Link Roundup: July 29, 2024

The two article’s I’m sharing this week both touch on how complexity emerges from simple systems, which is one of my own guiding interests.

As always, I generate summaries using AI and edit those summaries for accuracy and usefulness. Then, I offer some thoughts of my own.

Caleb Gucciardi, “Complex Systems Emerge from Simple Rules”

Link to Article

Generated Summary (ChatGPT)

This article argues that biology, chemistry, and physics are emergent properties arising from simpler rules and interactions. The concept of emergence is illustrated using the “Game of Life,” a cellular automaton with four simple rules that produce complex and lifelike patterns from simple initial conditions. The article extends this idea to real-world systems and connects it to AI, specifically large language models like GPT-3, which exhibit emergent properties by producing coherent text and solving problems beyond their initial training. The future of AI is seen as being shaped by emergent principles observed in nature. The author reflects on human actions as emergent, pondering the origins and triggers of thoughts and behaviors.

My Thoughts

While this is a short article, it touches on a concept that I find extremely important at a personal level: complexity as an emergent property. My early academic research focused on the emergent complexity of documentation and archives. I used the at-that-time-fashionable “new materialism” as a way of considering the emergent properties involved in creating an archive and, in that way, guiding history. (I don’t mean any disrespect to new materialism, but it does seem to be a mode of thinking that—like many “hot” intellectual topics—suffered from success.) In any case, this author does a nice job explaining some of the basic ideas related to emergent complexity in an accessible manner. I agree that it is worth seriously considering the emergent nature of AI.

John Carlos Baez, “Tritone Subsitutions”

Link to Article

Generated Summary (ChatGPT)

This post on tritone substitutions explores how this musical technique can enhance the sophistication of compositions. It explains the basic theory behind dominant seventh chords and how rotating their notes 180 degrees on a circle of fifths creates tritone substitutions. The post includes diagrams and examples to illustrate the concept, and links to videos for further learning. The article aims to make complex music theory accessible and enjoyable, highlighting the role of tritone substitutions in various musical genres.

My Thoughts

So, this article may be “a lot” for non-musicians. What it’s highlighting, though, is that music—all of it—relies on a fairly simple set of rules from which complexity (such as tritone substitution) emerges. In that regard, music is perhaps the best example of what the article above discussed. From rhythms to melodies, there are simple systems that exist that, when experimented with appropriately, generate the complexity of what we hear as music. The tritone substitution (a fascinating bit of music theory) demonstrates just that sort of experimentation.