Complexity Thoughts: Issue #79 Unraveling complexity: building knowledge, one paper at a time

What if a standard metric in network science is biased, the second law needs revision at the quantum scale, and consciousness depends on forms of computation today’s AI does not possess?

That is the #ComplexityThoughts #79, complexity science at the frontier: open.substack.com/pub/manlius/...

Unraveling the emergence of collective behavior in networks of cognitive agents npj Artificial Intelligence - Unraveling the emergence of collective behavior in networks of cognitive agents

This is exactly where complex systems science can make a difference.

I will write a dedicated Substack for #ComplexityThoughts soon, stay tuned!

Paper: rdcu.be/e9gRH

/fin

Is “complexity” always in the eye of the beholder?

Is complexity in the system, or in the fit between the system and our description of it?

New #ComplexityThoughts:

open.substack.com/pub/manlius/...

Higher-order links and broken standards The balance in the Force has been restored

I have also written for you a short semi-technical piece on #ComplexityThoughts about this:

open.substack.com/pub/manlius/...

Enjoy!

Complexity Thoughts | Manlio De Domenico, Ph.D. | Substack Making sense of reality and sharing my view on networks, from cells to societies. Complexity, network science and artificial intelligence for public health and a sustainable society. Applications from...

For more reads like this, join 3,200+ readers and follow #ComplexityThoughts the blog/newsletter where I unpack #Complexity (networks, emergence, scaling) through real-world examples: manlius.substack.com

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Yesterday, 3,200+ people got #ComplexityThoughts Issue 76 in their inbox.

Want the next one? Subscribe: open.substack.com/pub/manlius/...

#ComplexSystems 🧪🧬🦠🌐

As usual, also on:
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Yesterday, 3,000+ people got #ComplexityThoughts Issue 75 in their inbox.

Want the next one? Subscribe: open.substack.com/pub/manlius/...

#ComplexSystems 🧪🧬🦠🌐

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Missed the best #ComplexityThoughts in 2025?

I'll be sharing one per day through the end of this year. Today: open.substack.com/pub/manlius/...

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Missed the best #ComplexityThoughts in 2025?

I'll be sharing one per day through the end of this year. Today: open.substack.com/pub/manlius/...

Also on:

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Missed the best #ComplexityThoughts in 2025?

I'll be sharing one per day through the end of this year. Today: open.substack.com/pub/manlius/...

Also on:

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Competing with pseudoscience in algorithmic ecosystems The complex trade-off between the abundance of information and the scarcity of attention

Missed the best #ComplexityThoughts in 2025?

I'll be sharing one per day through the end of this year. Today: open.substack.com/pub/manlius/...

Also on:

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Three years of #ComplexityThoughts!

What surprised me most this year? Growth, the podcast and what changed after going hybrid.
Recap + top 10 Thoughts: manlius.substack.com/p/three-year...

Thank you 🙏

Missed the best #ComplexityThoughts in 2025?

I'll be sharing one per day through the end of this year. Today: manlius.substack.com/p/the-far-re...

Also on:

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Missed the best #ComplexityThoughts in 2025?

I'll be sharing one per day through the end of this year. Today: open.substack.com/pub/manlius/...

Also on:

🎧 Spotify: creators.spotify.com/pod/show/com...

🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

Missed the best #ComplexityThoughts in 2025?

I'll be sharing one per day through the end of this year. Today: manlius.substack.com/p/from-lone-...

Also on:

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Missed the best #ComplexityThoughts in 2025?

I'll be sharing one per day through the end of this year. Today: open.substack.com/pub/manlius/...

Also on:

🎧 Spotify: creators.spotify.com/pod/show/com...

🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

Missed the best #ComplexityThoughts in 2025?

I'll be sharing one per day through the end of this year. Today: manlius.substack.com/p/risks-of-l...

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I collected 10 short essays shared this year in #ComplexityThoughts and I will be sharing every day one with a direct link and create a chain of quoted posts, to keep track.

👉 manlius.substack.com

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🎁 👇

How many “worlds” there are in the universe?

In the latest essay on #ComplexityThoughts I develop an estimate: manlius.substack.com/p/a-whole-lo...

Click below to watch a visual overview of the post 👇

youtu.be/bmP7ISg3SDQ

Bifurcations and phase transitions in the origins of life Abstract. The path towards the emergence of life in our biosphere involved several key events allowing for the persistence, reproduction and evolution of m

This can have incredible consequences when coupled with models for the origin of life:

📄 royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

👉 manlius.substack.com/p/when-matte...

It seems I have to write a new post for #ComplexityThoughts soon.

🚨 In 2026, I’ll dedicate a whole #ComplexityThoughts series to further discussions: making a concrete effort to translate the paper’s key ideas into hands-on, biologist-friendly intuition, while also keeping the physics constraints explicit, honest and falsifiable

Check it! manlius.substack.com

8/

What's better than starting the week amazing papers from the 73th Issue of #ComplexityThoughts?

manlius.substack.com/p/complexity...

👀 RSS: manlius.substack.com/feed

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PS 🎁 (end-of-year 🙏): gifting ten 1y subscriptions to #ComplexityThoughts via a random draw among everyone who subscribes by Dec 31 (no purchase necessary).

Winners announced in the first week of January, so we can start 2026 with more stuff to read 📚 and more complexity science to unpack 🔍

1/2

Could humans and AI become a new evolutionary individual? | PNAS Could humans and AI become a new evolutionary individual?

Through recursive feedback, where humans shape AI, and AI increasingly shapes human thought and action, AI may acquire a role not as a separate agent, but as a core architectural element of an emerging collective individual

#ComplexityThoughts

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Can a single number tell a story about a complex society? “Lies, damned lies, and statistics”

Excess mortality is *not* a simple count. It's a deviation capturing direct deaths, indirect effects, misclassification, delayed care: all shocks moving through a connected system. One number, many mechanisms.

w/ @adamjkucharski.bsky.social

manlius.substack.com/p/can-a-sing...

#ComplexityThoughts

Looking at the current homepage of #ComplexityThoughts it is clear that I don't like #ComplexSystems at all.

Understanding the process that favored the emergence of life is not just about looking backward to 🌎’s first dawn: it’s about learning how complexity itself begins and how it might arise again, elsewhere.

Life as a cascade of transitions?

#ComplexityThoughts

manlius.substack.com/p/when-matte...

The unreasonable math of decisions? Part I Non-classical behaviors without quantum brains

According to decades of behavioral experiments, humans defy logic.

Maybe that's not irrationality; maybe it's better math waiting to be found. Or just to be used to describe non-classical decisions, w/o need for quantum brains.

#ComplexityThoughts

manlius.substack.com/p/the-unreas...

What connects molecules, ecosystems, brains and societies?

Exactly 1y ago, I captured that question in this video, showing how simple mechanisms generate the complexity of life and behavior.

Now heading towards the 3rd birthday of #ComplexityThoughts: unbelievable.

#Complexity #NetworkScience

Complexity Thoughts | Manlio De Domenico, Ph.D. | Substack Making sense of reality and sharing my view on networks, from cells to societies. Complexity, network science and artificial intelligence for public health and a sustainable society. Applications from...

Enjoy exploring how complexity shapes our world?

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