Understanding and attenuating the complexity catastrophe in Kauffman's N K model of genome evolution

✍ Scribed by Daniel Solow; Apostolos Burnetas; Ming-Chi Tsai; Neil S. Greenspan

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 225 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1076-2787
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0526(199909/10)5:1<53::aid-cplx9>3.0.co;2-w

✦ Synopsis

Kauffman's N K model-used for studying the performance of systems consisting of a finite number of components that interact with each other in complex ways-exhibits the complexity catastrophe, in which high levels of interaction in systems with a large number of components lead to a decrease in performance. It is shown here that the complexity catastrophe is a consequence of the mathematical assumptions underlying the N K model. Analysis and simulations are used to establish the idea that relaxing any one of these assumptions results in a new model in which the complexity catastrophe is attenuated. Thus, good performance from systems having high levels of interactions is possible. ᭧1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.