Books that are currently influencing my work…
Complex Systems Dynamics - Gerard Weisbuch
When it comes to the study of complexity, no one does it like the Santa Fe Institute. I have been rapidly consuming their publications to help make sense of the dynamics I’m observing in my neural simulations. This one is an excellent introduction to the subject, from cellular automata to random boolean nets. It is written in a manner that would make it the perfect textbook for an accelerated course.
“… a complex system is a system composed of a large number of different interacting elements… Even though there may not be many different types of neurons [in the brain], they differ in the structure of their connections.”
Conceptual Spaces: The Geometry of Thought - Peter Gärdenfors
I have become fascinated with the work of Roger N. Shepard, particularly his work surrounding abstract psychological spaces and his Universal Law of Generalization. I find this work to be highly relevant to my pursuits in both cognitive science and artificial intelligence. This book is definitely quenching my thirst for more information in this realm.
“To understand the structure of our thoughts and to be able to build artificial systems with similar cognitive capacities, we should aim at unveiling our conceptual spaces.”
An Introduction to Systems Biology: Design Principles of Biological Networks - Uri Alon
This book is one that has been on my shelf for awhile but I am just now digging into it. It has many interesting corollaries with my current neural networks of attention dynamics and meshes well with my desire to analyze nature in terms of systems.
“…biological systems show an inherent simplicity, by employing and combining a rather small set of basic building-block circuits, each for specific computational tasks.”
“Over evolutionary times, structures that have engineering advantages would tend to be selected and appear as network motifs.”
The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution - Stuart Kauffman
Full disclosure, I was introduced to this one through The Lost World, Michael Crichton’s follow-up to Jurassic Park. The book was heavily quoted and it piqued my interest. Turns out, this unique way of looking at evolution, fitness landscapes, and complex systems is heavily beneficial to my current work.
“Adaptive evolution achieves the kind of complex systems which are able to adapt. The lawful property of such systems may well be that they abide on the edge of chaos.”