Before you start to solve a problem (a numerical problem) you should check its conditioning. An ill-conditioned problem will produce very fragile and unreliable results – no matter how elegant and sophisticated solution you come up with it will be vulnerable. If decisions or strategies are based on fragile outcomes, those decisions and strategies will…
Prologue from “Governing a Liquid Society – How to Save Democracy From Itself” In the past the Earth was populated by numerous civilizations. The Greeks, the Incas, or the Romans are just a few egregious examples. Because the temporal and spatial correlation between those civilizations was often non-existent, or very limited, if one happened…
Wikipedia: “In data mining, anomaly detection (also outlier detection) is the identification of rare items, events or observations which raise suspicions by differing significantly from the majority of the data. Typically the anomalous items will translate to some kind of problem such as bank fraud, a structural defect, medical problems or errors in a text.…
Standard deviations are a popular and often useful measure of dispersion. To be sure, a standard deviation is merely the most likely deviation from the mean. It also doesn’t take into account the shape of the probability distribution function (this is done better using, for example, entropy, which is a more versatile measure of…
For applications requiring ultra-fast and safe monitoring of the complexity of critical components, products or infrastructures, Ontonix offers a specific Complexity Chip. The chip is based on FPGA technology and has been developed jointly by Ontonix and SAIC in the framework of a project funded by the US Department of Defense Executive Agent for Printed…
Of all physical quantities, energy is probably the most important. Energy expresses the capacity of a body or a system to perform work. Nature works by using energy to transform matter. This is done via processes (physical, chemical, etc.). However, in order to realize these processes it is necessary to have information. Energy on its…
The laws of systemantics are said to be pseudo-science. Fair enough. A few of these laws are listed below. They apply to highly complex systems. Think of these laws and then think of the EU, the Euro or, most recently, Ryanair. Le Chatelier’s Principle: Complex systems tend to oppose their own proper function. As systems grow…
We reproduce verbatim a very interesting article by Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General. All our blogs are original, with very minor exceptions. This is one of those exceptions. An exceptional article: “The recent financial crisis exposed some serious flaws in our economic thinking. It has highlighted the need to look at economic policy with more critical,…
In highly complex systems malfunctioning or even bad design may remain invisible for a long time. In highly complex systems the crucial variables are often discovered by accident. Highly complex systems cannot be designed without taking complexity into account. Sounds obvious but today, in engineering design complexity is not considered as an attribute of a…
What is a prediction? A prediction is a statement about what will happen or might happen in the future. This is the standard definition that you will find in a dictionary. Other, softer definitions, run like this: a statement about what you think will happen in the future. According to these two definitions – both are…
