ASU-SFI Center for Biosocial Complex Systems, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, USA.
Nat Commun. 2017 Feb 10;8:14301. doi: 10.1038/ncomms14301.
Many adaptive systems sit near a tipping or critical point. For systems near a critical point small changes to component behaviour can induce large-scale changes in aggregate structure and function. Criticality can be adaptive when the environment is changing, but entails reduced robustness through sensitivity. This tradeoff can be resolved when criticality can be tuned. We address the control of finite measures of criticality using data on fight sizes from an animal society model system (Macaca nemestrina, n=48). We find that a heterogeneous, socially organized system, like homogeneous, spatial systems (flocks and schools), sits near a critical point; the contributions individuals make to collective phenomena can be quantified; there is heterogeneity in these contributions; and distance from the critical point (DFC) can be controlled through biologically plausible mechanisms exploiting heterogeneity. We propose two alternative hypotheses for why a system decreases the distance from the critical point.
许多自适应系统都处于临界点或临界状态附近。对于处于临界点附近的系统，组件行为的微小变化会导致整体结构和功能的大规模变化。当环境发生变化时，临界性可能是适应性的，但会因敏感性而降低鲁棒性。当临界性可以调整时，这种权衡就可以解决。我们使用动物社会模型系统（Macaca nemestrina，n=48）的飞行规模数据来解决有限临界性度量的控制问题。我们发现，像均匀的、空间的系统（羊群和鱼群）一样，一个异质的、社会组织化的系统也处于临界点附近；个体对集体现象的贡献是可以量化的；这些贡献存在异质性；并且可以通过利用异质性的生物学上合理的机制来控制与临界点的距离（DFC）。我们提出了两个替代假设，解释为什么系统会降低与临界点的距离。
