Criticality: A Balance Between Robustness and Adaptability

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Abstract: This third installment of the "balance" saga will take us to the land of criticality. Usually found near phase transitions, critical behavior is characterized by deviations from the mean, power laws, scaling, fractals, and more. Criticality can also be seen as a balance between order and chaos, offering at the same time robustness and adaptability. This has led people (from SFI) to argue that life and computation should lie "at the edge of chaos". I will use random Boolean networks to illustrate ordered, chaotic, and critical dynamics, and how different aspects of the networks can be used (by evolution or engineers) to promote criticality. These aspects include canalization, topology, modularity, redundancy, degeneracy, antifragility, and heterogeneity (although the latter two will be explored in depth in future talks).