Simplifying Complexity: Life is Uncertain, Unfair and Unequal

Simplifying Complexity: Life is Uncertain, Unfair and Unequal PDF Author: Bruce J. West
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781681082189
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
In life, we often face unavoidable complexities in terms of our ability to understand or influence outcomes. Some questions which arise due to these complexities are: Why can't the future be made certain? Why do the some people or events always end up at the center of controversy? Why do only a select few get ahead of their peers? Each question pertains to three central elements of complexities and these elements are: uncertainty, inequality and unfairness. Simplifying Complexity explains the scientific study of complex cognitive networks, as well as the methods scientists use to parse difficult problems into manageable pieces. Readers are introduced to scientific methodology and thought processes, followed by a discourse on perspectives on the three elements of complexity through concepts such as normal and non-normal statistics, scaling and complexity management. Simplifying Complexity combines basic cognitive science and scientific philosophy for both advanced students (in the fields of sociology, cognitive science, complex networks and change management) and for general readers looking for a more scientific guide to understanding and managing the nature of change in a complex world.

Simplifying Complexity: Life is Uncertain, Unfair and Unequal

Simplifying Complexity: Life is Uncertain, Unfair and Unequal PDF Author: Bruce J. West
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781681082189
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Get Book Here

Book Description
In life, we often face unavoidable complexities in terms of our ability to understand or influence outcomes. Some questions which arise due to these complexities are: Why can't the future be made certain? Why do the some people or events always end up at the center of controversy? Why do only a select few get ahead of their peers? Each question pertains to three central elements of complexities and these elements are: uncertainty, inequality and unfairness. Simplifying Complexity explains the scientific study of complex cognitive networks, as well as the methods scientists use to parse difficult problems into manageable pieces. Readers are introduced to scientific methodology and thought processes, followed by a discourse on perspectives on the three elements of complexity through concepts such as normal and non-normal statistics, scaling and complexity management. Simplifying Complexity combines basic cognitive science and scientific philosophy for both advanced students (in the fields of sociology, cognitive science, complex networks and change management) and for general readers looking for a more scientific guide to understanding and managing the nature of change in a complex world.

Simplifying Complexity: Life is Uncertain, Unfair and Unequal

Simplifying Complexity: Life is Uncertain, Unfair and Unequal PDF Author: Bruce J. West
Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers
ISBN: 1681082179
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
In life, we often face unavoidable complexities in terms of our ability to understand or influence outcomes. Some questions which arise due to these complexities are: Why can’t the future be made certain? Why do the some people or events always end up at the center of controversy? Why do only a select few get ahead of their peers? Each question pertains to three central elements of complexities and these elements are: uncertainty, inequality and unfairness. Simplifying Complexity explains the scientific study of complex cognitive networks, as well as the methods scientists use to parse difficult problems into manageable pieces. Readers are introduced to scientific methodology and thought processes, followed by a discourse on perspectives on the three elements of complexity through concepts such as normal and non-normal statistics, scaling and complexity management. Simplifying Complexity combines basic cognitive science and scientific philosophy for both advanced students (in the fields of sociology, cognitive science, complex networks and change management) and for general readers looking for a more scientific guide to understanding and managing the nature of change in a complex world.

Empirical Paradox, Complexity Thinking and Generating New Kinds of Knowledge

Empirical Paradox, Complexity Thinking and Generating New Kinds of Knowledge PDF Author: Paolo Grigolini
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527535525
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Is another world war inevitable? The answer is a resounding “yes” if we continue to think in terms of “either/or” outcomes. Adversaries think in such terms, you either get what you want, or you do not. Can a different way of thinking produce a different outcome? This book shows that the consistency demanded by the linear, logical either/or thinking is disrupted by paradox, whose resolution forces a consequent decision: war or peace, with no middle ground. If this were the only way of thinking then a person would be either a protagonist or an antagonist, but a person can be both, either, or neither; this opens the door to novel solutions. This is “both/and” thinking, which the book shows can be achieved by a dynamic resolution of paradox. Thus, a basically selfish individual can also be a hero; a consequence of the complexity of being human.

Crucial Events: Why Are Catastrophes Never Expected?

Crucial Events: Why Are Catastrophes Never Expected? PDF Author: Bruce J West
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9811234116
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
A nonsimple (complex) system indicates a mix of crucial and non-crucial events, with very different statistical properties. It is the crucial events that determine the efficiency of information exchange between complex networks. For a large class of nonsimple systems, crucial events determine catastrophic failures - from heart attacks to stock market crashes.This interesting book outlines a data processing technique that separates the effects of the crucial from those of the non-crucial events in nonsimple time series extracted from physical, social and living systems. Adopting an informal conversational style, without sacrificing the clarity necessary to explain, the contents will lead the reader through concepts such as fractals, complexity and randomness, self-organized criticality, fractional-order differential equations of motion, and crucial events, always with an eye to helping to interpret what mathematics usually does in the development of new scientific knowledge.Both researchers and novitiate will find Crucial Events useful in learning more about the science of nonsimplicity.

A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology

A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology PDF Author: Terry Marks-Tarlow
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527544931
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
Fractal dynamics provide an unparalleled tool for understanding the evolution of natural complexity throughout physical, biological, and psychological realms. This book’s conceptual framework helps to reconcile several persistent dichotomies in the natural sciences, including mind-brain, linear-nonlinear, subjective-objective, and even personal-transpersonal processes. A fractal approach is especially useful when applied to recursive processes of consciousness, both within their ordinary and anomalous manifestations. This novel way to study the interconnection of seemingly divided wholes encompasses multiple dimensions of experience and being. It brings together experts in diverse fields—neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, physicists, physiologists, psychoanalysts, mathematicians, and professors of religion and music composition—to demonstrate the value of fractals as model, method, and metaphor within psychology and related social and physical sciences. The result is a new perspective for understanding what has often been dismissed as too subjective, idiosyncratic, and ineffably beyond the scope of science, bringing these areas back into a natural-scientific framework.

Betting Against the Crowd

Betting Against the Crowd PDF Author: Yair Neuman
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 303152019X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description


Handbook of Military and Defense Operations Research

Handbook of Military and Defense Operations Research PDF Author: Natalie M. Scala
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 042988396X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
Operations research (OR) is a core discipline in military and defense management. Coming to the forefront initially during World War II, OR provided critical contributions to logistics, supply chains, and strategic simulation, while enabling superior decision-making for Allied forces. OR has grown to include analytics and many applications, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and big data, and is the cornerstone of management science in manufacturing, marketing, telecommunications, and many other fields. The Handbook of Military and Defense Operations Research presents the voices leading OR and analytics to new heights in security through research, practical applications, case studies, and lessons learned in the field. Features Applies the experiences of educators and practitioners working in the field Employs the latest technology developments in case studies and applications Identifies best practices unique to the military, security, and national defense problem space Highlights similarities and dichotomies between analyses and trends that are unique to military, security, and defense problems.

Imagination, Creativity and Spirituality in Psychotherapy

Imagination, Creativity and Spirituality in Psychotherapy PDF Author: Leanne Domash
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100019079X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 483

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Book Description
The aim of this book is to awaken creative desire and expand the imagination of the psychotherapist and, in turn, her patient. Each chapter is meant to surprise the reader and help him see the world in a new way. Many varieties of imagination are explored -- the spiritual, the relational, the dreamworld, the aesthetic and the adaptive. The author offers space to reflect, to daydream, to remember; space to pursue goals, to make new connections; space to take risks and space to be wrong. The psychotherapist is encouraged to find her own voice, be poetic, dare to create, converse with other disciplines and, most especially, enter the world of dreams. This is all passed onto the patient as the dyad enters the intersubjective field. Both scholarly and practical, this volume elegantly and persuasively synthesizes for the first time research in many fields, including spirituality and Kabbalah, neuroscience, the arts, biology and artificial intelligence, to give an in depth and original understanding of the current pressing problems in the rapidly changing field of psychotherapy: how do we work with unconscious processes and early memories to help our patients become more imaginative, creative, hopeful and resilient, and in so doing, heal. The relationship between the body and creative imagination is fully explored as well as the disruptive effect of trauma on the imagination and how to address this. The emphasis on surprise, uncanny communication, interdisciplinary inquiry, use of dreamwork and the imagination of the body — how it spontaneously meets new challenges— all stimulate the creativity of the reader. Through numerous case studies, the author illustrates the practical implications of how this exploration allows for deeper understanding and more effective treatment. With the innovative synthesis and specific techniques the author provides, the clinician has tools to carry on the work of moving the field of psychotherapy forward as well as work ever more effectively with patients.

Complex Worlds

Complex Worlds PDF Author: Bruce J. West
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781612961309
Category : Complexity (Philosophy)
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Bruce J. West has been a research scientist and teacher for forty years. He is one of a handful of scientists in the world that understands complexity and who can explain its implications for modern society in everyday language. In Complex Worlds: Uncertain, Unequal and Unfair he uses his understanding of complex networks to explain why the future cannot be made certain, why the same people are always at the center of controversy, and why only a select few get ahead. The emerging properties of complexity so prevalent in society stand in sharp contrast to how the greatest thinkers of the past and present believe the world ought to be. West explores the question: Is the dissonance between what is true and what we believe ought to be true really that great? The answer is a resounding yes and he explains not only how but why.

Nature’s Patterns and the Fractional Calculus

Nature’s Patterns and the Fractional Calculus PDF Author: Bruce J. West
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110535130
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
Complexity increases with increasing system size in everything from organisms to organizations. The nonlinear dependence of a system’s functionality on its size, by means of an allometry relation, is argued to be a consequence of their joint dependency on complexity (information). In turn, complexity is proven to be the source of allometry and to provide a new kind of force entailed by a system‘s information gradient. Based on first principles, the scaling behavior of the probability density function is determined by the exact solution to a set of fractional differential equations. The resulting lowest order moments in system size and functionality gives rise to the empirical allometry relations. Taking examples from various topics in nature, the book is of interest to researchers in applied mathematics, as well as, investigators in the natural, social, physical and life sciences. Contents Complexity Empirical allometry Statistics, scaling and simulation Allometry theories Strange kinetics Fractional probability calculus