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| International Symposium - Complex Systems: Robustness and Vulnerability- A Matter of Reinforcement and Extinction? |
| Sunday, May 27, 2007 |
| 10:30 AM–11:50 AM |
| Cunningham AB |
| Area: TPC/OBM; Domain: Theory |
| Chair: Ingunn Sandaker (Akershus University College, Norway) |
| Abstract: The overall objective of this presentation is to investigate the robustness and the predictability of changes in social complex systems. We will explore the relations between varying degrees of task complexity and agent performance. We will also explore the consequences of different relations between agents within complex systems: The crucial question is how changes in intensity and other qualities of the relation will affect the probability for certain behaviours to occur, to remain stable or to cease.
From our theoretical and empirical approach to human behaviour we can predict to a certain degree how stable a behavioural pattern will be. If we capitalize on the concept of extinction or robustness as the behaviours resistance to extinction, we may also predict human behaviour on a systems level. |
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| Complex Systems from a Selectionist Perspective. |
| GUNNAR REE (Akershus University College, Norway) |
| Abstract: Any system is open to the surrounding world, if only by minimal exchange of energy. This means that any external event may change the system in a way that disrupts previously stable patterns of interaction, and that new patterns of agent behaviour may result in the emergence of new systems while earlier systems are discontinued. Variation is basic to selection, and selection is blind, not goal-directed. Conditions may prevail which systematically select behaviour patterns that in an extended temporal perspective are destructive for the individual and the social systems in which he acts, but are perceived to be beneficial due to their immediate consequences. |
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| Connecting and Disconnecting in Networks: A Question of Reinforcement and Extinction. |
| BRITT ANDERSEN (Akershus University College) |
| Abstract: Systems in the nature have an ability to survive within a wide range of conditions, this is not often the case with man-made network. Often, the breakdown of one component in a system leads to failure throughout the system. Robustness of a system is crucial. Robustness is related to how a system can function despite of internal errors in the system. In social life this concerns the stability of human organizations under shifting conditions (economic, political and so forth). Many people have been concerned by the question “What are the most efficient and robust architecture for an organization?” |
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| The Business as an Acting Agent. |
| ARNE TERJE GULBRANDSEN (Akershus University College, Norway) |
| Abstract: The unit of analysis is defined by the properties of the system that distinguish it from other systems on the same level of reduction (or scale of magnitude / complexity), and by how the system is distinguished from other levels of reduction. The strength or robustness of relations between agents is determined by a variety of factors. In organisations, institutional, administrative and other structures and strictures define relations, in addition to agent behavior. An organisation may consist of one or more systems, while a system is not necessarily an organisation. |
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| The Business as an Acting Agent. |
| ARNE TERJE GULBRANDSEN (Akershus University College, Norway) |
| Abstract: The unit of analysis is defined by the properties of the system that distinguish it from other systems on the same level of reduction (or scale of magnitude / complexity), and by how the system is distinguished from other levels of reduction. The strength or robustness of relations between agents is determined by a variety of factors. In organisations, institutional, administrative and other structures and strictures define relations, in addition to agent behavior. An organisation may consist of one or more systems, while a system is not necessarily an organisation. |
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