Complex Systems

The Making of a Creative Worldview

Traffic Waves Simulation

Lewis Lehe's interactive browser simulation of traffic waves — slow one car down and watch a ripple of phantom congestion propagate backward through traffic. Makes emergent complex-systems behavior viscerally tangible.

Flocks, Herds, and Schools: A Distributed Behavioral Model

Craig Reynolds's 1987 SIGGRAPH paper on Boids — the three-rule algorithm (separation, alignment, cohesion) that produces realistic flocking behavior from local agent interactions alone. One of the most cited demonstrations that complex group behavior emerges from simple rules, not central coordination.