[FRIAM] FW: SFI Seminar: Complexity, Parallel Computation, and Statistical Physics

[Stephen Guerin]

Has anyone seen any papers on logical depth in the context of agent-based
modeling? I know we could talk about n agents * t steps * a rough
description of agent and environment complexity, but I was wondering if
anyone's done some more formal work...

-Steve


> *** SFI SEMINAR ***
> 
> Wednesday, June 7, 2006  .  12:15 pm  .  Medium Conference Room
> 
> Complexity, Parallel Computation, and Statistical Physics
> Jonathan Machta
> 
> Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
> 
> Abstract
> 
> The intuition that a long history is required for the 
> emergence of complexity in natural systems is formalized 
> using the notion of depth. The depth of a system is defined 
> in terms of the number of parallel computational steps needed 
> to simulate it. Depth provides an objective, irreducible 
> measure of history applicable to systems of the kind studied 
> in statistical physics. It is argued that physical complexity 
> cannot occur in the absence of substantial depth and that 
> depth is a useful proxy for physical complexity. The ideas 
> are illustrated for a variety of systems in statistical physics. 
> 
> http://www.santafe.edu/events/abstract/445
>