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A Sourcebook for the Worldwide Discovery of a Creative Organic Universe
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III. Ecosmos: A Revolutionary Fertile, Habitable, Solar-Bioplanet, Incubator Lifescape

2. Computational Systems Physics: Self-Organization

Buchanan, Mark. Birds of a Feather. Nature Physics. 9/7, 2013. In this month’s column, the physicist writer reports on the work of Cristina Marchetti, et al, and Andrea Cavagna, et al (search each) about how “scale-free collectives of interacting, self-propelling elements” from microbes and flocks to every animal assembly are becoming known as a natural form of “active matter.” This advance is reviewed more in Organic Universe, see the Marchetti paper, Sriram Ramaswamy, and others.

Castellano, Claudino, et al. Statistical Physics of Social Dynamics. Reviews of Modern Physics. 81/2, 2009. With co-authors Santo Fortunato and Vittorio Loreto, a significant tutorial, only just evident and possible, that joins the disparate domains of physical nature and human societies. In so doing a notable agreement arises. Statistical physics and nonlinear network systems, as they now morph into each other, are seen to convey one and the same phenomena. Each approach describes how the interactivity of many elements or entities results in the emergence of a self-organized critical order. (see also, e.g., C. Beck herein) Consequences may then work both ways. A new kind of animate universe is implied with an innate material propensity to progressively organize itself, and, much removed in time and space, from which our human world arises, as if genetically rooted in such a natural gestation.

In social phenomena the basic constituents are not particles but humans and every individual interacts with a limited number of peers, usually negligible compared to the total number of people in the system. In spite of that, human societies are characterized by stunning global regularities. There are transitions from disorder to order, like the spontaneous formation of a common language/culture or the emergence of consensus about a specific issue. There are examples of scaling and universality. These macroscopic phenomena naturally call for a statistical physics approach to social behavior, i.e., the attempt to understand regularities at large scale as collective effects of the interaction among single individuals, considered as relatively simple entities. (592)

Thus, the study of the self-organization and evolution of language and meaning has led to the idea that a community of language users can be seen as a complex dynamical system which collectively solves the problem of developing a shared communication system. In this perspective, which has been adopted by the novel field of semiotic dynamics, the theoretical tools developed in statistical physics and complex systems science acquire a central role for the study of the self-generated structures of language systems. (617)

Ceron, Steven, et al. Programmable Self-Organization of Heterogeneous Microrobot Collectives. PNAS. 120/24, 2023. We cite this June entry by Cornell, MIT, MPI Intelligent Systems, and ETH Zurich researchers as one more exemplary realization of mindful life’s common, innate propensity to compose itself (her/his) by applying and guiding these procreative energies as they gather and vivify, going forward.

At the microscale, coupled physical interactions between collectives of agents can be exploited to enable self-organization. Past systems typically consist of identical agents; however, heterogeneous agents can exhibit asymmetric pairwise interactions which can be used to generate more diverse patterns of self-organization. Here, we study the effect of size heterogeneity in microrobot collectives composed of circular, magnetic microdisks on a fluid–air interface. Our work furthers insights into self-organization in heterogeneous microrobot collectives and moves us closer to the goal of applying such collectives to programmable self-assembly and active matter. (Significance excerpt)

Coleman, Piers. Frontier at Your Fingertips. Nature. 446/379, 2007. A note that physics and biology are converging as materiality becomes reinvented as a self-similar expression of universal collaborative principles. See also the Emergent Universe Project website noted in this section.

Some believe that emergence implies an abandonment of reductionism in favour of a more hierarchical structure of science, with disconnected principles developing at each level. Perhaps. But in almost every branch of physics, from string theory to condensed-matter physics, we find examples of collective, emergent behavior that share common principles. (379) To me, this suggests that emergence does not spell the end for reductionism, but rather indicates that it be realigned to embrace collective behavior as in integral part of our Universe. (379)

Costa, Luciano da Fontoura, et al. Analyzing and Modeling Real-World Phenomena with Complex Networks. Advances in Physics. 60/3, 2011. Drawing upon a departmental focus on this field, eight University of Sao Paulo physicists provide a 108 page survey, with 565 references, of this real dynamic materiality across nature and society. After noting Basic Concepts, topical areas are Social, Communications, Economy, Finance, Computers, Internet, World Wide Web, Citations, Transportation Power Grids, Biomolecular, Medicine, Ecology, Neuroscience, Linguistics, Earthquakes, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Climate, and Epidemics – that is everywhere. From these many exemplars can be distilled a common, independent, complex system topology. Circa 2012, how could it dawn upon international collaborative science that this ubiquitous discovery is actually revealing a procreative genesis universe? In such regard, other such citations lately weigh in, e.g., Li and Peng in Complex Human Societies, Dorogovtsev, the Nature Physics Insight review, all herein, boding a critical credence. We append extended quotes.

The many achievements of physics over the last few centuries have been based on reductionist approaches, whereby the system of interest is reduced to a small, isolated portion of the world, with full control of the parameters involved (e.g., temperature, pressure, electric field). An interesting instance of reductionism, which is seldom realized, is the modeling of non-linear phenomena with linear models by restricting the parameters and variables in terms of a linear approximation. In establishing the structure of matter with the quantum theory in the first few decades of the 20th century, for example, reductionism was key to reaching quantitative treatment of the properties of atoms, molecules and then sophisticated structures such as crystalline solids. Indeed, deciphering the structure of matter was decisive for many developments – not only in physics but also in chemistry, materials science and more recently in biology. Nevertheless, with reductionist approaches only limited classes of real-world systems may be treated, for the complexity inherent in naturally-occurring phenomena cannot be embedded in the theoretical analysis. (4)

The success of complex networks is therefore to a large extent a consequence of their natural suitability to represent virtually any discrete system. Moreover, the organization and evolution of such networks, as well as dynamical processes on them, involve non-linear models and effects. The connectivity of networks is ultimately decisive in constraining and defining many aspects of systems dynamics. For instance, the behavior of biological neuronal networks, one of the greatest remaining scientific challenges, is largely defined by connectivity. Because of its virtually unlimited generality for representing connectivity in the most diverse real systems in an integrative way, complex networks are promising for integration and unification of several aspects of modern science, including the inter-relationships between structure and dynamics. Such a potential has been confirmed with a diversity of applications for complex networks, encompassing areas such as ecology, genetics, epidemiology, physics, the Internet and WWW, computing, etc. In fact, applications of complex networks are redefining the scientific method through incorporation of dynamic and multidisciplinary aspects of statistical physics and computer science. (4-5)

Frequently, the success of new areas of physics are judged not only from their theoretical contributions, but also from their potential for applications to real-world data and problems. Despite its relatively young age, the area of complex network research has already established itself, especially through its close relationship with formal theoretical fields such as statistical mechanics and graph theory, as a general and powerful theoretical framework for representing and modeling complex systems. It has been capable of taking into account not only the connectivity structure of those systems, but also intricate dynamics. Judging by the large number of areas and articles reviewed in the present survey, complex networks have performed equally well (if not better) with respect to their application potential. Indeed, the generality and flexibility of complex networks extends to virtually every real-world problems, from neuroscience to earthquakes, encompassing at least the 22 areas considered in the present work. (71)

Drossel, Barbara. Strong Emergence in Condensed Matter Physics. arXiv:1909.01134. In a contribution to appear in a Synthese issue on Top-Down Causation, the Technical University Darmstadt theoretical physicist (search) contends that from a 2019 vista this basic field, aka many-body physics, by virtue of integrative summations of myriad particles (entities), does inherently give rise to macroscopic formations. See also How Downwards Causation Occurs in Digital Computers by George Ellis and the author at 1908.10186 and Emergent Quasiparticles by Alexandre Guay and Olivier Sartenaer in Individuation, Process, and Scientific Practices by Otavio Bueno, et al, eds. (Oxford UP, 2018).

This paper argues that the physics of condensed matter cannot be reduced to the supposedly fundamental quantum mechanical theory for all the atoms of which the system consists. In fact, there are many reasons to reject the idea that the world of physics is causally closed with everything being determined by bottom-up by microscopic laws. In actual practice condensed-matter theory does not start with atomic interactions. Instead, plausible assumptions, intuitive models, and phenomena are used to mathematically describe the properties of systems that consist of a macroscopic number of particles. The paper thus includes a list of arguments in favor of strong emergence and top-down causation within the realm of physics. (Abstract excerpt)

Ellis, George F. R. Physics and the Real World. Foundations of Physics. 36/2, 2006. A brief version appeared in Physics Today, July 2005. An exercise to better relate and square physical reality with the presence of risen life. But what kind of universe is Ellis trying to describe. Not the moribund megaverse of string theory whereof human beings are the most fleeting, insignificant anomaly. By such inherent animate properties cosmic matter is seen to develop into emergent modular hierarchies of sentient and creative entities, in so many words a natural genesis.

The challenge to physics is to develop a realistic description of causality in truly complex hierarchical structures, with top-down causation and memory effects allowing autonomous higher levels of order to emerge with genuine causal powers. (227)

Eom, Young-Ho, et al. Network-Based Model of the Growth of Termite Nests. Physical Review E. 92/6, 2015. Systems scientists across Europe including Santo Fortunato and Guy Theraulaz analyze social insect structures in terms of local node and interactive link complexity, which is then seen as a generic instance of a universal self-organization phenomena. We cite as another example of mid 2010s abilities to study and perceive both these specific instantiations and their common, independent mathematics.

We present a model for the growth of the transportation network inside nests of the social insect subfamily Termitinae (Isoptera, termitidae). These nests consist of large chambers (nodes) connected by tunnels (edges). The model based on the empirical analysis of the real nest networks combined with pruning (edge removal, either random or weighted by betweenness centrality) and a memory effect (preferential growth from the latest added chambers) successfully predicts emergent nest properties (degree distribution, size of the largest connected component, average path lengths, backbone link ratios, and local graph redundancy). Our results provide an example of how complex network organization and efficient network properties can be generated from simple building rules based on local interactions and contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms that come into play for the formation of termite networks and of biological transportation networks in general. (Abstract)

Fontaine, Quentin, et al.. Kardar-Parisi-Zhang Universality in a One-Dimensional Polariton Condensate. Nature. August 24, 2022. Sixteen physicists in France, Belgium and Italy mainly at the University of Paris-Saclay cite experimental instances of consistent, reliable formations that occur across many “physical” occasions. (a reason why we added Statistical Organics to the section title). See a review A New Phase for the Universal Growth of Interfaces by Sebastian Diehl in the same issue which lauds the quality and wider significance of these findings.

Revealing universal behaviours is a hallmark of statistical physics. Phenomena such as the stochastic growth of crystalline surfaces and of interfaces in bacterial colonies, and spin transport in quantum magnets all belong to the same universality class, despite wide microscopic differences. In each systems, space–time correlations show power-law scalings with similar critical exponents, a dynamic commonality governed by the nonlinear stochastic Kardar–Parisi–Zhang (KPZ) equation (see Wikipedia, G. Parisi is a 2021 Nobel winner). Our empirical studies show that phase evolutions in a driven-dissipative one-dimensional polariton condensate indeed holds to the KPZ universality class. (Abstract excerpt)

Freivogel, Ben. A Multiverse of Probabilities. Physics World. March, 2010. I put this paper here to emphasize the present absence of systems thinking in physical cosmology. For the situation is dire. Physicists seem to be spinning their 11 dimension, string, brane, tangled theories to incoherent extremes, quite unawares, with no faculty, quality control, or philosophical oversight as a reality check. The postmodern humanities cheer because don’t you know there is no reality to check, only bubble cosmoses, each with vicarious laws and constants. And this article is not isolated, in the April 2010 issue of Discover magazine three “Beyond Einstein” articles traipse hypotheses all over matter, space and time. While the March 30 news, as I write, proclaims the LHC is finally smashing atoms, in this same PW issue it is lamented that the supposed keystone Higgs boson may be more elusive than thought. Just how Ptolemaic will physics become, spinning epicycles from particles to parsecs, sans any admissible sense, the very idea, of a greater knowable genesis creation.

Frey, Erwin. Evolutionary Game Theory: Theoretical Concepts and Applications to Microbial Communities. Physica A.. 389/4265, 2010. A Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München biophysicist provides a 33 page tutorial on the merger of stochastic physics with nonlinear complex network science. The material was presented at 2009 summer schools such as “Condensed Matter and Materials Physics” in Boulder, Colorado, and “Steps in Evolution: Perspectives from Physics, Biochemistry and Cell Biology 150 Years after Darwin” at Jacobs University, Bremen. By what worldwide natural philosophy might we begin to realize the actual discovery of a genesis cosmos with such vital propensities from universe to human?

Ecological systems are complex assemblies of large numbers of individuals, interacting competitively under multifaceted environmental conditions. Recent studies using microbial laboratory communities have revealed some of the self-organization principles underneath the complexity of these systems. A major role of the inherent stochasticity of its dynamics and the spatial segregation of different interacting species into distinct patterns has thereby been established. It ensures the viability of microbial colonies by allowing for species diversity, cooperative behavior and other kinds of “social” behavior. A synthesis of evolutionary game theory, nonlinear dynamics, and the theory of stochastic processes provides the mathematical tools and a conceptual framework for a deeper understanding of these ecological systems. We conclude with a perspective on the current challenges in quantifying bacterial pattern formation, and how this might have an impact on fundamental research in non-equilibrium physics. (Abstract excerpts)

Furusawa, Chikara and Kunihiko Kaneko. Evolutionary Origin of Power-Laws in a Biochemical Reaction Network. Physical Review E. 73/011912, 2006. An example of how constant, “inevitable” properties and propensities can be extracted from all kinds of naturally occurring organic metabolic dynamics.

Therefore, one possible strategy for extracting the nature of intracellular dynamics is to search for universal laws with regard to the networks of intracellular reactions common to a class of cell models – albeit simple – and then to unravel the dynamics of evolution leading to such features. (011912-1)

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