Awesome Complexity

A curated list of resources related to complex systems, the scientific field studying systems with multiple interacting parts and emergent properties.

Contents

• Concepts
• Scientific Journals
• Blogs/Journals
• Societies/Communities
• Organizations
• Models
• Software
• Freely to use or open source
• Proprietary
• Other Resources
• Books

Concepts

• Attractor - A trajectory in the state space of a system in which it tends to evolve towards.
• Autopoiesis - The ability of a system to create and maintain itself.
• Chaos - Theory of chaotic systems.
• Complexity - The subject of complex systems science.
• Developmental Systems Theory - Theoretical perspective on biological development, heredity, and evolution.
• Dissipative System - A thermodynamically open system far from thermodynamic equilibrium.
• Distributed Control - A control system without a central supervisor.
• Edge of Chaos - The transition zone between order and disorder.
• Emergence - The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
• Fractal - Self-similar structure.
• Hysteresis - Dependence of the state of a system on its history.
• Holon - System that is both a whole and a part.
• Network/Graph - Network with non-trivial topological features.
• Phase Transition - Transition between states of matter.
• Robustness - Ability to tolerate perturbations.
• Self-Organization - The process where form arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system.
• Simulation - Imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system.

Scientific Journals

• Complexity - Cross-disciplinary journal about complex adaptive systems (open access).

Blogs/Journals

• The Systems Thinker - Articles with a systems perspective on various topics.
• Complexity Digest - News feed on complexity.
• Fractal forums - Forum and discussion community about fractals.

Societies/Communities

• Complex Systems Society - Scientific society for the study of complex systems.
• Complexity research - Informal slack community for keeping up to date with new findings in complex systems research.
• Complexity Adventures - Complexity community of practice (formerly known as Complexity Weekend).

Organizations

• New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) - Independent academic research and educational institution.
• The Vermont Complex Systems Center - Research and educational center (University of Vermont).
• Santa Fe Institute - Independent research and education center.
• Institut rhônalpin des systèmes complexes - IXXI - Research center (ENS Lyon).
• Waterloo Institute for Complexity & Innovation (WICI) - Research center (University of Waterloo).
• Institut des Systèmes Complexes - Paris Ile-de-France (ISC-PIF) - An inter-institutional organization (CNRS unit) on complex systems research.

Models

• Boids - Emergent flocking behavior.
• Craig Reynolds' Boids page - The creator's webpage with lots of links to multiple implementations.
• Cellular automata - Discrete compuation model.
• Elementary cellular automaton - One-dimensional cellular automata.