Self-Organised information PrOcessing, CriticaLity and Emergence in multilevel Systems
Sophocles contributes to a theory of dynamics of multi level complex systems by developing mathematical and computational formalisms for information processing in such multi level systems. We develop the formalism in the context of criticality, emergence, and tipping points in multi level systems and apply it to real data. This will lead to a better understanding, but more importantly, to an improvement in predictive power for early warning. Can we observe tell-tales of things to happen in the (near) future? We relate the emergence of structures and collective effects to the existence of an information-driven phase transition. Emergent structures may mean selection of preferred scales, creation of new levels or annihilation of existing levels, or occurrence of tipping points leading to extreme phenomena. We believe that these transitions are often self-organized because they appear in a spontaneous way, driven only by the dynamics of the system and the co-evolving topology of the interactions. More information at http://www.sophocles.eu/.
DURATION: 1 December 2012 – 30 November 2015