Emergence@ASU Postdoctoral fellow Enrico Boriello leads a new paper appearing on the arxiv preprint server titled "An Information-theoretic classification of complex systems". The paper provides a new way of classifying elementary cellular automata rules in terms of information transferred. We discuss how the three identified "information classes" that emerge relate to the concept of coarse-graining in cellular automata and also potential connections to living processes. The preprint is available here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1609.07554

An Information-theoretic Classification of Complex Systems
Enrico Borriello, Sara Imari Walker

Abstract: Using elementary cellular automata as an example, a novel, information-based classification of complex systems is proposed that circumvents the problems associated with isolating the complexity generated as a product of an initial state from that which is intrinsic to a dynamical rule. Transfer entropy variations processed by the system for different initial states split the 256 elementary rules into three information classes. These classes form a hierarchy such that coarse-graining transitions permitted among automata rules predominately occur within each information-based class, or much more rarely down the hierarchy.

Graduate student Cole Mathis will head to the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB) held in Clemson S.C., USA Sept. 24-25th 2016 to give a talk titled "The Emergence of Life as a First Order Phase Transition". More information on the workshop is available here:  http://kcs098.wixsite.com/socia

A new paper by Sara Walker and Paul Davies on "The Hidden Simplicity of Biology" is now available in Reports in Progress in Physics. The full text is available here.

Title: The Hidden Simplicity of Biology
Authors: Paul Davies and Sara Walker
Abstract: ​Life is so remarkable, and so unlike any other physical system, that it is tempting to attribute special factors to it. Physics is founded on the assumption that universal laws and principles underlie all natural phenomena, but is it far from clear that there are 'laws of life' with serious descriptive or predictive power analogous to the laws of physics. Nor is there (yet) a 'theoretical biology' in the same sense as theoretical physics. Part of the obstacle in developing a universal theory of biological organization concerns the daunting complexity of living organisms. However, many attempts have been made to glimpse simplicity lurking within this complexity, and to capture this simplicity mathematically. In this paper we review a promising new line of inquiry to bring coherence and order to the realm of biology by focusing on 'information' as a unifying concept.

Graduate student Harrison Smith and postdoctoral fellow Hyunju Kim head to the Conference on Complex Systems 2016 held in Beurs Van Berlage, Amsterdam Sept. 19-22, 2016. Harrison will present at talk titled "Network theoretic constraints on metabolic diversity explain universal features of life on Earth" and Hyunju will present two talks on "Informational architecture to chracterize controllability of biological networks" and "Information Processing in Biomolecular Regulatory Networks". The full program can be found here at the conference website here: http://www.ccs2016.org/.

We are pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Gabriele Valentini to the Emergence@ASU group! Gabriele joins us from Université Libre de Bruxelles and will be working on a NSF sponsored project on "Emergent Computation in Collective Decision Making by the Crevice-Dwelling Rock Ant Temnothorax rugatulus" in collaboration with Stephen Pratt (ASU SOLS) and Ted Pavlic (ASU SCISDE & Sustainability). You can learn more about Gabriele here.