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Phase 0 · Apr 2026
Phase 0: Complexity
The Operating System
Core Question
Why do simple rules produce complex behavior?
/// Reading List
Scale (Geoffrey West)
Complexity: A Guided Tour (Melanie Mitchell)
/// Interactive Works 8
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Concept Complicated vs. Complex
What is the fundamental difference between a complicated machine and a complex system?
Canvas 2D Vanilla TS
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Interactive Experience Emergence Lab
How can two simple rules produce something that cannot be read from the rules themselves?
Canvas 2D Web Audio API
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Interactive Experience Self-Organization
Where does order come from? Does it always require a designer?
Canvas 2D Pheromone Grid
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Interactive Experience Computational Irreducibility
Even knowing all the rules, why is it impossible to predict the outcome in advance?
Canvas 2D Cellular Automaton
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Interactive Experience Edge of Chaos
Why does complexity only thrive at the boundary between order and chaos?
Canvas 2D Mandelbrot Set
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Interactive Experience Phase Transition
Why do systems change in sudden jumps rather than smooth transitions?
Canvas 2D 2D Ising Model
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Interactive Experience Sandpile Model
Why are extreme events impossible to predict, yet certain to occur?
Canvas 2D BTW Sandpile
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Data Visualization Scaling Laws
Why do complex systems of vastly different sizes follow the same mathematics?
D3.js Canvas 2D