IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nas/journl/v119y2022pe2119089119.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information theory: A foundation for complexity science

Author

Listed:
  • Amos Golan

    (a Economics and Info-Metrics Institute, American University, Washington, DC 20016;; b Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501;)

  • John Harte

    (b Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501;; c Ecosystem Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720)

Abstract

Modeling and inference are central to most areas of science and especially to evolving and complex systems. Critically, the information we have is often uncertain and insufficient, resulting in an underdetermined inference problem; multiple inferences, models, and theories are consistent with available information. Information theory (in particular, the maximum information entropy formalism) provides a way to deal with such complexity. It has been applied to numerous problems, within and across many disciplines, over the last few decades. In this perspective, we review the historical development of this procedure, provide an overview of the many applications of maximum entropy and its extensions to complex systems, and discuss in more detail some recent advances in constructing comprehensive theory based on this inference procedure. We also discuss efforts at the frontier of information-theoretic inference: application to complex dynamic systems with time-varying constraints, such as highly disturbed ecosystems or rapidly changing economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Amos Golan & John Harte, 2022. "Information theory: A foundation for complexity science," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 119(33), pages 2119089119-, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nas:journl:v:119:y:2022:p:e2119089119
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.pnas.org/content/119/33/e2119089119.full
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Riera, Rodrigo & Fath, Brian D. & Herrera, Ada M. & Rodríguez, Ricardo A., 2023. "Concerns regarding the proposal for an ecological equation of state: an assessment starting from the organic biophysics of ecosystems (OBEC)," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 484(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nas:journl:v:119:y:2022:p:e2119089119. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Eric Cain (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.pnas.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.