This is a reading diary of a naïve complexity / computational social scientist’s first encounter with F. A. Hayek + Eastern Bloc tektology & cybernetics. You might have heard about project Cybersyn? In 1970s Chile, Salvador Allende’s socialist regime was betting on a systems-theoretical approach to the complex decision-making that’s an inevitable consequence of a […]
The absolutely most fundamental
I recently revisited some social network classics, and this post collects random thoughts about them. In sum, I want to cheer on research on the foundations of social network theory. Not because the house would crumble without stronger foundations but because that’s where the coolest future discoveries will be. These reflections are rough, quick, and […]
The golden age of complexity science books
Here is a list of complexity science books in a popular science style from when the hype was the biggest—from 1987 and a decade further*—and some very brief comments. Several of them are available at archive.org, as linked below. I’m pretty sure I forgot a few. If so, I’ll add them later. * I’m no […]
Temporal networks and the extraordinary fluidity of effortless abstractions
This is a semi-grumpy post about the many ambiguities and reinventions in the field of temporal networks. Cheerful posts are more fun, so do consider browsing away. Also, I’m not always contributing to clarity myself, so maybe I’m not entitled to whine about this. Many types of data consist of discrete interaction events, where we […]
Intro video to the history and ideas of complexity science and networks
I needed a video presenting the historical development of ideas behind the complexity and network science in 20 minutes—an impossible task of course (especially since I couldn’t spend too much time on prepping it). Anyway, someone out there could be interested, so here it is: Some credits not stated in the video: The starling murmuration […]
Good idea! But it’s already been explored by geographers
This post is an attempt to start a Mexican wave among computational social scientists (not only the urban science crowd) for the golden age of structural geography—the 1960s-80s. The main point is not to say geographers should have more credit but that literature from that era is a treasure trove of ideas. Neither is the […]
Emergence: Profoundly trivial
This post is an echo of voices from the distant past, prompted by a tweet by Fernando Rosas. (It’s also not entirely fact-checked and somewhat tongue-in-cheek.) Emergence is trivial! Emergence is what makes it possible to have different levels of description. Biologists can discuss cells; medical scientists can talk about tissues made of millions of […]
50 years of limits to growth
In my closest scientific surrounding, The Limits to Growth is surprisingly unknown, so at its 50th anniversary, this blog post is an intro + my reflections. For short, it’s a fascinating story of what happens when computational social science makes a splash. If we interpret computational social science literally—not just meaning social media data mining—its […]
That ole Illustrator magic
After making a figure with your favorite software—matplotlib, R, Matlab, gnuplot, etc.—there are usually many details that could need a touch-up. In collaborations, somehow that’s usually my job. Maybe partly because I’ve been using Illustrator since I-forgot-when, so I acquired some speed. I also love graphic design and am teaching scientific visualization (two areas with […]
The ability to unfocus
(I’m sure there are tonnes of literature and science on this topic that I don’t know of, so the purpose of this blog post is to reveal my ignorance by thinking out loud 😊.) The ability to focus is such a universally esteemed virtue that there must be some catch. I came to believe it […]
Petter Holme 