Complexity, Language, and Life: Mathematical Approaches

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XIII

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2. Allowing, Forbidding, but not Requiring: A Mathematic for a Human World

   • Peter Gould

   Pages 1-20

3. A Theory of Stars in Complex Systems

   • Jeffrey Johnson

   Pages 21-61

4. Pictures as Complex Systems

   • Ulf Grenander

   Pages 62-87

5. A Survey of Replicator Equations

   • Karl Sigmund

   Pages 88-104

6. Darwinian Evolution in Ecosystems: A Survey of Some Ideas and Difficulties Together with Some Possible Solutions

   • Nils Chr. Stenseth

   Pages 105-145

7. On System Complexity: Identification, Measurement, and Management

   • John L. Casti

   Pages 146-173

8. On Information and Complexity

   • Robert Rosen

   Pages 174-196

9. Organs and Tools: A Common Theory of Morphogenesis

   • René Thom

   Pages 197-230

10. The Language of Life

    • David Berlinski

    Pages 231-267

11. Universal Principles of Measurement and Language Functions in Evolving Systems

    • H. H. Pattee

    Pages 268-281

In May 1984 the Swedish Council for Scientific Research convened a small group of investigators at the scientific research station at Abisko, Sweden, for the purpose of examining various conceptual and mathematical views of the evolution of complex systems. The stated theme of the meeting was deliberately kept vague, with only the purpose of discussing alternative mathematically based approaches to the modeling of evolving processes being given as a guideline to the participants. In order to limit the scope to some degree, it was decided to emphasize living rather than nonliving processes and to invite participants from a range of disciplinary specialities spanning the spectrum from pure and applied mathematics to geography and analytic philosophy. The results of the meeting were quite extraordinary; while there was no intent to focus the papers and discussion into predefined channels, an immediate self-organizing effect took place and the deliberations quickly oriented themselves into three main streams: conceptual and formal structures for characterizing sys­ tem complexity; evolutionary processes in biology and ecology; the emergence of complexity through evolution in natural lan­ guages. The chapters presented in this volume are not the proceed­ ings of the meeting. Following the meeting, the organizers felt that the ideas and spirit of the gathering should be preserved in some written form, so the participants were each requested to produce a chapter, explicating the views they presented at Abisko, written specifically for this volume. The results of this exercise form the volume you hold in your hand.

• applied mathematics
• biology
• complex system
• complexity
• ecology
• evolution
• mathematics
• paper
• philosophy
• structure

• International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria

  John L. Casti

• Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden

  Anders Karlqvist

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