Scaling in complex systems: Evolution under order/disorder tensions

The emergence of scaling behavior in complex systems has been at the
cornerstone of complexity science since its very beginning.
Particularly striking is the ubiquity of the so-called "Zipf's Law", a
statistical pattern observed in many different systems, from economy
to human language. In this talk we explore how fundamental assumptions
of complexity and evolution under order/disorder tensions naturally
lead to the emergence of this scaling behavior. This model-free,
general approach provides an intuitive and elegant explanation of the
emergence of such scaling behavior and its ubituity. We will close the
talk by showing how G.K. Zipf's hypothesis to explain the emergence of
such statistical pattern in complex communication can be properly
formalized using the presented theoretical apparatus, thereby
demonstrating that his conjecture was right.
References: Universality of Zipf's law. Bernat Corominas-Murtra and Ricard V.
Solé. Physical Review E 82, 11102 (2010);
Emergence of Zipf’s Law in the Evolution of Communication. Bernat
Corominas-Murtra, Jordi Fortuny and Ricard V. Solé. Physical Review E
83, 32767 (2011)