Signals and Boundaries: Building Blocks for Complex Adaptive Systems (Mit Press)

Professor John H. Holland's Signals and Boundaries is the third volume of the trilogy I reviewed today that describe how living things are created, adapt, and change in their natural environment. This book is a bit more technical than the previous two works that I reviewed today, Emergence, From Chaos to Order, and Hidden Order, How Adaptation Builds Complexity. All three of Prof. Holland's works can be seen as a three legged table on which understanding of the progression of life forms themselves can be visualized, modeled, and ultimately understood. Signals and boundaries are as Prof.Holland describes as the building blocks of complex adaptive systems; and indeed that is exactly what they are there like little Lego blocks that serve different purposes and functions depending upon the physical environment in which they are utilized, where signals can be visualized as purpose shaped receptors and probes, the way puzzle pieces interlock once they come into contact with one another. They are both the attractive and interactive components of living things, keys and locks as it were. Boundaries are the natural and system-created constraints that are placed on organisms to guide facilitate organisms that are capable with interacting with one another, and to exclude those that cannot. They can be compared with a fish weir, trapping those that are desirable, and excluding those that are not programmed through biochemical compatibility, to proceed onto the next step in adaptation and creation. Signals and boundaries on the signposts of evolution. Those life forms that succeed do so because the signals they both admit and receive to facilitate interaction are hemmed in by boundaries that would otherwise dilute the pool of organisms in which they exist to a point where from a probabilistic standpoint, sufficient interactions to result in replication, might not occur at all. A commonly used example is where a population of animals that is so close to extinction as to be incapable of reproducing sufficient numbers of themselves ultimately die out. Boundaries keep the interlopers out allowing the entities programmed for success to meet and greet one another on what is actually a random basis human society reflects these behaviors in our courtship and dating rituals. It is the basis of arranged marriages in some parts of the world, and the dating scene in more diverse societies. The fact that this occurs at the biochemical level is not well understood; but it bears more than just a familial relationship at the various levels of complexities. Those complexities exist in hierarchical forms that closely resemble the patterned organization that exists above and below each of the levels under consideration, just as human society does. More recently, a new and more specialized form of mathematics, called fractals, have been successfully employed to both illustrate and describe these phenomena. Altogether, it is fascinating, even for someone like myself with mathematical skills or marginal compared with those of whom Prof. Holland writes about. Nonetheless, he gets his point across very well. More importantly, I found the book sufficiently worthwhile to spend 4 or 5 evenings outlining and summarizing the central themes of Prof. Holland's narrative. I think it is that important to have made that special effort to fully and completely understand what I am reading. Once the central ideas are mastered, the rest follow suit it is why diversity is present, despite the constraints of institutional boundaries. Once we know how the system works, it becomes a lot easier to to be able to predict where things are likely to go, while at the same time understanding that the products of emergence resulting from these interactions can be entirely unpredictable.

I like the book. I need to skim some of it due to heavy biological terminology and formulations.I bought this book since this book has been referenced in another book : Demand Driven Performance by Debra & Chad Smith.We understand earth by the guidance of physics. After Galileo - Copernicus - ... a huge step has been done by Newton.Newton's Laws were explaining static, linear and dead bodies which are in equilibrum. called inertia. It means if there is no external force applied the mass keeps its course of movement, if it is still, it stays still, if it moves with constant speed it keeps going with the same speed. If you want to accelerate something, you need to apply a force. Everything is additive, optimization is possible. Time flows slowly, days are almost recurring, mass production is popular. World social and economic order is simply based on these principles.Thermodynamics Laws are contradicting with Newton's Laws. You can break a glass easily but you can not make it again so easy. It means everything is not bidirectional and additive as Newton thinks. 2nd law of thermodynamics is known as entropy and it says everything is decaying, disorder is rising.Darwin called this phenomenon as "natural selection", according to him only those organisms WHO are able to adopt changing circumstances will survive.Einstein - Heizenberg - Bohr - ... inserted relativity, indeterminancy and proven that around light speed Newton's Laws are no more valid.In this book I observe the evolution of dissipative structure concept by Ilya Prigogine to Complex Adaptive Sytems by John Holland. Characteristics and definition of CAS is exciting. I have been inspired several times by TOC concepts. I have found a lot of ties in between Deman Driven Performance and this book, it amazed me really.This is a theory for nonlinear and living World, complying with Darwin, complying with entropy. Organisms and companies are able to learn, eager to survive and time has only one direction to go. Since everything is dynamic, everything is changing there must be no end point, no optimum point but continuous improvement. This is a must to survive against Darwin.You need to know the rules to play chess. Even in this case every move leads endless new risks and opportunities, all possible mistakes are there waiting for you. This book is hinting the rules, the rest relies on you, practise and enjoy your life, enjoy your work !

John H. Holland does not disappoint. He describes how natural and artificial complex adaptive systems (CAS) work. He has chosen to use signals and boundaries as the key feature of these developing systems. Highly recommended for anyone studying and working complex adaptive systems that are coevolving. Suggestion regarding artificial systems: familiarize yourself with classifier systems and genetic algorithms before or while you read this book.

Holland presents his ideas and theories in outline for the components necessary to explain the behavior and evolution of complex adaptive systems such as protein networks, ecological niches, and cell morphogenesis. Great and interesting subjects looked at in a novel light, but the mathematical equations, of which there are many, are extremely poorly formatted, making reading them a pain.

I really enjoyed reading Holland's "Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity" when it was published two decades ago. Unfortunately, in "Signals and Boundaries" Holland did not add any significant points he did not make in that previous book. As a biologist, I ascribe this to the "biology should be more like physics" school of investigation on the evolution of complexity. When integrating physics and math with biology, the hypotheses you can examine depend on the sophistication of the inputs. Here Holland mixes some very sophisticated math concepts with concepts in "biological information" at the high-school level. With all the recent work in bioinformatics and systems biology, we should be able to do better.

book good arrived on time

Key concepts to understand complex adaptive systems.