The main aim of these lectures is to tri gger the interest of the restless under graduate student of physical, mathematical, engineering, or biological sciences in the new and exciting multidisciplinary area of the evolution of "large-scale" dynamical systems. This text grew out of a synthesis of rather heterogeneous mate rial that I presented on various occasions and in different contexts. For example, from lectures given since 1972 to first- and final-year undergraduate and first year graduate students at the School of Engineering of the University of Patras and from informal seminars offered to an international group of graduate and post doctoral students and faculty members at the University of Stuttgart in the aca demic year 1982-1983. Those who search for rigor or even formality in this book are bound to be rather disappointed. My intention is to start from "scratch" if possible, keeping the rea soning heuristic and tied as closely as possible to physical intuition; I assume as prerequisites just basic knowledge of (classical) physics (at the level of the Berkeley series or the Feynman lectures), calculus, and some elements of probabil ity theory. This does not mean that I intended to write an easy book, but rather to eliminate any difficulty for an eager reader who, in spite of incomplete for malistic training, would like to become acquainted with the physical ideas and con cepts underlying the evolution and dynamics of complex systems.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 1.1 What This Book Is About.- 1.2 Statement of the Problem.- 1.3 Some Preliminary Definitions of Complexity and Organization.- 2. Preliminaries from Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistical Physics.- 2.1 Symmetries and Conservation Principles.- 2.2 Instabilities at the Root of Broken Symmetries, Dissipation, and Irreversibility for Low-Dimensional (Not Statistical) Dynamical Systems.- 2.3 Elements of Statistical Physics and Their Relevance to Evolutionary Phenomena.- 2.4 Concluding Remarks.- 3. The Role of Spherical Electromagnetic Waves as Information Carriers.- 3.1 Radiation from Accelerated Charge in Vacuo. The Concept of Self-Force. Thermodynamics of Electromagnetic Radiation.- 3.2 Electromagnetic Wave Propagation in Dispersive Media and Lossy Media.- 3.3 Analysis of a Spherical Wave in Terms of Elemental Rays. The Mode Theory of Wave Propagation. Excitable Modes (Degrees of Freedom) in a Closed Cavity.- 3.4 The Entropy of Electromagnetic Radiation. Information Received by an Electromagnetic Wave Impinging on a Finite Aperture. Ambiguity of Perception.- 4. Elements of Information and Coding Theory, with Applications.- 4.1 Information Transfer and the Concept of Channel Capacity for Discrete and Continuous Memoryless Signals.- 4.2 Some Ideas from Coding Theory Instrumental in Minimizing Reception Error.- 4.3 Some Efficient Coding Algorithms for Source-Channel Matching and Single-Error Detection and Correction.- 4.4 Information Sources with Memory. Markov Chains.- 4.5 Specific Examples of Some Useful Channels and Calculations of Their Capacities.- 4.6 Modeling of Stochastic Time Series.- 4.7 Communication Between Two Hierarchical Systems Modeled by Controlled Markov Chains.- 4.8 Emergence of New Hierarchical Levels in a Self-Organizing System.-5. Elements of Game Theory, with Applications.- 5.1 Constant-Sum Games.- 5.2 Non-Constant-Sum Games.- 5.3 Competing Species.- 5.4 Survival and Extinction.- 5.5 Some Elementary Knowledge from Genetics: Selection and Fitness.- 5.6 Games Between Animals Adopting Specific Modes of Behavior (Roles). Concepts of Evolutionarily Stable Strategy.- 5.7 The Game of Competitive-Cooperative Production and Exchange. The Concept of Parasite at a Symbolic Level.- 5.8 Epidemiology of Rumors.- 6. Stochasticiky Due to Deterministic Dynamics in Three- or Higher-Dimensional Space: Chaos and Strange Attractors.- 6.1 A Reappraisal of Classical Statistical Mechanics. The Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser Theorem.- 6.2 Dynamics in Three-Dimensional State Space (Three Degrees of Freedom). Steady States, Limit Cycles, Attracting Tori.- 6.3 Strange Attractors.- 6.4 Parameters Characterizing the Average Behavior of Strange Attractors: Dimensions, Entropies, and Lyapounov Exponents.- 6.5 A Possible Role for Chaos in Reliable Information Processing.- 6.6 Comments on the Effects of Internal Fluctuations and External Noise on the Stability Properties of Dynamical Systems.- 7. Epilogue: Relevance of Chaos to Biology and Related Fields.- 7.1 Computational Complexity.- 7.2 Towards a Dynamic Theory of Language.- 7.3 Concluding Remarks.- A. A View of the Role of External Noise at a Neuronal Hierarchical Level.- A.1 Introduction to the Problem.- A.2 Organization Through Weak Stationary-Amplitude Noise.- A.3 Relevance of the Model to Neuronal and Cognitive Organization.- B. On the Difficulty of Treating the Transaction Between Two Hierarchical Levels with Continuous Nonlinear Dynamics.- B.1 The Level Q of Partner I.- B.2 Homeostasis and Cross-Correlations.- B.3 The Level W of Partner I.- B.4 The Controller.- C.Noisy Entrainment of a Slightly Nonlinear Relaxation Oscillator by an External Harmonic Excitation.- C.1 General Description of the Model.- C.2 A Method for the Study of Entrainment.- C.2.1 Strict Entrainment.- C.2.2 Loose or Jittery Entrainment.- C.2.3 Pure Free-Running Oscillation.- C.2.4 Free-Running Oscillation.- C.3 Mathematical Treatment and Computer Simulation.- C.4 Behavior of the Oscillator Under an Applied Harmonic Excitation (Entrainment).- References.