Nonlinearity

Key question

How does order emerge from interaction?

Check your understanding

Find an example, an application and a limit. Explain the concept without using its name, then compare your explanation with a primary source.

Claims to examine

• Simple interacting rules can produce system-level behaviour that is difficult to infer from a component alone.

  Editorial claim · contestedExamine the source →

Follow a learning route

• How does order emerge from interaction?

  Study feedback, networks, nonlinear dynamics and emergence through models you can inspect.

Reading connections

• Introduction to the Modeling and Analysis of Complex Systems

  Hiroki Sayama

• Cellular Automata

  Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy editors

• How Nature Works: The Science of Self-Organized Criticality

  Per Bak

• Emergent Properties

  Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy editors

• Networks

  Mark Newman

• Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos

  Steven Strogatz