Quantum phenomena are notoriously difficult to grasp. The present paper first reviews the most important quantum concepts in a non-technical matter: superposition, uncertainty, collapse of the wave function, entanglement and non-locality. It then tries to clarify these concepts by examining their analogues in complex, self-organizing systems. These include bifurcations, attractors, emergent constraints, order parameters and non-local correlations. They are illustrated with concrete examples that include Rayleigh-Bénard convection, social self-organization and Gestalt perception of ambiguous figures. In both cases, quantum and self-organizing, the core process appears to be a symmetry breaking that irreversibly and unpredictably “collapses” an ambiguous state into one of a number of initially equivalent “eigenstates” or “attractors”. Some speculations are proposed about the non-linear amplification of quantum fluctuations of the vacuum being ultimately responsible for such symmetry breaking.

 

Entanglement, symmetry breaking and collapse: correspondences between quantum and self-organizing dynamics

Francis Heylighen

ECCO Working paper, 2018-03, draft submitted for: Foundations of Science

http://134.184.131.111/Papers/QM-Complexity.pdf

Source: 134.184.131.111

Protocells are objects that mimic one or several functions of biological cells and may be embodied as solid particles, lipid vesicles, or droplets. Our work is based on using decanol droplets in an aqueous solution of sodium decanoate in the presence of salt. A decanol droplet under such conditions bears many qualitative similarities with living cells, such as the ability to move chemotactically, divide and fuse, or change its shape. This article focuses on the description of a shape-changing process induced by the evaporation of water from the decanoate solution. Under these conditions, the droplets perform complex shape changes, whereby the originally round decanol droplets grow into branching patterns and mimic the growth of appendages in bacteria or axon growth of neuronal cells. We report two outcomes: (i) the morphological changes are reversible, and (ii) multiple protocells avoid contact between each other during the morphological transformation. The importance of these morphological changes in the context of artificial life are discussed.

 

Multi-Armed Droplets as Shape-Changing Protocells

Jitka Čejková, Martin M. Hanczyc and František Štěpánek

Artificial Life
Volume 24 | Issue 1 | Winter 2018
p.71-79

Source: www.mitpressjournals.org

The synchronization of loosely coupled chaotic systems has increasingly found applications to large networks of differential equations and to models of continuous media. These applications are at the core of the present Focus Issue. Synchronization between a system and its model, based on limited observations, gives a new perspective on data assimilation. Synchronization among different models of the same system defines a supermodel that can achieve partial consensus among models that otherwise disagree in several respects. Finally, novel methods of time series analysis permit a better description of synchronization in a system that is only observed partially and for a relatively short time. This Focus Issue discusses synchronization in extended systems or in components thereof, with particular attention to data assimilation, supermodeling, and their applications to various areas, from climate modeling to macroeconomics.

 

Introduction to focus issue: Synchronization in large networks and continuous media—data, models, and supermodels
Chaos 27, 126601 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5018728
Gregory S. Duane, Carsten Grabow, Frank Selten, and Michael Ghil

Source: aip.scitation.org

Is undecidability a requirement for open-ended evolution (OEE)? Using methods derived from algorithmic complexity theory, we propose robust computational definitions of open-ended evolution and the adaptability of computable dynamical systems. Within this framework, we show that decidability imposes absolute limits on the stable growth of complexity in computable dynamical systems. Conversely, systems that exhibit (strong) open-ended evolution must be undecidable, establishing undecidability as a requirement for such systems. Complexity is assessed in terms of three measures: sophistication, coarse sophistication, and busy beaver logical depth. These three complexity measures assign low complexity values to random (incompressible) objects. As time grows, the stated complexity measures allow for the existence of complex states during the evolution of a computable dynamical system. We show, however, that finding these states involves undecidable computations. We conjecture that for similar complexity measures that assign low complexity values, decidability imposes comparable limits on the stable growth of complexity, and that such behavior is necessary for nontrivial evolutionary systems. We show that the undecidability of adapted states imposes novel and unpredictable behavior on the individuals or populations being modeled. Such behavior is irreducible. Finally, we offer an example of a system, first proposed by Chaitin, that exhibits strong OEE.

 

Undecidability and Irreducibility Conditions for Open-Ended Evolution and Emergence

Santiago Hernández-Orozco, Francisco Hernández-Quiroz and Hector Zenil

Artificial Life
Volume 24 | Issue 1 | Winter 2018
p.56-70

Source: www.mitpressjournals.org

As a basic unit of life, the cell is one of the most carefully studied components of all living organisms. Yet details on basic processes such as how cells are shaped have remained a mystery. Working at the intersection of biology and physics, scientists at the University of California San Diego have made an unexpected discovery at the root of cell formation.

Source: phys.org