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Information and Self-Organization

A Macroscopic Approach to Complex Systems

  • Book
  • © 2006

Overview

Authors:
  1. Hermann Haken

    1. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Zentrum für Synergetik, Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

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Part of the book series: Springer Series in Synergetics (SSSYN)

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Table of contents (17 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XIV
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  2. The Challenge of Complex Systems

    Pages 1-35

  3. From the Microscopic to the Macroscopic World ...

    Pages 36-52

  4. ... and Back Again: The Maximum Information Principle (MIP)

    Pages 53-64

  5. An Example from Physics: Thermodynamics

    Pages 65-68

  6. Application of the Maximum Information Principle to Self-Organizing Systems

    Pages 69-73

  7. The Maximum Information Principle for Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions: Determination of Order Parameters, Enslaved Modes, and Emerging Patterns

    Pages 74-80

  8. Information, Information Gain, and Efficiency of Self-Organizing Systems Close to Their Instability Points

    Pages 81-114

  9. Direct Determination of Lagrange Multipliers

    Pages 115-124

  10. Unbiased Modeling of Stochastic Processes: How to Guess Path Integrals, Fokker-Planck Equations and Langevin-Îto Equations

    Pages 125-134

  11. Application to Some Physical Systems

    Pages 135-139

  12. Transitions Between Behavioral Patterns in Biology. An Example: Hand Movements

    Pages 140-152

  13. Pattern Recognition. Unbiased Guesses of Processes: Explicit Determination of Lagrange Multipliers

    Pages 153-194

  14. Information Compression in Cognition: The Interplay between Shannon and Semantic Information

    Pages 195-202

  15. Quantum Systems

    Pages 203-215

  16. Quantum Information

    Pages 216-221

  17. Quantum Computation

    Pages 222-241

  18. Concluding Remarks and Outlook

    Pages 242-243

  19. Back Matter

    Pages 244-258
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Keywords

About this book

The widespread interest this book has found among professors, scientists and stu­ dents working in a variety of fields has made a new edition necessary. I have used this opportunity to add three new chapters on recent developments. One of the most fascinating fields of modern science is cognitive science which has become a meet­ ing place of many disciplines ranging from mathematics over physics and computer science to psychology. Here, one of the important links between these fields is the concept of information which, however, appears in various disguises, be it as Shan­ non information or as semantic information (or as something still different). So far, meaning seemed to be exorcised from Shannon information, whereas meaning plays a central role in semantic (or as it is sometimes called "pragmatic") information. In the new chapter 13 it will be shown, however, that there is an important interplay between Shannon and semantic information and that, in particular, the latter plays a decisive role in the fixation of Shannon information and, in cognitive processes, al­ lows a drastic reduction of that information. A second, equally fascinating and rapidly developing field for mathematicians, computer scientists and physicists is quantum information and quantum computa­ tion. The inclusion of these topics is a must for any modern treatise dealing with in­ formation. It becomes more and more evident that the abstract concept of informa­ tion is inseparably tied up with its realizations in the physical world.

Reviews

From the reviews of the third edition:

"This enlarged edition of Information and Self-Organization addresses the concept of information in depth: ranging ‘from Shannon information, from which all semantics has been exorcised, to the effects of information on receivers and the self-creation of meaning’—that is, toward semantic information … . Nevertheless, both the qualitative lessons and quantitative analysis presented in the book … very useful for artificial life researchers." (Mikhail Prokopenko, Artificial Life, Vol. 15, 2009)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Institut für Theoretische Physik, Zentrum für Synergetik, Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Hermann Haken

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