Thinking in Complexity: The Computational Dynamics of Matter, Mind, and Mankind

465 Pages·2004·12.52 MB·English

by  Professor Dr. Klaus Mainzer (auth.)

Klaus Mainzer Thinking in Complexity
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH
ONLINE LIBRARY
Physics and Astronomy
http://www.springer.de
Thinking
M~~~~
in Complexity
The Computational Dynamics
of Matter,
Mind, and Mankind
Fourth Revised and Enlarged Edition
With 162 Figures
Including 4 Color Figures
t
Springer
Professor Dr. Klaus Mainzer
Lehrstuhl fiir Philosophie und Wissenschaftstheorie
Institut ftir Interdisziplinăre Informatik
Universităt Augsburg
Universitătsstrasse 10
86135 Augsburg, Germany
ISBN 978-3-662-05366-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Mainzer, Klaus. Thinking
in complexity : the computational dynamics of matter, mind, and mankind I
Klaus Mainzer. - 4th rev. and enl. ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references
and index.
ISBN 978-3-662-05366-9 ISBN 978-3-662-05364-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-05364-5
1. Science-Philosophy-
History. 2. Social sciences. 3. Computer science. 4. Complexity (Philosophy)
5. Nonlinear theories.1. Title. Q175.M257 2003 501-dc21 2003054233
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Originally published by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York in 2004
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Das Ganze ist aber nur das durch seine Entwicklung
sich vollendende Wesen. *
G. W. F. Hegel: Phanomenologie des Geistes (1807)
* The whole, however, is merely the essential nature reaching its
completeness through the process of its own development.
G. W F. Hegel: The Phenomenology of Mind (1807)
Preface to the Fourth Edition
The first edition of this book, published in 1994, began with the statement
that the new science of complexity would characterize the scientific develop
ment of the 21st century. In the first decade of this century, this prediction
has been confirmed by overwhelming new empirical results and theoretical
insights the of physical and biological sciences, cognitive and computer sci
ences, and social and economic sciences. Complexity and nonlinearity are
still prominent features in the evolution of matter, mind, and human society.
Thus, the science of complexity still aims at explanations for the emergence
of order in nature and mind and in the economy and society by common
principles.
But a new engineering view has focused the exploration of complexity.
On the one hand, we need new computational instruments to analyze com
plex data and recognize future trends. On the other hand, the principles of
complex dynamics are increasingly becoming the blueprints of gene, bio,
and computer technology. Life and computer sciences are growing into a
new kind of complex engineering, changing the basic conditions of human
life and society. Nonlinear dynamics are implemented in nonlinear computer
chips of high speed and miniaturized size, which are not only distributed in
our technical equipment and environment, but also in our body and brain.
Robots are embodied. Nanotechnology with new materials, as well as articial
life and artificial intelligence are dramatic challenges to the future of com
plexity science. In the age of globalization, humankind is growing along with
worldwide computational networks of information and communication. But
we are also endangered by the nonequilibrium phase transitions of techni
cal, economic, and social dynamics. All these new topics are considered in
supplemented parts and chapters of this enlarged and revised fourth edition.
Thus, Thinking in Complexity has the new subtitle The Computational
Dynamics of Matter, Mind, and Mankind. We can actually define precise
degrees of algorithmic and dynamic complexity. Basic theorems of compu
tational dynamics have been proven recently. But, because of chaos and ran
domness, understanding computational dynamics does not mean predicting
VIII Preface to the Fourth Edition
and determining the future in all its details. While we can gain experience
with nonlinear dynamics through computer experiments, computer experi
ments cannot replace reality. As life is complex and random, we have to live it
in order to experience it. From a philosophical point of view, this book out
lines new standards of epistemology and ethical behavior, which the complex
problems of nature, mind, economy, and society demand.
This new edition has been inspired by several fruitful collaborations. In
1997, the book was translated into Japanese, and I was invited to universi
ties in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagasaki, and Fukui. In 1999, the Chinese transla
tion brought invitations to universities in Beijing and Shanghai. During the
world exposition 2000 (Expo) in Hannover, I was invited by the German Sci
ence Organizations to chair the topics "Understanding Complex Systems"
and "Global Networking" during the conference "Science and Technology
Thinking the Future". During the academic year 2002/2003, I was a member
of the international research group on "General Principles of Information
Theory and Combinatorics" at the Center of Interdisciplinary Research in
Bielefeld, Germany. The 7th IEEE International Workshop on "Cellular
Neural Networks and Their Applications" (Frankfurt 2002) opened new
insights into recent developments in analogic neural computers and chip
technology. As a member of the editorial board of the International Jour
nal of Bifurcation and Chaos in Applied Sciences and Engineering, I have the
opportunity to get an interdisciplinary overview of worldwide explorations
in the sciences of complexity. I especially want to thank the editor of our
journal, Leon o. Chua (Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer
Sciences, University of California, Berkeley), for his encouraging advice and
kind invitation to Berkeley. Thanks also to Stephen Wolfram and Leon Chua
for the permission to reproduce some figures of their books in Chaps. 5 and
6. Last, but not least, I would like to thank Wolf Beiglbock (Springer-Verlag)
for initiating and supporting this new edition.
Augsburg, March 2003 Klaus Mainzer
Preface to the Third Edition
The second edition of "Thinking in Complexity", like the first edition, was
also sold out in less than one year. Meanwhile, Japanese and Chinese trans
lations of the second editon have been published. Once more I have taken
the opportunity provided by a new edition to revise and extend the text.
A new Sect. 2.5 "Complex Systems and the Self-Construction of Mate
rials" is included, in order to analyze the role of complex systems in the dra
matic success of supramolecular chemistry, nanotechnology, and the tech
nology of smart ("intelligent") materials. These topics lie at the boundary
between materials science and life science. In recent years, life science and
computer science have been growing together in a common field of research
called "artificial life" . A further new Sect. 5.5 "From Artificial Intelligence
to Artificial Life" has been added, in which the role of complex systems
in the field of artificial life is discussed. I also use the opportunity of the
new edition to make some remarks about the relationship between the Santa
Fe approach to complex systems and the methods of synergetics and order
parameters which are key concepts in this book.
Research into complex systems continues world-wide. I have to thank
the readers who have written friendly and inspiring letters from all over the
world. Some months ago, a German Society of Complex Systems and Non
linear Dynamics was founded. The honorable German Academy of Natural
Scientists Leopoldina invited me to give a lecture on complexity for which
I express my gratitude. Last but not least, I would again like to thank Wolf
Beiglbock of Springer-Verlag for initiating and supporting this new edition.
Augsburg, November 1996 Klaus Mainzer
Preface to the Second Edition
The first edition of "Thinking in Complexity" was sold out in less than one
year. Obviously, complexity and nonlinearity are "hot" topics of interdisci
plinary interest in the natural and social sciences. The situation is well sum
marized by a quotation ofIan Stewart (Mathematics Institute, University of
Warwick) who wrote a nice review of my book under the title "Emerging new
science" [Nature 374, 834 (1995)]: "Nonlinearity is not a universal answer,
but it is often a better way of thinking about the problem".
I have taken the opportunity provided by a second edition to revise and
extend the text. In Sect. 2.4 a supplement is included on the recent impor
tance of conservative self-organization in supramolecular chemistry and the
material sciences. Some references are given to the recent discussion of self
organization in alternative cosmologies. Some remarks are made about new
results on dissipative self-organization in living cells (Sect. 3.3). The success
and limitations of adaptive neural prostheses in neurotechnology are ana
lyzed in more detail (Sect. 5.4). The last chapter is extended into an "Epilogue
on Future, Science, and Ethics": After a short introduction to traditional
forecasting methods, their limitations and new procedures are discussed un
der the constraints of nonlinearity and complexity in the natural and social
sciences. In particular, the possibilities of predicting and modeling scientific
and technological growth are extremely interesting for the contemporary
debates on human future and ethics.
General methods of nonlinear complex systems must be developed in
cooperation with the natural and social sciences under their particular ob
servational, experimental, and theoretical conditions. Thus, I want to thank
some colleagues for their helpful advice: Rolf Eckmiller (Dept. ofNeuroin
formatics, University of Bonn), Hans-Jorg Fahr and Wolf Priester (Dept. of
Astrophysics and Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy, Bonn), Her
mann Haken (Institute of Theoretical Physics and Synergetics, Stuttgart),
Benno Hess (Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg), S. P.
Kurdyumov (Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics, Moscow), Renate
Mayntz (Max-Planck Institute for Social Sciences, Cologne), Achim Muller
XII Preface to the Second Edition
(Dept. of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Bielefeld). Last but not least,
I would like to thank Wolf Beiglbock (Springer-Verlag) for initiating and
supporting this new edition.
Augsburg, November 1995 Klaus Mainzer