Our organizational meeting for the fall term of 2000 will be at 11am
on Tuesday, September 12 in the CSCS Commons, 4481 Randall Lab. At
this meeting, we will decide when to meet and what to read during the
term. Possible topics suggested so far include "self-organization" and
"entropy and statistical mechanics". This past summer our theme was
"evolution and development".
If you are interested in participating in the reading group this fall
but cannot attend the organizational meeting, send an email to
Ted.Belding@umich.edu
with suggestions for meeting times and topics.
The reading group is a broadly interdisciplinary group and meets once
every week/2 weeks. The readings are from the general area of
nonlinear, dynamical and adaptive systems.
If you are planning on attending group sessions this term and cannot
make it to the organizational meeting, send an e-mail to Roshan
Bangera (rbangera@umich.edu)
with your time constraints and reading preferences.
This term the complex systems reading group will be meeting Tuesdays
2:00-4pm in 267B West Hall.
presentations of our own research
Other suggestions are always welcome!
For our first regular meeting, next Tuesday, January 19, we will discuss:
Farmer, J. Doyne. (1998). Market force, ecology, and evolution.
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/adap-org/9812005 (gzip'ed PostScript)
For background info on Doyne Farmer and the rest of the Dynamical
Systems Collective (aka the Chaos Cabal), see:
Bass, Thomas A. (1985). The Eudaemonic Pie. Penguin.
Gleick, James. (1987). Chaos: Making a New Science. Penguin. pp. 241-272.
We may spend another week on this paper, depending on interest and how
much everyone gets read by next week.
For our next meeting, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2pm-4pm in 267B West Hall, we will
read:
Russell, Stuart, and Peter Norvig. (1995). Artificial Intelligence: A
Modern Approach. Chapter 2: Intelligent Agents. Prentice-Hall. ISBN
0-13-103805-2.
For our Feb. 2 meeting, we will read one of Prof. Michael Wellman's
papers. (After looking through the papers, I think the Russell and Norvig
excerpt would be best read beforehand.)
As always, copies of the paper are available outside of the PSCS Computer
Lab, 4477 Randall Lab.
October 8, 1998
On reflection, I think it may have been better if we had read another,
more self-contained, paper by Flannery last time. So I'm adding it as an
optional reading for the next meeting (Friday, Oct. 16, 12-2pm, 267B West
Hall):
Flannery, Kent V. (1995). Prehistoric social evolution. In Ember, Carol
R., and Melvin Ember (eds.), Research Frontiers in Anthropology.
Prentice-Hall. pp. 1-26.
For that Oct. 16 meeting, we will still be discussing:
Wright, Henry T. (1977). Recent research on the origin of the state.
Annual Review of Anthropology 6:379-97.
For the following meeting, on Oct. 23, we will discuss:
Flannery, Kent V. (1986). Ecosystem models and information flow in the
Tehuacan-Oaxaca region. Chapter 2 in Flannery, Kent V. (ed.), Guila
Naquitz. Academic Press. pp. 19-28.
All three papers are now outside of the PSCS Computer Lab, 4477 Randall
Lab. The two papers for next time, Wright (1977) and Flannery (1995), are
together in one envelope. The reading for Oct. 23, Flannery (1986), is in
another envelope. All past readings are on file in the PSCS Computer Lab,
if you can't pick them up before we discuss them; I'm afraid I don't have
time to send them out to people off campus.
-Ted
September 28, 1998
The complex systems reading group is an
informal, student-run group that meets weekly to discuss papers
related to complex systems. This term our theme is "social systems".
We are meeting Fridays 12pm-2pm in room 267B West Hall. All are
welcome. Copies of the readings are available in an envelope outside
of the PSCS Computer Lab (4477 Randall Lab). A list of possible
readings on social systems is on the web.
Our first reading, for Oct. 2 is:
Marcus, Joyce, and Kent V. Flannery. (1996). The unification of the valley
of Oaxaca. Chapter 12 in Zapotec Civilization: How Urban Society Evolved in
Mexico's Oaxaca Valley. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 155-171.
We will *not* meet on Oct. 9.
For our second meeting, on Oct. 16, we will discuss:
Wright, Henry T. (1977). Recent research on the origin of the state.
Annual Review of Anthropology 6:379-97.
Finally, there will be two PSCS talks by Benoit Mandelbrot:
"Wild Variability in Physics", Thurs., Oct. 8, 2:30-4pm, 340 West Hall
"Multifractality of Financial Markets", Fri., Oct. 9, 12-2pm, 1640 Chemistry
And there will be a roundtable with John Holland, Rob Axtell, and D. K.
Foley on "Complexity in the Social Sciences", Thurs., Oct. 8, 4-6pm,
Auditorium D, Angell Hall.
If would like more information or if you would like to be added to the
reading group email list for announcements, email Ted Belding.
--
Ted Belding Ted.Belding@umich.edu
University of Michigan Program for the Study of Complex Systems
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~streak/
The CSRG Social Systems Bibliography
