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3 - Synergetics: from physics to economics
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- By Hermann Haken, Professor of Physics Institute for Theoretical Physics, Center for Synergetics, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
- Edited by Kurt Dopfer, Universität St Gallen, Switzerland
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- Book:
- The Evolutionary Foundations of Economics
- Published online:
- 22 September 2009
- Print publication:
- 23 May 2005, pp 70-86
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Summary
Introduction
Why should a physicist such as the present author write about economics? Indeed, at first sight, there seem to be fundamental differences between physics and economics. Let us briefly discuss some typical differences. Physics deals with comparatively simple objects, which are studied under well-controlled conditions so that the experiments can be repeated again and again under the same conditions. The change of one or a few parameters allows the experimenter to study their influence on the experimental outcome in detail. In physics, it is rather generally believed that its laws are eternally valid and applicable to the whole universe. One of the outstanding features of the physical laws seems to be their capability to predict the future. This is clearly demonstrated, for instance, when a rocket is sent to the moon. Below we shall see that some of these statements are no longer valid, as has been shown by more recent developments.
Let us now turn to economics. It deals with systems that are far more complex than any physical system. In it, psychological aspects play an important role, and a number of important economic processes are governed by expectations about future events, hopes and fears. On the other hand, scientific prediction of the future of any economic system seems to be extremely difficult. In addition, practically no experiments under well-defined circumstances are possible. In other words, economics is characterized by its historicity.
11 - New laws to be expected in the organism: synergetics of brain and behaviour
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- By J. A. Scott Kelso, Program in Complex Systems & Brain Sciences, Center for Complex Systems, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, Hermann Haken, Institute for Theoretical Physics & Synergetics, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart
- Edited by Michael P. Murphy, University of Otago, New Zealand, Luke A. J. O'Neill, Trinity College, Dublin
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- Book:
- What is Life? The Next Fifty Years
- Published online:
- 03 February 2010
- Print publication:
- 21 September 1995, pp 137-160
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Summary
Acknowledgements
Much of the work described in this article is supported by NIMH (Neurosciences Research Branch) Grant MH42900, BRS Grant RR07258, Office of Naval Research Contract N00014-92-J-1904 and NSF Grant DBS-9213995. We are very grateful to Tom Holroyd and Armin Fuchs for their help with the figures.
One can best appreciate, from a study of living things, how primitive physics still is.
(A. Einstein)INTRODUCTION
The title of this article – at least the statement in front of the colon – is unashamedly stolen from Schrödinger's (1944) wonderful little book What is Life? The statement after the colon points to a source where these new laws may be found. Synergetics is a term coined by H. Haken (1969, 1977) to encapsulate a relatively new multidisciplinary field of research aimed at understanding how patterns form in open, nonequilibrium systems, i.e. systems that receive a continuous influx of energy and/or matter. Synergetics deals with how the (typically very many) individual parts of a system cooperate to create novel spatiotemporal or functional structures. In the last decade or so tremendous progress has been made in penetrating nature's ways of generating patterns in open physical, chemical and biochemical systems (e.g. Babloyantz, 1986; Bak, 1993; Bergé, Pomeau & Vidal, 1984; Collet & Eckmann, 1990; Ho, in press; Iberall & Soodak, 1987; Kuramoto, 1984; Nicolis & Prigogine, 1989, for reviews). In particular, synergetic construction principles have established the concepts of instability, order parameters, fluctuations and slaving as crucial to understanding and predicting the spontaneous (self-organized) formation of pattern in complex systems.