Towards a theory of everything? - grand challenges in complexity and informatics
David Geoffrey Green, David Newth · 2000
. This account surveys some of the major developments in complexity research and proposes a number of questions and issues for future research. The topics are organized into three areas. Under theory, we consider self-organization, emergence, criticality, connectivity, as well as the paradigm of natural computation. Applications include several areas of science and technology where complexity plays a prominent part such as development, evolution, and global information systems. Finally, under practice, we consider some of the issues involved in trying to develop a coherent methodology for dealing with complexity. 1. Introduction At the beginning of the 20 th Century, there was a sense in many areas of science that the key discoveries had already been made. These impressions were later shaken by discoveries that opened up vast new areas of knowledge. In contrast, we are struck at the start of the 21 st Century by the enormity of what we do not know. Prominent amongst these...