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We are all familiar with the concept of adaptation as it relates to evolution, with Darwin outlining how species diversity is made possible by the mutations that enhance a species' capacity to survive and thereby reproduce. Over time, mutations that are well-adapted to a given context will survive, and ill-adapted ones will perish. Through this simple process - repeated in parallel over multiple generations - species are generated that are supremely tuned to their environmental context. While adaptation principles have their basis in biological evolution, a more 'general' Darwinism looks to processes outside the biological context to see how similar mechanisms may be at play in a broad range of systems. Accordingly, any system that has the capacity for Variation, Selection, and Retention (VSR), is able to adapt and become more 'fit'.
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Wohl, S. (2020, 30 July). Adaptive Capacity. Retrieved from https://kapalicarsi.wittmeyer.io/taxonomy/adaptive-processes
Adaptive Capacity was updated July 30th, 2020.
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Autopoesis
This is a default subtitle for this page. Read more and see related content for Maturana & Varela →Building Blocks | Santa Fe
John Holland is considered one of the seminal thinkers in Complex Adaptive Systems theory.
Read more and see related content for John Holland →Second Order Cybernetics
This is a default subtitle for this page. Read more and see related content for Heinz Von Foerster →Evolution
This is a default subtitle for this page. Read more and see related content for Charles Darwin →Reaction/Diffusion | Computation
diffusion model spots Read more and see related content for Alan Turing →Santa Fe Institute
This is a default subtitle for this page. Read more and see related content for Murray Gell-Mann →Cybernetics
This is a default subtitle for this page. Read more and see related content for Norbert Weiner →Game Theory
This is a default subtitle for this page. Read more and see related content for Robert Axelrod →Cybernetics | Law of Requisite Variety
This is a default subtitle for this page. Read more and see related content for Ross Ashby →Santa Fe Institute; Fitness Landscape
N-K Fitness Landscape Read more and see related content for Stuart Kauffman →This is a list of Terms that Adaptive Capacity is related to.
CAS Systems develop order or pattern ‘for free’: this means that order arises as a result of independent agent behaviors, without need for other inputs.
This is a default subtitle for this page. Read more and see related content for Schemata →Feedback loops occur in system where an environmental input guides system behavior, but the system behavior (the output), in turn alters the environmental context.
CAS systems evolve over the course of time, with agents in the system continuously adjusting their independent behaviors.
This is a default subtitle for this page. Read more and see related content for Evolutionary →This is a list of Urban Fields that Adaptive Capacity is related to.
Tactical interventions are light, quick and cheap - but if deployed using a complexity lens, could they be a generative learning tool that helps make our cities more fit?
Tactical Urbanism is a branch of urban thinking that tries to understand the benefits of grassroots, bottom-up initiatives in creating meaningful urban space. While not associating itself directly with complexity theory, many of the tools it employs -particularly its way of 'learning by doing' ties in with adaptive and emergent concepts from complexity theory. {{tactical-urbanism}}
Read more and see related content for Tactical Urbanism →New ways of modeling the physical shape of cities allows us to shape-shift at the touch of a keystroke. Can this ability to generate a multiplicity of possible future urbanities help make better cities?
Parametric approaches to urban design are based on creating responsive models of urban contexts that are programmed to change form according to how inputs are varied. Rather than the architect creating a final product, they instead create a space of possibilities that is activated according to how various flow variables - economic, environmental, or social, are tweaked. This form of architectural form making holds similarities to complex systems in terms of how entities are framed: less as objects in and of themselves, and more as responsive, adaptive agents. Read more and see related content for Parametric Urbanism →Landscape Urbanists are interested in adaptation, processes, and flows, with their work drawing from the lexicon of complexity sciences.
A large body of contemporary landscape design thinking tries to understand how designs can be less about making things, and more about stewarding processes that create a 'fit' between the intervention and the context. Landscape Urbanists advancing these techniques draw a large portion of their vocabulary from the lexicon of complex adaptive systems theory.
Read more and see related content for Landscape Urbanism →Many cities around the world self-build without top-down control. What do these processes have in common with complexity?
Cities around the world are growing without the capacity of top-down control. Informal urbanism is an example of bottom-up processes that shape the city. Can these processes be harnessed in ways that make them more effective and productive? Read more and see related content for Informal Urbanism →Cities traditionally evolved over time, shifting to meet user needs. How might complexity theory help us emulate such processes to generate 'fit' cities?
Some Urban thinkers consider how the nature of the morphologic characteristics of the city help enable it to evolve, incrementally, over time. This branch of Urban Thinking considers time and evolution as key to generating fit urban spaces Read more and see related content for Generative Urbanism →Across the globe we find spatial agglomerations of common economic activity. How does complexity help us understand the emergence of economic clusters?
Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG) tries to understand how economic agglomerations or clusters emerge from the bottom-up. This branch of economics draws significantly from principles of complexity and emergence, seeing the rise of particular regions as being path-dependent, and trying to understand the forces at work that drive change for economic agents - the firms that make up our economic environment. Read more and see related content for Evolutionary Geography →This is a list of Key Concepts that Adaptive Capacity is related to.
Feedback loops occur in system where an environmental input guides system behavior, but the system behavior (the output), in turn alters the environmental context.
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