Energy, Information, Feedback, Adaptation, and Self-organization: The Fundamental Elements of Life and Society

Description

This unique book offers a comprehensive and integrated introduction to the five fundamental elements of life and society: energy, information, feedback, adaptation, and self-organization. It is divided into two parts. Part I is concerned with energy (definition, history, energy types, energy sources, environmental impact); thermodynamics (laws, entropy definitions, energy, branches of thermodynamics, entropy interpretations, arrow of time); information (communication and transmission, modulation–demodulation, coding–decoding, information theory, information technology, information science, information systems); feedback control (history, classical methodologies, modern methodologies); adaptation (definition, mechanisms, measurement, complex adaptive systems, complexity, emergence); and self-organization (definitions/opinions, self-organized criticality, cybernetics, self-organization in complex adaptive systems, examples in nature). In turn, Part II studies the roles, impacts, and applications of the five above-mentioned elements in life and society, namely energy (biochemical energy pathways, energy flows through food chains, evolution of energy resources, energy and economy); information (information in biology, biocomputation, information technology in office automation, power generation/distribution, manufacturing, business, transportation), feedback (temperature, water, sugar and hydrogen ion regulation, autocatalysis, biological modeling, control of hard/technological and soft/managerial systems), adaptation and self-organization (ecosystems, climate change, stock market, knowledge management, man-made self-organized controllers, traffic lights control). Front Matter ....Pages i-xxi Life and Human Society: The Five Fundamental Elements (Spyros G. Tzafestas)....Pages 1-38 Energy I: General Issues (Spyros G. Tzafestas)....Pages 39-72 Energy II: Thermodynamics (Spyros G. Tzafestas)....Pages 73-155 Information I: Communication, Transmission, and Information Theory (Spyros G. Tzafestas)....Pages 157-217 Information II: Science, Technology, and Systems (Spyros G. Tzafestas)....Pages 219-276 Feedback and Control I: History and Classical Methodologies (Spyros G. Tzafestas)....Pages 277-336 Feedback and Control II: Modern Methodologies (Spyros G. Tzafestas)....Pages 337-408 Adaptation, Complexity, and Complex Adaptive Systems (Spyros G. Tzafestas)....Pages 409-460 Self-organization (Spyros G. Tzafestas)....Pages 461-488 Energy in Life and Society (Spyros G. Tzafestas)....Pages 489-534 Information in Life and Society (Spyros G. Tzafestas)....Pages 535-573 Feedback Control in Life and Society (Spyros G. Tzafestas)....Pages 575-625 Adaptation and Self-organization in Life and Society (Spyros G. Tzafestas)....Pages 627-660 Back Matter ....Pages 661-668