Nonlinear Systems- 4 Synergies & Interference

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In this section we introduce the key sources of nonlinearity as the type of relations between components within a system where these relations add or subtract some value to the overall system. We will talk about synergies that represent a positive interaction between components resulting in the system being more than the simple sum of its parts. Next we also discuss interference which works in the inverse direction to synergies making the system less than the sum of its part.

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Transcription excerpt:

As we have previously discussed the nature of the interactions between components within a system is a key source of nonlinearity, in this short module we are going to give a quick overview to the two fundamentally different types of relations that result in non-additive combinations, what we call synergies and interference. Starting with synergies, the term synergy comes from a Greek word that mean "working together". A synergy is a positive interaction between two elements derived from some synchronization between their states. As an example we could site the division of labor within many insect and human communities, such as ant colonies and market economies where synergistic relations create a net result that is greater than the product of the individual elements actions in isolation. Very simple ants can through the division of their labor and collaboration create ant colonies that appear to far exceed the capabilities of simply summing up the capability of each ant in isolation. >From this we should note that in order to achieve synergies, components need to be both different and synchronized, if all the ants in our ant colony or the people in a business performed exactly the same function then the result would simply be additive, or if they all performed different functions but did not coordinate their behavior then again we would be dealing with an additive linear system. It is only when we get differentiation that is when components become different not in some random fashion but in a specific way with respect to each other and they also coordinate their activities, then we get synergies and the system become nonlinear. To illustrate this farther, say person A alone is too short to reach an apple on

a tree and person B is too short as well. Once person B sits on the shoulders of person A, they are tall enough to reach the apple. The point here is that they had to both differentiate their activities with respect to each other and then coordinate them again in order to achieve this synergy, with both on the ground and they got nothing, but when one stood on the ground and the other on his shoulders then something different happened. This phenomenon of synergy is ubiquitous being encountered throughout the natural, social and engineered world.

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