A STUDY OF A FAMILY OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS: AN APPROACH TO THE INVESTIGATION OF ORGANISMS BEHAVIOR.
Abstract
A family of complex systems is examined which is defined with reference only to theoretically basic characteristics of the systems' parts and their interrelationship. The systems considered are intricate structures built up of simple electrical devices called elements which interact with one another. Each element has two possible elementstates, with its present state determined from states of other elements and from its previous state by a fixed transformation. Given a particular transformation, a system is constructed by taking 100 elements embodying that transformation and joining them at random. The system's behavior is studied by examining its cycles under operation. Then a different system is built using the same elements and the sampling of behavior repeated. Systems are compared, and it is found that for many transformations, details of structure are evidently unimportant in the occurrence of certain types of behavior. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0624864
Entities
People
- Crayton C. Walker
Organizations
- University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign