Design degrees of freedom and mechanisms for complexity

Abstract

We develop a discrete spectrum of percolation forest fire models characterized by increasing design degrees of freedom (DDOF's). The DDOF's are tuned to optimize the yield of trees after a single spark. In the limit of a single DDOF, the model is tuned to the critical density. Additional DDOF's allow for increasingly refined spatial patterns, associated with the cellular structures seen in highly optimized tolerance (HOT). The spectrum of models provides a clear illustration of the contrast between criticality and HOT, as well as a concrete quantitative example of how a sequence of robustness tradeoffs naturally arises when increasingly complex systems are developed through additional layers of design. Such tradeoffs are familiar in engineering and biology and are a central aspect of the complex systems that can be characterized as HOT.

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