New preprint on "An Information-theoretic Classification of Complex Systems"

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.