Fundamentals of Complex Systems Science: Evolution

Catalog description

The enormous diversity of biological, social and technological systems is the product of evolution. As Darwin put it poetically: 'There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.' In short, complexity is the product of evolutionary processes. This, in turn, implies that understanding complexity requires us to understand its evolutionary origins. This course is a comprehensive introduction to the evolutionary history of complex systems and the principles and mechanisms that guide this dynamic. Covers the consequences of evolutionary history of complex systems, such as vulnerability to failure or limits of the potential of these systems to change and adapt.