It overlaps with all disciplines These courses introduce you to the science of complexity from scratch

When the Italian physicist Giorgio Baresi was awarded half of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics for his breaks in solving the famous "winding glass" problem that confronted physicists, what caught the public's most attention in the Nobel Committee's statement was that what Baresi had accomplished not only helped solve solid-state physics problems. Rather, he set out to contribute to environmental sciences, biodiversity, neuroscience, computing and social sciences. He asked people: How does an achievement in physics do all this? The answer is related to the science of complexity. In the alloys of copper and iron that Parisi studied, the atoms interact with each other so that this interaction results in a structure with specific properties. less of them. 

Here we are in front of the case of 1 plus 1 equals 3, where two components interact and produce more than their sum individually, the nervous system as well. It is the same thing that we observe in flocks of birds, in the worlds of ants and bees, in the structure of human and non-human societies, independent individuals who use simple laws to interact with one another, producing something wonderful that is greater than the sum of their abilities.

The sciences that study all these phenomena are called complexity sciences, and unfortunately they do not find much interest in the Arab world despite their extreme contemporary importance. Therefore, we worked in the scientific department of "Meidan" to present a set of foundational courses for these sciences, which later open the door to specializations More in depth in it, and the basic condition for our choices was free, that is, that those courses be available to everyone, and after that comes the gradual, that is, we start from the simplest materials, which explain to the learner the beginnings completely from scratch, and we go up together step by step. 

The first step

There is no doubt that a first step in complexity science must always start from the “Systems Innovation” platform and its YouTube channel, which offers about 25 courses in complexity science for beginners from scratch, starting with the “Complexity Theory Course”, which provides theory in general, starting with the definition The complex system then details all its components and properties, and explains basic concepts such as nonlinearity, Emergence, Adaptation, and Connectivity.

After this course, you can go to a series of courses that discuss the characteristics of each of the complex systems individually. For example, you will find that the "Nonlinear Systems Course" is more specialized for nonlinear systems, but it is still within the range of beginners, in addition to courses such as " Network Theory Course, which introduces the theory of networks, as well as the "Complex Adaptive Systems" course, which introduces the characteristics of adaptation and evolution in complex systems, and the "Emergence Theory" course, which introduces the characteristic of emergence. 

At a more advanced level, but still suitable for the beginner from scratch, you can start to study the applications of complex systems in different sciences, for example, you will find a course on complexity in economics, another on complexity in the social sciences, and a third on complexity in Political Science (Political Complexity Course), and so on.

This platform is a treasure for beginners interested in complexity science. The courses are very small and very simplified, each one finishes in one to two hours. The designs used are easy and practical and help you understand. But if you would like to move to a more advanced level, you can move to another platform that is no less amazing, which is affiliated with the American Research Foundation “Santa Fe” and offers many appropriate courses related to complexity theory. 

Santa Fe Introduces Complexity

In the course of fractals, Professor Dave Feldman presents one of the most beautiful aspects of this theory, which is a term developed about thirty years ago. city ​​sizes, number of links to websites, etc. The phenomenon is presented in the course in a simplified way that gets complicated over time to reach the mathematical equations. You only need basic algebra, but sometimes the topics are difficult, but in general, they are presented to individuals who are not specialists.

On the same platform, we find another course entitled "Introduction to Complexity", presented by the Brazilian scientist Santiago Guisasola, in which you will learn about the tools that scientists use to understand complex systems, such as nonlinear dynamics, chaos, fractals, information theory, self-organization, and networks. You do not need a scientific or mathematical background to pass this very interesting course, it is an advanced version of the previous "Systems Innovation" platform courses, but it is more comprehensive and penetrating into the realms of complexity. 

Another researcher, Melanie Mitchell, professor of computer science at Portland State University, contributes to these courses. She has a heavy book on this topic, "Complexity a guided tour," which provides a somewhat comprehensive exposition of what complexity science means. She simplifies its content so much that it presents it in an academic tone, using illustrations and occasional caricatures among its nine chapters. After that, Mitchell moves between the basic aspects of complexity sciences, such as chaos, computing and evolution, then to the relationship of complexity with genetics and genetics, and then - starting in the middle of the book - she focuses her interest on computing and information theory, then networked thought, and the evolution of networks, with A final chapter on the future of complexity. The writer is interested in moving calmly from point to point; So that the first gives you to the second, then to the third, and so on, and from time to time you stop to explain the definition of a specific part, such as asking “What is the information?”, then it moves you to the next, which includes the importance of being accurately aware of that previous point.

Book

It does not stop there at the Santa Fe Foundation, where more advanced courses are also offered, and of course more in-depth, such as the study of chaos in the "introduction to Dynamical Systems and Chaos" course, which introduces chaos theory in a wonderful way, the course only needs Algebra at the secondary level, so it will be suitable for a very large group of readers of the report, even more advanced courses such as the Nonlinear Dynamics "Mathematical and Computational Approaches" course, which establishes nonlinear dynamics, it requires one semester level in calculus and an academic year in physics, which Familiar with the contents of books such as “Serway” or University physics.” You can browse all Santa Fe courses here .

2 additional courses

Coursera, on the other hand, offers a simplified but math-free course on theory, “Introduction to Complexity Science,” delivered by Cheung Siew An of Nanyang University in Singapore in five weeks and about 17 hours of work. The course delves into its simplicity in various conventions related to complexity, such as the theory of bifurcation, flexibility, transformations in the system, turning points, durability and sustainability. These domains will inevitably lead you to contemplate this strange link that places complexity sciences at the heart of all other sciences, whether politics, sociology, biology or computing. And physics, of course, but physics has a special course offered by the platform itself. You can find the course here . 

The physics course is titled "Understanding Modern Physics III: Simplicity and Complexity" and is presented by a group of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology professors as part of a trilogy that talks about modern physics. Understanding the course requires a simple introduction to calculus, but it is generally provided for beginners, short in only 7 working hours, and within only four weeks of study you will be able to understand complexity but in the field of physics in particular, the course delves into the course of thermodynamics and the term entropy which occupies a pivotal place In the sciences of complexity and self-organizing systems. Find the course here . 

Well, more than two hundred years ago, physicists imagined, based on Newton's achievements, that the universe runs like a clock, small gears, hands and glass, and the clock is nothing but the sum of its parts. Here the need arose for a science that studies this complexity, and the conclusion is that if the classical sciences, particularly physics, explain to us how the apple fell on Newton's head, then the complexity sciences are concerned with the whole apple tree. Doesn't that deserve some attention?(Shadi Abdel Hafez)