Complexity Science
What is complexity science? Complexity science, or complex systems science, is the study of systems that exhibit emergent properties. An emergent property is a property of a system which only exists at the macroscopic level. In other words, its a property of the larger system created by interactions between the system's consituent parts. The example I usually give is states of matter. The quality of some substance being solid is a property that exists because of the chemical interactions between the molecules, and there is no equivalent property in only one molecule; One molecule all by itself cannot be solid, only a collection of molecules, having chemical interactions, could. Complex systems could also be described as gestalt, where the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
One particularly intriguing emergent property is consciousness. For a long time, this was the focus of my interest and curiousity. I still love and am endlessly fascinated by consciousness, but my interest has broadened to encompass a more general drive to understand emergence itself. Complex systems have been my special interest for quite a few years now, though for most of that I did not know it had a general name. I've always had a life-long interest in people and how they worked (as many other autistic people do), but I'd say the interest that got me figuring things out was biology. In particular, I was interested in ecology. I used to explain to people that what fascinated me about ecology was the way an ecosystem was an extremely intricate, fragile yet unyielding, network of relationships filled with checks, balances, evolution, and adaptation. I was fascinated by biology as a whole because of the way living things interact with other living things and their environment to create something bigger than themselves. I was interested in living things because of the way they themselves were ecosystems too. I realized at some point it wasn't biology itself which held my interest, it was the living nature of the adaptable system, and I began to say my passion was self-organizing systems (something I found on wikipedia). Still, it took me probably more than a year from that point to discover complex systems science, or realize I could be a complexity scientist.
im gonna put a table here of books ive read, that im currently reading, and that id like to read, as well as general resources I've used, like, say, courses, or websites. eventually i want to put some of my thoughts and notes. I have made a binder irl to keep notes and writings, and maybe I will transcribe some of those pages.