Complexity Primer

Our Initial Course of Study (549KB PDF) reviewing the scientific literature in Complexity Science as of 2003. Readings are listed by session and topic.

Foundational Books:

Complexity

Exploring Complexity: An Introduction by Gregoire Nicolis and Ilya Prigogine (1989)

Self-Organized Criticality: Emergent Complex Behavior in Physical and Biological Systems by Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen (1998)

Modeling Complex Systems

Modeling Complex Systems by Nino Boccara (2010)

Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: With Applications To Physics, Biology, Chemistry, And Engineering by Steven H. Strogatz (2001)

Dynamics of Complex Systems, Yaneer Bar-yam (1997)

Complex Adaptive Systems

Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life by John H. Miller and Scott E. Page (2007)

Understanding Complexity by Scott E. Page, DVD ROM from Great Courses

Systems of Systems

System of Systems Engineering (Wiley Series in Systems Engineering and Management) by Mohammad Jamshidi (2008)

Applications

Managing Business Complexity: Discovering Strategic Solutions with Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation by Michael J. North and Charles M. Macal (2007)

  • Map: A History of Complexity Science, created by Brian Castellani, Kent State University