This volume provides a self-contained survey of the mechanisms presiding information processing and communication. The main thesis is that chaos and complexity are the basic ingredients allowing systems composed of interesting subunits to generate and process information and communicate in a meaningful way. Emphasis is placed on communication in the form of games and on the related issue of decision making under conditions of uncertainty. Biological, cognitive, physical, engineering and societal systems are approached from a unifying point of view, both analytically and by numerical simulation, using the methods of nonlinear dynamics and probability theory. Epistemological issues in connection with incompleteness and self-reference are also addressed.

This book is the second volume of a two-volume edition based on the International Society for Information Studies Summit Vienna 2015 on 'The Information Society at the Crossroads. Response and Responsibility of the Sciences of Information' (see summit.is4is.org).The book gives an up-to-date multiaspect exposition of contemporary studies in the field of information and related areas. It presents most recent achievements, ideas and opinions of leading researchers in this domain reflecting their quest for advancing information science and technology. With the goal of building a better society, in which social and technological innovations help make information key to the flourishing of humanity, we dispense with the bleak view of the dark side of information society.It is aimed at readers that conduct research into any aspect of information, information society and information technology, who develop or implement social or technological applications. It is also for those who have an interest in participating in setting the goals for the sciences of information and the social applications of technological achievements and the scientific results.

This special issue reviews state-of-the-art approaches to the biophysical roots of cognition. These approaches appeal to the notion that cognitive capacities serve to optimize responses to changing external conditions. Crucially, this optimisation rests on the ability to predict changes in the environment, thus allowing organisms to respond pre-emptively to changes before their onset. The biophysical mechanisms that underwrite these cognitive capacities remain largely unknown; although a number of hypotheses has been advanced in systems neuroscience, biophysics and other disciplines. These hypotheses converge on the intersection of thermodynamic and information-theoretic formulations of self-organization in the brain. The latter perspective emerged when Shannon’s theory of message transmission in communication systems was used to characterise message passing between neurons. In its subsequent incarnations, the information theory approach has been integrated into computational neuroscience and the Bayesian brain framework. The thermodynamic formulation rests on a view of the brain as an aggregation of stochastic microprocessors (neurons), with subsequent appeal to the constructs of statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. In particular, the use of ensemble dynamics to elucidate the relationship between micro-scale parameters and those of the macro-scale aggregation (the brain). In general, the thermodynamic approach treats the brain as a dissipative system and seeks to represent the development and functioning of cognitive mechanisms as collective capacities that emerge in the course of self-organization. Its explicanda include energy efficiency; enabling progressively more complex cognitive operations such as long-term prediction and anticipatory planning. A cardinal example of the Bayesian brain approach is the free energy principle that explains self-organizing dynamics in the brain in terms of its predictive capabilities – and selective sampling of sensory inputs that optimise variational free energy as a proxy for Bayesian model evidence. An example of thermodynamically grounded proposals, in this issue, associates self-organization with phase transitions in neuronal state-spaces; resulting in the formation of bounded neuronal assemblies (neuronal packets). This special issue seeks a discourse between thermodynamic and informational formulations of the self-organising and self-evidencing brain. For example, could minimization of thermodynamic free energy during the formation of neuronal packets underlie minimization of variational free energy?

The Routledge International Handbook of Complexity Economics covers the historical developments and early concerns of complexity theorists and brings them into engagement with the world today. In this volume, a distinguished group of international scholars explore the state of the art of complexity economics, and how it may deliver new and relevant insights to the challenges of the 21st century. Complexity science started in 1899 when Henri Poincaré described the three-body problem. The first approaches in economics emerged somewhat later, in the 1980s, driven by the Brussels-Austin school. Since then, complexity economics has gone through numerous developments: departing from linear simplifications, applying physical algorithms, to evolutionary economics and big data. This book covers the basic principles and methods, and offers an overview of the various domains—ranging from diverse fields of productivity studies, agricultural economics, to monetary economics—as well as the current challenges such as climate change, epidemics and economic inequality where complexity economics can provide insight. It closes with a review of complexity political economy and policy. Offering a vibrant alternative to orthodox economics, this handbook is a crucial resource for advanced students, researchers and economists across the disciplines of heterodox economics, economic theory and econophysics.

A project by Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI), Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (NUS) on the competitiveness analysis for Indonesian provinces.