{"product_id":"signals-and-boundaries-building-blocks-for-complex-adaptive-systems-9780262525930","title":"Signals and Boundaries: Building Blocks for Complex Adaptive Systems","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn overarching framework for comparing and steering complex adaptive systems is developed through understanding the mechanisms that generate their intricate signal\/boundary hierarchies.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eComplex adaptive systems (cas), including ecosystems, governments, biological cells, and markets, are characterized by intricate hierarchical arrangements of boundaries and signals. In ecosystems, for example, niches act as semi-permeable boundaries, and smells and visual patterns serve as signals; governments have departmental hierarchies with memoranda acting as signals; and so it is with other cas. Despite a wealth of data and descriptions concerning different cas, there remain many unanswered questions about \"steering\" these systems. In \u003ci\u003eSignals and Boundaries\u003c\/i\u003e, John Holland argues that understanding the origin of the intricate signal\/border hierarchies of these systems is the key to answering such questions. He develops an overarching framework for comparing and steering cas through the mechanisms that generate their signal\/boundary hierarchies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHolland lays out a path for developing the framework that emphasizes agents, niches, theory, and mathematical models. He discusses, among other topics, theory construction; signal-processing agents; networks as representations of signal\/boundary interaction; adaptation; recombination and reproduction; the use of tagged urn models (adapted from elementary probability theory) to represent boundary hierarchies; finitely generated systems as a way to tie the models examined into a single framework; the framework itself, illustrated by a simple finitely generated version of the development of a multi-celled organism; and Markov processes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohn H. Holland is Professor of Psychology and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan; he is also Trustee and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eHidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity\u003c\/i\u003e and other books.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51623502184722,"sku":"9780262525930","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_3e3a5716-757c-4a62-ac94-fc44d30fb2bc.jpg?v=1758639125","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/signals-and-boundaries-building-blocks-for-complex-adaptive-systems-9780262525930","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}