arXiv subjects

Paolo Magrassi

Publications and source records attributed to Paolo Magrassi.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

Econophysics deserves a revamping

The paper argues that attracting more economists and adopting a more-precise definition of dynamic complexity might help econophysics acquire more attention in the economics community and bring new lymph to economic research. It may be necessary to concentrate less on the applications than on the basics of economic complexity, beginning with expansion and deepening of the study of small systems with few interacting components, while until thus far complexity has been assumed to be a prerogative of complicated systems only. It is possible that without a thorough analysis at that level, the understanding of systems that are at the same time complex and complicated will continue to elude economics and econophysics research altogether. To that purpose, the paper initiates and frames a definition of dynamic complexity grounded on the concept of non-linear dynamical system.

q-fin.GN↗

arXiv2012

How Non-linearity will Transform Information Systems

One 'problem' with the 21st century world, particularly the economic and business worlds, is the phenomenal and increasing number of interconnections between economic agents (consumers, firms, banks, markets, national economies). This implies that such agents are all interacting and consequently giving raise to enormous degrees of non-linearity, a.k.a. complexity. Complexity often brings with it unexpected phenomena, such as chaos and emerging behaviour, that can become challenges for the survival of economic agents and systems. Developing econophysics approaches are beginning to apply, to the 'economic web', methods and models that have been used in physics and/or systems theory to tackle non-linear domains. The paper gives an account of the research in progress in this field and shows its implications for enteprise information systems, anticipating the emergence of software that will allow to reflect the complexity of the business world, as holistic risk management becomes a mandate for financial institutions and business organizations.

cs.CE↗

arXiv2010

Free and Open-Source Software is not an Emerging Property but Rather the Result of Studied Design

Free and open source software (FOSS) is considered by many, along with Wikipedia, the proof of an ongoing paradigm shift from hierarchically-managed and market-driven production of knowledge to heterarchical, collaborative and commons-based production styles. In such perspective, it has become common place to refer to FOSS as a manifestation of collective intelligence where deliverables and artefacts emerge by virtue of mere cooperation, with no need for supervising leadership. The paper argues that this assumption is based on limited understanding of the software development process, and may lead to wrong conclusions as to the potential of peer production. The development of a less than trivial piece of software, irrespective of whether it be FOSS or proprietary, is a complex cooperative effort requiring the participation of many (often thousands of) individuals. A subset of the participants always play the role of leading system and subsystem designers, determining architecture and functionality; the rest of the people work "underneath" them in a logical, functional sense. While new and powerful forces, including FOSS, are clearly at work in the post-industrial, networked econ-omy, the currently ingenuous stage of research in the field of collective intelligence and networked cooperation must give way to a deeper level of consciousness, which requires an understanding of the software development process.

cs.CY↗