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Study Finds Similar Structures In the Universe, Internet, and Brain
SternisheFan writes "The structure of the universe and the laws that govern its growth may be more similar than previously thought to the structure and growth of the human brain and other complex networks, such as the Internet or a social network of trust relationships between people, according to a new study. 'By no means do we claim that the universe is a global brain or a computer,' said Dmitri Krioukov, co-author of the paper, published by the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA), based at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego.'But the discovered equivalence between the growth of the universe and complex networks strongly suggests that unexpectedly similar laws govern the dynamics of these very different complex systems,' Krioukov noted."
I have learned after studying many differing fields of science and engineering, that as you master one field you gain insight into many others. There are certain patterns of organization that repeat throughout nature, and mimicked by man, and if you study anything long enough you are certain to see these patterns. The more you learn, the easier it becomes to learn more because natural things are mostly variations on a finite set of themes that, whether you are aware of them or not, you will discover them and from that point forward, notice them much more quickly.
This is one example. There are many more.
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Maybe this is just because we use the same neural mechanisms we think with to phrase scientific theories and build models of networks? Just a thought.
Myu:
It's not math. Math is a language. Don't confuse natural phenomena with math; It is possible to observe and even describe them without knowledge of mathematics. That said, math is one of the best ways to describe them.
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There are certain constraints for the most efficient transfer of energy. Systems designed or evolved to take advantage of more efficient designs should exhibit similarities.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
...which, when you think about it, doesn't mean there isn't a conscious force at work trying to brute-force a recipe for life, it just means we don't know either way. Personally, I like the image of a deity who is analogous to a frustrated graduate student trying to grow a crystal for X-ray diffraction.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
What's funny is that the anthropic principle by definition doesn't have much meaning. You can restate it as "the universe is the way we see it, because we are seeing it be that way."
The weak anthropic principle always boils down to simple tautology, while the strong anthropic principle flys in the face of biology and works out to puddle thinking. The universe isn't tuned for us, we tuned ourselves for living in the universe through evolution.
Hectice, baby, Mercator says hello to you
The article is disappointingly vague and hand-wavy. Either the science is bullshit, or this summary is. Given that it's from India, I am leaning towards guessing the former; there's a lot of great research that happens in the country, but there's also a lot of pseudoscience that happens that's designed to give warm fuzzies to Indian nationalists who think they can undo the horrors of colonialisation and recapture national pride by beating the drum of "Vedic Math". Some of their flashier salesmen make it to the US and sell it to deluded new-agers and the other uneducated, portraying it as exotic deep knowledge "from the East".
I find it hard to believe that claims like this are supportable as good science at this point.
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
It turns on the definition of complexity itself, which is not so straightforward as one might imagine. One of the keys to many definitions of complexity lies not in the number of different parts, but in the non-trivial and adaptive ways those parts interact. Yes, there may be humans in this galaxy, but the relationships between those humans have no effect on the galaxy, qua galaxy. In other words, the interactions that occur on a galactic level produce no appreciable feedback in the system as a whole from human beings. Yet it is feedback and adaptation that occurs in complex systems that make them complex. As a complex system, therefore, the galaxy is not concerned with the presence of humans.
The same cannot be said of the relationship between neurons as a system and the brain as a system. As the article says, each neuron has its own level of complexity and this is in turn connected to the larger system of the brain, itself having billions of adaptive connections. Yet what is missing, but I think implied, is that the complexity within each neuron is non-trivial to the interactions between neurons.
Also, I wouldn't think less of a man who very occasionally indulges in hyperbolic excess. This does not make him stupid, only a lively writer.
Joking aside, there's actually some truth to this.
Turns out complex systems with a scale-free topology (the node density of which follows a power law rather than a gaussian function), of the kind we find in ecosystems, power-grids, computer networks, DNA, etc., all have similar strengths and vulnerabilities. Unlike random distributions, scale-free topologies are highly resistant to random failure: i.e. random deaths of animals of different sorts do not cause an ecosystem failure or random power stations failing does not necessarily cause a grid to collapse. This is what network and complex systems theorists call robustness. Scale-free topologies are, however, very vulnerable to directed attacks. Turns out certain creatures occupy more important spaces in ecosystems than others (they're hubs, with a high density of connections). Kill these off and an entire ecosystem can collapse. Likewise, hit certain power stations with high density of connections and you'll see cascading failures. A few random genes are damaged, chances are that a creature will survive and reproduce without problems. Screw around with the TP53 gene in humans, however, and expect some nasty results.
Finding similarities in abstractions is what humans do. If humans can describe something based on patterns that humans are capable of processing, then we will probably find them elsewhere! Abstraction doesn't give us mystical powers that allow us to divine the "true nature" of the universe (let alone understand what that questions means).
Is there anything better than clicking through Microsoft ads on Slashdot?
Yes, there may be humans in this galaxy, but the relationships between those humans have no effect on the galaxy, qua galaxy. In other words, the interactions that occur on a galactic level produce no appreciable feedback in the system as a whole from human beings.
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We are all connected. Our posts, Karma Whores and Trolls alike, give birth to Slashdot. Our insights and banal pontification ripple through time. From womb to tomb, some folks are addicted to spending all their waking hours brain farting here and the best you can hope for is to be up wind.
Conflating the fact that human beings are given to seeing faces everywhere (its part of our primate survival hard wiring and allows mothers and infants to bond at birth), with seeing and appreciating the fractal and inherently consistent nature of the universe is at once myopic, and at the same time deeply ignorant. From the birth of the Renaissance geniuses like Leonardo DaVinci saw the recurring patterns of nature. Noticing how the number Phi shows up again and again in physical systems from the budlets in the heart of a daisy to the swirl of a galaxy is not self delusion but the human mind extracting meaning from the vast cacophony of the universe. The fact that your body is self similar on many scales, as is our planet and the very universe itself, and that these self similarities transcend scales of space and time is illuminating, is awe inspiring. You are indeed a product of this universe, you bear the mark of its rhythms and harmonies. You have 5 fold symmetry, because one of your oldest ancestors was related to a starfish (echinoderm) you don't find it the least bit fascinating that the shape of you brain models the shape of the universe itself and is in fact the universe attempting to understand itself. Are you so apathetic that the shear mystery and magnificence of life in this place doesn't occasionally move you tears of joy or dumbstruck wonder?
If so, than I am so sorry for you. You've been born into the greatest show ever and can't seem to take your eyes off your own feet. By the way, nice shoes.