Universal Dynamics, a Unified Theory of Complex Systems. Emergence, Life and Death

A universal framework is proposed, where all laws are regularities of relations between things or agents. Parts of the world at one or all times are modeled as networks called SYSTEMS with a minimum of axiomatic properties. A notion of locality is introduced by declaring some relations direct (or links). Dynamics is composed of "atomic" constituents called mechanisms. They are conditional actions of basic local structural transformations (``enzymes''): indirect relations become direct (friend of friend becomes friend), links are removed, objects copied. This defines a kind of universal chemistry. I show how to model basic life processes in a self contained fashion as a kind of enzymatic computation. The framework also accommodates the gauge theories of fundamental physics. Emergence creates new functionality by cooperation - nonlocal phenomena arise out of local interactions. I explain how this can be understood in a reductionist way by multiscale analysis (e.g. renormalization group).Comment: 57 pages, 7 figure

Simple Space-Time Symmetries: Generalizing Conformal Field Theory

We study simple space-time symmetry groups G which act on a space-time manifold M=G/H which admits a G-invariant global causal structure. We classify pairs (G,M) which share the following additional properties of conformal field theory: 1) The stability subgroup H of a point in M is the identity component of a parabolic subgroup of G, implying factorization H=MAN, where M generalizes Lorentz transformations, A dilatations, and N special conformal transformations. 2) special conformal transformations in N act trivially on tangent vectors to the space-time manifold M. The allowed simple Lie groups G are the universal coverings of SU(m,m), SO(2,D), Sp(l,R), SO*(4n) and E_7(-25) and H are particular maximal parabolic subgroups. They coincide with the groups of fractional linear transformations of Euklidean Jordan algebras whose use as generalizations of Minkowski space time was advocated by Gunaydin. All these groups G admit positive energy representations. It will also be shown that the classical conformal groups SO(2,D) are the only allowed groups which possess a time reflection automorphism; in all other cases space-time has an intrinsic chiral structure.Comment: 37 pages, 4 Table

Social Gerontology- Integrative and Territorial Aspects: A Citation Analysis of Subject Scatter and Database Coverage

To determine the mix of resources used in social gerontology research, a citation analysis was conducted. A representative sample of citations was selected from three prominent gerontology journals and information was added to determine subject scatter and database coverage for the cited materials. Results indicate that a significant portion of gerontology research, even from a social science perspective, relies roughly equally on medical resources as it does social science resources. Furthermore, there is a small but defined core of literature constituting scholarly “territory” unique to gerontology. Analysis of database indexing indicated that broad, interdisciplinary databases provide more comprehensive coverage of the cited materials than do subject-specific databases