Novelty And Surprises In Complex Adaptive System (CAS) Dynamics: A Computational Theory of Actor Innovation

The work of John von Neumann in the 1940’s on self-reproducing machines as models for biological systems and self-organized complexity provides the computational legacy for CAS. Following this, the major hypothesis emanating from Wolfram (1984), Langton (1992, 1994), Kaufmann (1993) and Casti (1994) is that the sine qua non of complex adaptive systems is their capacity to produce novelty or ‘surprises’ and the so called Type IV innovation based structure changing dynamics of the Wolfram-Chomsky schema. The Wolfram-Chomsky schema postulates that on varying the computational capabilities of agents, different system wide dynamics can be generated: finite automata produce Type I dynamics with unique limit points or homogeneity; push down automata produce Type II dynamics with limit cycles; linear bounded automata generate Type III chaotic trajectories with strange attractors. The significance of this schema is that it postulates that only agents with the full powers of Turing Machines capable of simulating other Turing Machines, which Wolfram calls computational universality can produce Type IV irregular innovation based structure changing dynamics associated with the three main natural exponents of CAS, evolutionary biology, immunology and capitalist growth. Langton (1990,1992) identifies the above complexity classes for dynamical systems with the halting problem of Turing machines and famously calls the phase transition or the domain on which novel objects emerge as ‘life at the edge of chaos’. This paper develops the formal foundations for the emergence of novelty or innovation. Remarkably, following Binmore(1987) who first introduced to game theory the requisite dose of mechanism with players modelled as Turing Machines with the Gödel (1931) logic involving the Liar or the pure logic of opposition, we will see that only agents qua universal Turing Machines which can make self-referential calculation of hostile objectives can bring about adaptive novelty or strategic innovation. .