Thanks, Eric. I will be interested to see if this higher order patterning exists for monkeys as well as apes.
N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University (nthomp...@clarku.edu) http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > [Original Message] > From: Eric Smith <desm...@santafe.edu> > To: <nickthomp...@earthlink.net>; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com> > Date: 10/12/2009 8:58:45 AM > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] A question for the emergentists among you > > Nick, hi, > > I can't really summon the energy to be part of the emergence thread, > but for this particular post, you may wish to keep an eye on > publications coming out from Flack, deWaal, Krakauer, and > collaborators including Ay and deDeo, on primate interactions. They > have some very strong analysis showing that a very large component of > group power structure and the functions associated with it, such as > policing, is mediated by the response of individuals to dyadic > interactions between others, and very explicitly _not_ to merely the > members who participate in the dyads. They have tested a variety of > p-to-q responses, and find a very strongly significant signal in the > 1-to-2 response (i.e. individual responds to dyad), with higher-order > interactions apparently well explained by the composition of 1-to-2, > and an equally strong absence of signal for any of the other > elementary levels, or for any single strong explanatory excess of any > higher-order p-to-q above its dependence on the 1-to-2. > > What I have said here is an oversimplification of a longer and more > complicated story involving several forms of interactions (fights, > subordination signals, etc.) with inter-related but distinct dynamics > and timescales, so I haven't done most of it justice. I don't know > how much of the new 1-to-2 work is currently published or on the SFI > working paper list. Some of the earlier papers explaining what > quantitative definitions they attach to the notion of power, and its > relation to policing and other group-coherence attributes, is out in > Nature and several behavior journals, and probably mostly available > from the authors' webpages. All of this work is in various stages of > development, write-up, or submission, and some of it may be presented > in talks as the year wears out. So one way or another it should be > available either now or soon. > > Just a topic of interest as a bit of science. > > All best, and I do find much of the larger argument interesting and > thoughtful, > > Eric ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
