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arXiv · 1909.13243

Measuring complexity

Karoline Wiesner·James Ladyman
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Abstract

Complexity is a multi-faceted phenomenon, involving a variety of features including disorder, nonlinearity, and self-organisation. We use a recently developed rigorous framework for complexity to understand measures of complexity. We illustrate, by example, how features of complexity can be quantified, and we analyse a selection of purported measures of complexity that have found wide application and explain whether and how they measure complexity. We also discuss some of the classic information-theoretic measures from the 1980s and 1990s. This work gives the reader a tool kit for quantifying features of complexity across the sciences.

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Karoline Wiesner, James Ladyman. 2019-09-29. Measuring complexity. https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.13243

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