creators_name: Vanbremeersch, Jean-Paul creators_name: Chandler, Jerry creators_name: Ehresmann, Andree editors_name: Ehresmann, Andree editors_name: Farre, George editors_name: Vanbremeersch, Jean-Paul type: confpaper datestamp: 2000-09-05 lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:23 metadata_visibility: show title: Are interactions between different time-scales a characteristic of complexity? ispublished: pub subjects: bio-theory subjects: comp-sci-complex-theory subjects: neuro-mod full_text_status: public keywords: Caegory, complex system, causality, organism, memory abstract: A self-organized complex natural system, such as a biological, a neural or a social system, is characterized by the fact that its dynamics is generated by a network of competitive regulations, each one acting as a 'simple system' (in the Newtonian sense) at a given level of complexity and with its own time-scale. A dialectics dependent on specific structural temporal constraints is established between them, punctuated by local fractures imposing a change of strategy. Such systems are capable of anticipation and adaptation thanks to the development of a memory. The Memory Evolutive Systems (MES) defined by Ehresmann and Vanbremeersch in a series of papers since 1986 represent a mathematical model for such systems, based on the Theory of categories. This model takes into account the above properties, and it allows to study the problem of emergence; an analysis of causality attributions shows that MES satisfy the definition given by Rosen for an 'organism'. date: 1996 date_type: published volume: 1 number: 1 publisher: Ehresmann pagerange: 162-167 refereed: TRUE citation: Vanbremeersch, Jean-Paul and Chandler, Jerry and Ehresmann, Andree (1996) Are interactions between different time-scales a characteristic of complexity? [Conference Paper] document_url: http://cogprints.org/954/1/ECHO_96.htm