Generative Complexity in a Complex Generative World


Book Description

This book introduces a refreshing approach to twenty-first-century scientific approach in an age, which is also known as the Century of Complexity. It deals with the deep problem of complexity, being operative from the bottom-up. The current lack of understanding of complexity has led scholars into the so-called embarrassment of complexity. A long overdue paradigm shift is necessary to address complexity as generative complexity and brings readers to the edge of a scientific revolution: that is, a generative revolution in the Century of Complexity. The book offers a radical shift of paradigm from the paradigm of simplifying into the new generative paradigm of complexifying about processes that develop from the bottom-up. The book links complex generative reality with a corresponding radical new generative nature of order and explores new fronts in science. This book explores innovative concepts of interaction, of causality, of the unit of study, and of reality itself and enables readers to see complexity as generative, emergent complexity as being operative from the bottom-up. The book discusses and suggests solutions for the problem of complexity in this Century of Complexity. The author provides a new understanding of complexity based on a generative flux of forces and relations. The book aims to bring about a fundamental and foundational change in how we view and ‘do’ science for an interdisciplinary audience of academics ranging from social science and humanities to economy and biology.




Complex Dynamical Systems in Education


Book Description

This book capitalizes on the developments in dynamical systems and education by presenting some of the most recent advances in this area in seventeen non-overlapping chapters. The first half of the book discusses the conceptual framework of complex dynamical systems and its applicability to educational processes. The second half presents a set of empirical studies that that illustrate the use of various research methodologies to investigate complex dynamical processes in education, and help the reader appreciate what we learn about dynamical processes in education from using these approaches.




New Thinking in Complexity for the Social Sciences and Humanities


Book Description

The underlying idea and motive for the book is that the notion of complexity may humanize the social sciences, may conceive the complex human being as more human, and turn reality as assumed in our doing social science into a more complex, that is a richer reality for all. The main focus of this book is on new thinking in complexity, with complexity to be taken as derived from the Latin word complexus: ‘that which is interwoven.’ The trans-disciplinary approach advocated here will be trans-disciplinary in two ways: firstly, by going beyond the separate disciplines within the fields of both natural sciences and social sciences, and, secondly, by going beyond the separate cultures of the natural sciences and of the social sciences and humanities.




Generative Deep Learning


Book Description

Generative modeling is one of the hottest topics in AI. It’s now possible to teach a machine to excel at human endeavors such as painting, writing, and composing music. With this practical book, machine-learning engineers and data scientists will discover how to re-create some of the most impressive examples of generative deep learning models, such as variational autoencoders,generative adversarial networks (GANs), encoder-decoder models and world models. Author David Foster demonstrates the inner workings of each technique, starting with the basics of deep learning before advancing to some of the most cutting-edge algorithms in the field. Through tips and tricks, you’ll understand how to make your models learn more efficiently and become more creative. Discover how variational autoencoders can change facial expressions in photos Build practical GAN examples from scratch, including CycleGAN for style transfer and MuseGAN for music generation Create recurrent generative models for text generation and learn how to improve the models using attention Understand how generative models can help agents to accomplish tasks within a reinforcement learning setting Explore the architecture of the Transformer (BERT, GPT-2) and image generation models such as ProGAN and StyleGAN




Knowledge Discovery, Transfer, and Management in the Information Age


Book Description

With the advent of electronic databases, information technologies, and the Internet, organizations now more than ever have easy access to all the knowledge they need to conduct their affairs. Identifying the useful information in all that data, however, can pose a challenge. Knowledge Discovery, Transfer, and Management in the Information Age brings together the latest empirical research in knowledge management practices and information retrieval strategies to assist organizations in effectively and efficiently utilizing the data at their disposal. Academics, managers, researchers, and professionals within the field of knowledge management will make use of this book to increase their understanding of best practices in the manipulation of information resources.




Systems Approaches to Knowledge Management, Transfer, and Resource Development


Book Description

The world is moving into a new era of the knowledge economy. In the past decade, the significance of developing knowledge has grown to a level where it is now dominating other socio-economic factors. Systems Approaches to Knowledge Management, Transfer, and Resource Development provides a new view of knowledge management through the lens of systems approach, which looks at each part of the knowledge management system as a section of the full overview. This cutting-edge resource will be essential for academicians, scientists, practitioners, and industry professionals as all of these individuals work toward a new understanding of knowledge and information management practices in the 21st century.




Generative Social Science


Book Description

Agent-based computational modeling is changing the face of social science. In Generative Social Science, Joshua Epstein argues that this powerful, novel technique permits the social sciences to meet a fundamentally new standard of explanation, in which one "grows" the phenomenon of interest in an artificial society of interacting agents: heterogeneous, boundedly rational actors, represented as mathematical or software objects. After elaborating this notion of generative explanation in a pair of overarching foundational chapters, Epstein illustrates it with examples chosen from such far-flung fields as archaeology, civil conflict, the evolution of norms, epidemiology, retirement economics, spatial games, and organizational adaptation. In elegant chapter preludes, he explains how these widely diverse modeling studies support his sweeping case for generative explanation. This book represents a powerful consolidation of Epstein's interdisciplinary research activities in the decade since the publication of his and Robert Axtell's landmark volume, Growing Artificial Societies. Beautifully illustrated, Generative Social Science includes a CD that contains animated movies of core model runs, and programs allowing users to easily change assumptions and explore models, making it an invaluable text for courses in modeling at all levels.




Stakeholder Engagement


Book Description

This book focuses on the topic of the multiple-stakeholders that comprise the education community across the P-20 continuum. In various ways and forms, the authors of the chapters found within this book promote the importance of engaging with the diverse array of stakeholders in order to truly improve education in an increasingly interconnected world. The book itself is divided into two major arcs, the first of which covers community relations and stakeholder engagement in P-12 schools, while the second addresses those same issues in higher education. When one considers the activities that take place within education institutions, there is a realization that they are influenced and driven by much more than just the educators and administrators who occupy the schools. In the editors’ own work, (e.g., see Tran & Bon, 2016), the importance of the inclusion of the viewpoints and inputs of multiple-stakeholders in school decisions when appropriate has been consistently argued, given that the school is considered by many to be a social and communal environment. To address these issues, in this text, this book is lucky to have a collection of peer-reviewed writing that explore various aspects of how multiple-stakeholder input can be used to improve school decisions.




Strategic Management


Book Description




5 Ideas from Global Diplomacy


Book Description

Why are we stuck here and how do we move forward? Amidst escalating global crises and growing climate anxiety, 5 Ideas from Global Diplomacy offers actionable recommendations to aspiring changemakers to close the compliance gap between political commitment and action, and advance the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The book journeys beyond sustainability which is typically associated with climate action, and towards sustainable development which includes a critical peace component. Cheung uncovers processes for global change behind the complex global governance landscape through a novel approach known as Transdisciplinary Systems Research. His wit and candor as he navigates the realities of sustainable development make the book a compelling read for a wide audience. 5 Ideas from Global Diplomacy is an open access preprint well grounded in the events of our time. It is a must-read for anyone interested in shaping the future of global governance, sustainable development, and our health.