IIASA RepositoryData driven dark agesS.ThurnerauthorIf physics is the experimental science of matter that interacts through the four basic interactions, the science of complex systems is its natural extension, where the concepts of matter and interactions are generalized. Matter can be anything that is capable of interacting, interactions can be anything that is able to change states of the constituents of a system. Complex systems are made from many constituents (parts) that interact through interaction networks. These parts are characterized by states that change over time. At the same time the interaction networks may change over time. What makes a system complex is that the states of the parts change as a function F of the interaction network (and the states), and, simultaneously, the interaction networks change as another function G of the states of the nodes (and the networks). Physics is about the predictive understanding of the dynamics and changes of states once the interactions and initial and boundary conditions are specified. In complex systems interactions also change over time, and to make things really complicated, these changes are coupled to the dynamics of the state-changes. States co-evolve with the interaction networks. In this sense complex systems often are chicken-egg problems. They are evolutionary, show emergent behavior, can be self-organized critical, show power laws, etc…2017-01World ScientificBook Section

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