[FRIAM] FW: RE: algebra and simulation

[Nicholas Thompson]

Please note

Nicholas S. Thompson
Research Associate, Redfish Group, Santa Fe, NM (nick at redfish.com)
Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University (nthompson at clarku.edu)




----- Original Message ----- 
From: John F. Kennison 
To: nickthompson at earthlink.net;Friam at redfish.com
Cc: Lee N. Rudolph; David Joyce
Sent: 7/28/2007 8:05:04 PM 
Subject: RE: algebra and simulation





Nick,

(
One way to view calculus is that it linearizes what would otherwise be a complicated operation --but the linearization is only valid for an instant before it is replaced by a different linearization. The basic adaptive system is one that eventually cycles. Some of my recent research has been to break a system down into ones that eventually cycle (but not all systems so break down and I have a long way to go).

---John








-----Original Message-----
From: Nicholas Thompson [mailto:nickthompson at earthlink.net]
Sent: Fri 7/27/2007 11:02 PM
To: Friam at redfish.com
Cc: John F. Kennison; Lee N. Rudolph; David Joyce
Subject: algebra and simulation

..The calculus allowed us to take certain, difficult-to-solve, nonlinear  equations and re-form them into simple linear problems.  Is there a mathematics of complex adaptive social systems that will provide a similar transformation?  Any simulation can be written as an instantiation of a recursive function, suggesting that a given model run is nothing more than a sequence of interconnected algebraic equations.  But can we say someting more general here? 

--- Miller and Page,  COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS, Appendix A, p234. 


Nicholas S. Thompson
Research Associate, Redfish Group, Santa Fe, NM (nick at redfish.com)
Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University (nthompson at clarku.edu)
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