1989 Lectures in Complex Systems Vol. II

1989 Lectures in Complex Systems is an important introduction for the emerging field of complex systems. Topics covered in the book include problems in computational complexity, chaotic behavior and prediction, chemical dynamics, cellular autmoata and lattice gases, disordered systems, parallel-processing algorithms, morphogenesis, and computational and experimental neurobiology. The understanding of scientific phenomena derived from traditional approaches is combined with the insights gained from a new view of complexity. Emphasis is given to such concepts as order, chaos, randomness, nonlinearity, computability, collective phenomena, and emergent structures.The volume is a comprehensive treatise that presents the work of researchers whose study of specific problems in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science is interlaced throughout by curiosity about the nature and mechanisms of complex behavior.This proceedings volume is based on the 1989 Complex Systems Summer School at St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It complements subjects covered in Lectures in the Sciences of Complexity (Addison-Wesley, 1989), edited by Daniel L. Stern and based on the 1988 Complex Systems Summer School.