallel, constantly acting and reacting to what the other agents are doing. The control of a CAS tends to be highly dispersed and dec ...

See also:

Complex adaptive systems, Complex adaptive systems - Definitions, Complex adaptive systems - Properties of CAS, Complex adaptive systems - Graphic, Complex adaptive systems - Researchers and scientists

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Anthropological linguistics is the study of language through human genetics and human development. This strongly overlaps the field of linguistic anthropology, which is the branch of anthropology that studies humans through the languages that they use. Whatever one calls it, this field has had a major impact in the studies of visual perception (especially colour) and bioregional democracy, both of which are concerned with distinctions ...

Including:

• Anthropological linguistics - Related fields
• Anthropological linguistics - Recent work

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Autopoiesis literally means "self-production" (from the Greek: auto - αυτό for self- and poiesis - ποίησις for creation or production) and expresses a fundamental complementarity between structure and function. The term was originally introduced by Chilean biologists Francisco Varela and Humberto Maturana in the early 1970s: "An autopoietic machine is a machine organized (defined as a unity) as a network of processes of production (transformation and destruction) of components which: (i) throug ...

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In common usage, the word capitalism means an economic system in which all or most of the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit, and the investment of capital is privately determined; and in which production, distribution, and prices of goods, services, and labor are determined mainly through the influence of the forces of supply and demand in the operation of a free market . Capitalism has also been referred by various sources by the terms free market economy, free enterprise system,e ...

Including:

• Capitalism - Etymology
• Capitalism - Capitalist theory
• Capitalism - Contrasts with capitalism
• Capitalism - History of capitalism
• Capitalism - Capitalism as a theory
• Capitalism - Capitalism as a practice
• Capitalism - Characteristics of capitalist economies
• Capitalism - Private ownership of the means of production
• Capitalism - Free market
• Capitalism - Profit
• Capitalism - Self interest
• Capitalism - Private enterprise
• Capitalism - Economic growth
• Capitalism - Economic mobility
• Capitalism - Self-organization
• Capitalism - Which economies are capitalist?
• Capitalism - Criticisms of capitalism
• Capitalism - Unequal distribution of wealth and income
• Capitalism - Employment/unemployment
• Capitalism - Marxist critique of capitalism
• Capitalism - Capitalism in decline or on the rise?
• Capitalism - Sustainability
• Capitalism - Human rights violations imperialism and democracy
• Capitalism - Other approaches
• Capitalism - Capitalism in political ideologies
• Capitalism - Indices of economic freedom
• Capitalism - Notes

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Dialectical monism is an ontological position which holds that reality is ultimately a unified whole, distinguishing itself from monism by asserting that this whole necessarily expresses itself in dualistic terms. For the dialectical monist, the essential unity is that of complementary polarities which, while opposed in the realm of experience and perception, are co-substantial in a transcendent sense. In simpler terms, the view can be summarized thus: "All in two, two in one, one in All." Dialectical monism - Principles ...

Including:

• Dialectical monism - Principles
• Dialectical monism - History
• Dialectical monism - Modern interpretation
• Dialectical monism - Chapter 42 of the Dao De Jing

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Cybernetics is the study of the communication and control of regulatory feedback, both in living beings and machines, and in combinations of the two. The term cybernetics stems from the Greek Κυβερνήτης (kybernetes - meaning steersman, governor, pilot, or rudder; the same root as government). It became a powerful vogue idea from 1948 to the 1960s; but since the 1970s use of the term ha ...

Including:

• Cybernetics - History
• Cybernetics - Scope
• Cybernetics - Major fields

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Emergence is the process of complex pattern formation from simpler rules. This can be a dynamic process (occurring over time), such as the evolution of the human brain over thousands of successive generations; or emergence can happen over disparate size scales, such as the interactions between a great number of neurons producing a human brain capable of thought (even though the constituent neurons are not individually capable of thought). The original term wa ...

Including:

• Emergence - Emergent properties
• Emergence - Emergence in games
• Emergence - Emergent structures in nature
• Emergence - Emergence in culture and engineering
• Emergence - Emergence in physics
• Emergence - Bibliography

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The Game of Life is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It is the best-known example of a cellular automaton. Conway's Game of Life - Origins. Conway became interested in a problem in group theory proposed by mathematician John Leech having to do with the symmetry group of a particular dense packing of spheres in 24 dimensions. Conway found some remarkable properties and published the results in 1968. Conway was also interested in a problem presented in the ...

Including:

• Conway's Game of Life - Origins
• Conway's Game of Life - Rules of Life
• Conway's Game of Life - Description
• Conway's Game of Life - The game
• Conway's Game of Life - Iteration
• Conway's Game of Life - Examples of patterns
• Conway's Game of Life - Algorithms
• Conway's Game of Life - Variations on Life
• Conway's Game of Life - Patterns
• Conway's Game of Life - 125/36
• Conway's Game of Life - 245/3 245/36
• Conway's Game of Life - Bibliography
• Conway's Game of Life - External Article Links
• Conway's Game of Life - Patterns and Pattern Collections
• Conway's Game of Life - Life Program Links
• Conway's Game of Life - External Cellular Automata Links

Read more here: » Conway's Game of Life: Encyclopedia - Conway's Game of Life

Complex adaptive systems, are a special case of complex systems. They are complex in that they are diverse and made up of multiple interconnected elements and adaptive in that they have the capacity to change and learn from experience. The term complex adaptive systems was coined at the interdisciplinary Santa Fe Institute (SFI), by John H. Holland, Murray Gell-Mann and others. John H. Holland is one of the inventors of evolutionary computation and genetic algor ...

Including:

• Complex adaptive systems - Definitions
• Complex adaptive systems - Properties of CAS
• Complex adaptive systems - Graphic
• Complex adaptive systems - Researchers and scientists

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Complexity is the opposite of simplicity. Complexity in systems or behaviour is often described as what is "on the edge of chaos" - between order and randomness. Complexity - Study of complexity. Complexity has always been a part of our environment, and therefore many scientific fields have dealt with complex systems and phenomena. Indeed, some would say that only what is somehow complex - what displays variation without being purely random - is worthy of interest. While this has led some fiel ...

Including:

• Complexity - Study of complexity
• Complexity - Complex systems
• Complexity - Complexity in data
• Complexity - Complexity of problems
• Complexity - Specific meanings
• Complexity - Quotes about complexity
• Complexity - Reference

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William Ross Ashby (September 6, 1903, London, England - November 15, 1972) was a British psychiatrist and a pioneer in the study of complex systems. Despite being widely influential within cybernetics, systems theory and, more recently, complex systems, he is not nearly as well known as many of the notable scientists his work has influenced including Herbert Simon, Norbert Wiener, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Stafford Beer and Stuart Kauffman. From 1947 to 1959, Ashby was director of research at Barnwood House Hospital in Glouceste ...

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The generative sciences originate from the monadistic philosophy of Leibniz. This was further developed by the neural model of Walter Pitts and Warren McCulloch. The development of computers or Turing Machines laid a technical source for the growth of the generative sciences. However, the cornerstones of the generative sciences came from the work on cellular automaton theory by John Von Neumann, which was based on the Walter Pitts and Warren McCulloch model of the neuron. Cellular automata were mathematical representations of simple entities ...

See also:

Generative sciences, Generative sciences - Elemental perspective, Generative sciences - Scientific and philosophical origins, Generative sciences - Prospective directions, Generative sciences - Prominent generative scientists, Generative sciences - Selected bibliography

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Contact Improvisation can be practiced as concert or social dance form. In the social setting Contact Improvisation meetings are called jams in which participants can participate or watch as they want. These dance jams are similar to the practice of jazz musicians bringing themselves together and using the time to explore the limits of the form. The longest running weekly contact improvisation jam i ...

See also:

Contact improvisation, Contact improvisation - History, Contact improvisation - Practice and Theory, Contact improvisation - Quotes

Read more here: » Contact improvisation: Encyclopedia II - Contact improvisation - Practice and Theory

Friedrich Hayek - The economic calculation problem. Hayek was one of the leading academic critics of collectivism in the 20th century. Hayek believed that all forms of collectivism (even those theoretically based on voluntary cooperation) could only be maintained by a central authority of some kind. In his popular book, The Road to Serfdom (1944) and in subsequent works, Hayek claimed that socialism would require central planning, and such planning in turn had a strong probability of leading towards totali ...

See also:

Friedrich Hayek, Friedrich Hayek - Life, Friedrich Hayek - Work, Friedrich Hayek - The economic calculation problem, Friedrich Hayek - Spontaneous order, Friedrich Hayek - The business cycle, Friedrich Hayek - Social and political philosophy, Friedrich Hayek - Hayek and conservatism, Friedrich Hayek - Influence and recognition, Friedrich Hayek - Quotations

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In an absolutely free-market economy, all capital, goods, services, and money flow freely --transfers are not forcibly restricted or impeded. Since no national economy in existence fully manifests the ideal of a free market as theorized by economists and ethicists, the term "free market economy" is used for a nation state's economy that approximates the ideal by virtue of having a government that engages in little o ...

See also:

Free market, Free market - In detail, Free market - Origins, Free market - Theory, Free market - Practice, Free market - The degree of market freedom, Free market - Ideology and ethics, Free market - Legal Tender law and Taxes. Are they compatible with a free market?, Free market - Contrast

Read more here: » Free market: Encyclopedia II - Free market - In detail

Friedrich Hayek - The economic calculation problem. Hayek was one of the leading academic critics of collectivism in the 20th century. Hayek believed that all forms of collectivism (even those theoretically based on voluntary cooperation) could only be maintained by a central authority of some kind. In his popular book, The Road to Serfdom (1944) and in subsequent works, Hayek claimed that socialism required central economic planning and that such planning in turn had a strong probability of leading towards totalitarianism, because the central authority would have to be endowed with power ...

See also:

Friedrich Hayek, Friedrich Hayek - Life, Friedrich Hayek - Work, Friedrich Hayek - The economic calculation problem, Friedrich Hayek - Spontaneous order, Friedrich Hayek - The business cycle, Friedrich Hayek - Social and political philosophy, Friedrich Hayek - Hayek and conservatism, Friedrich Hayek - Influence and recognition, Friedrich Hayek - Quotations

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Integral theory is a new and developing movement. Consequently, no member of a list of integral thinkers or artworks will be uncontroversial. The following thinkers used the term "integral" to describe their work. The word "integral" was originally used by the Hindu writer and guru Sri Aurobindo to describe the yoga he taught (integral or poorna ("complete") yoga). Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga involves transformation of the entire being, rather than, as in most other teachings, a single faculty such as the intellect or the emotions o ...

See also:

Integral theory philosophy, Integral theory philosophy - Integral theorists, Integral theory philosophy - Integral artists, Integral theory philosophy - Other thinkers, Integral theory philosophy - Quotations

Read more here: » Integral theory philosophy: Encyclopedia II - Integral theory philosophy - Integral theorists

Karl Marx began in the mid-19th century with his schema of stages of historical development, by introducing the notion that "human nature" was not constant and was not determinative of the nature of the social system; on the contrary, he made it a principle that human behavior was a function of the social and economic system in which it occurred. At approximately the same time, Darwin developed a general framework for comprehending any process whereby small, random variations could be accumulated over time and under the urgings of economic forces into large-s ...

See also:

Evolutionary economics, Evolutionary economics - Predecessors of evolutionary economics, Evolutionary economics - Present state of discussion, Evolutionary economics - Axiomatization of evolutionary economics, Evolutionary economics - Professional Associations

Read more here: » Evolutionary economics: Encyclopedia II - Evolutionary economics - Predecessors of evolutionary economics