Gareth Baxter
@baxterity.bsky.social
Complex scientist. Physics professor and researcher. Studying complex networks, social collective phenomena, complex systems.
In the last 17 editions, #CompleNet had 127 distinct keynote speakers. One of the largest numbers among the #NetworkScience conferences. Join the 18th edition. Diversity of gender, career stage, and fields. Send your works: complenet.github.io/cfp.html
Call for Contributions — CompleNet 2027
Call for contributions at CompleNet 2027, the 18th International Conference on Complex Networks.
complenet.github.io
⚠️ Only 2 days left to apply for the Winter Workshop on Complex Systems 2027! 🗓️ Application deadline: October 4th 🔎 All the information at: wwcs2027.github.io Don't miss the chance and run to apply!
Duck Running Across the Floor
Alt: Duck Running Across the Floor
static.klipy.com
In just one week, we're kicking off the #CCS2026 Warm-Up! 🔥 Haven't registered yet? Don't wait any longer! Registration closes next Monday (October 4), so make sure to submit everything before then. Any questions? Send us an email! If not, see you next Friday! 👇 🔗 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
Young Researchers of the Complex Systems Society@yrcss.bsky.social · 4mo agoThe CCS Warm-Up 2026 application is open! A two-day informal event for early-career scientists, running right before the CCS in Binghamton: a chance to meet the community before the chaos starts! Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, don't wait! 📋 yrcss.cssociety.org/warm-up/2026-binghamton/
📢 Excited to announce CompleNet 2026! Join us to share your network science research in a highly interdisciplinary conference! 🗓️ 4–8 May 2026 | 📍 Zaragoza, Spain 🇪🇸 🚨 Call for contributions open – submit by Nov 15, 2025! 🌐 Info & registration: complenet.weeblysite.com
Mirta Galesic argues the need for (complex systems) scientists to collectively raise voice to break the currently ongoing spiral of silence #CCS2025
Thank you Prof. Mirta Galesic (University of Vienna and Santa Fe Institute) for the inspiring talk “Collective moderation of public discourse” at CCS 2025!
Fascinating talk by Christian Bentz on language complexity at the Compila satellite at CCS #Compila2025 #CCS2025
A patina of hate: The targeting of academics in New Zealand, January to June 2025 www.linkedin.com/pulse/patina... (LinkedIn) sanjanah.wordpress.com/2025/09/03/a... (WordPress) #nzpol #dangerousspeech #academicfreedom #freedomofexpression #newzealand
New paper: "Large Language Models and Emergence: A Complex Systems Perspective" (D. Krakauer, J. Krakauer, M. Mitchell). We look at claims of "emergent capabilities" & "emergent intelligence" in LLMs from the perspective of what emergence means in complexity science. arxiv.org/pdf/2506.11135
arxiv.org
from a 2022 paper with @gyllingberg.bsky.social & @soccermatics.bsky.social The lost art of mathematical modelling www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
![Instead, the radical definition of complex systems comes from, what is known as, critical complexity. Work by Paul Cilliers and Alicia Juarrero warned against aggrandising models (even supposedly complex systems models) [3], [4]. They emphasise the need to embrace the ambiguous, messy, fluid, non-determinable, contextual, and historical nature of complex systems. They describe complex phenomena as unfinalizible and inexhaustible, which means that we can never capture any given biological system entirety with models [5]. Fig. 1, adapted from Di Paolo et al. (2018), captures the interdependence, fluidly and interactivity of agents and environments in a complex system [2]. Complex systems are open-ended, which means there is no uncontested way of telling whether what we have included in a model is crucial or what we have omitted as irrelevant is indeed so. Models can, according to the critical complexity approach, be contradictory: we can accept two incompatible predictions as both describing the same system.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:26hkfmtr7jrchexamh7hk6rz/bafkreidbtcuxfz7vv53zk3c37lti4el26hankzdt72dlwwiuphmcjjw6ai)
![This approach views a model as a snapshot of a system and no single snapshot tells the whole story. For modelling the human body, for example, “a portrait of a person, a store mannequin, and a pig can all be models” [6]. None is a perfect representation, but each can be the best model for a human, depending on whether one wants to remember an old friend, to buy clothes, or to study anatomy. The critical complexity view suggests that theoreticians should avoid specialising in any one modelling approach and try to find the right set of models to understand a particular system in a given context.
There can, of course, be more than one definition of complex systems. Indeed, Cilliers and Juarrero’s approach to complexity encourages a plurality of definitions (after all, there is no single view of a system). We would, though, emphasise that it is the radical definition of complexity – in which systems always resist a complete description, are open and unfinalizable – which is least well understood by mathematical biologists today. It is therefore important to investigate how complexity should be approached in the study of biological systems.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:26hkfmtr7jrchexamh7hk6rz/bafkreicszmjxfslncbz4br2p7rrkcpyqkq6ayjtveaxcbgswc4hneicscu)
Your next network science conference opportunity: NetSci-X 2026 in Auckland, New Zealand. netscix2026.github.io #NetSci2025 #NetSciX2026
NetSciX 2026 - International School and Conference on Network Science - Auckland, New Zealand
netscix2026.github.io
Hiroki Sayama@hirokisayama.bsky.social · last yr.Thilo Gross announces future NetSci conferences and the educational video competition #NetSci2025
@gin-bianconi.bsky.social the thoroughly deserving recipient of the Netsci Euler Award, giving her personal perspective on the nature of networks #NetSci2025
Underway at @netsciconf.bsky.social Hieko Lietz getting us underway at the Critical Phenomena satellite
After a court order by the Turkish government, Bluesky made accounts unavailable for Bluesky users in Turkey this week. I take a closer look at geographic-based moderation works on Bluesky and atproto, how it can be sidestepped, and much more fediversereport.com/bluesky-cens...
Bluesky, censorship and country-based moderation
This week, Bluesky hid accounts in for users in Turkey after a government order. I take a closer look at government censorship and ATProto, how geographic moderation labelers work, and the impact on t...
fediversereport.com
🌐 Don't miss the opportunity to submit your abstract at CCS25!
New research on inequality in online communities! We show that as communities grow, participation becomes increasingly concentrated among fewer users w/ Guilherme Machado, @diogofpacheco.bsky.social and @baxterity.bsky.social. arxiv.org/abs/2503.02661 @exetercompsci.bsky.social @uaveiro.bsky.social
Super-Linear Growth and Rising Inequality in Online Social Communities: Insights from Reddit
We study the effect of the number of users on the activity of communities within the online content sharing and discussion platform Reddit, called subreddits. We found that comment activity on Reddit ...
arxiv.org
Hoping to update my starterpack of the Portuguese complexity community. If you study complex systems or related things and work in Portugal or have a connection to Portugal, please get in touch! go.bsky.app/A8RRk6j
It's a network conferency day. Abstract submitted to @netsciconf.bsky.social, and while I won't be able to attend, I've also finished my reviews for @complenet.bsky.social in Fortaleza. Both shaping up to be great meetings!
More on Marsden’s dark day: There’s detailed comments via SMC www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2024/12/04/g...
Govt cuts humanities and social science funding - Expert Reaction
Humanities and social science funding has been cut from the Marsden Fund, the main fund for 'blue-skies' research in Aotearoa New Zealand. The areas that have been cut include research in subjects lik...
sciencemediacentre.co.nz
We are looking for a coordinator for our new ERA Chair project based in Portugal (more news about that soon). Experience with #ComplexSystems a plus! fm.ucp.pt/news/post-sc...
POST OF SCIENCE MANAGER
CBR hereby announces the opening of an international call for applications for one vacancy of Science Manager to perform duties of science management and knowledge (with an exclusivity clause), in the...
fm.ucp.pt
This post from the PM is problematic for a number of reasons. A thread…🧵
Nine-day hīkoi to uphold the Treaty of Waitangi and Māori rights – in pictures
Nine-day hīkoi to uphold the Treaty of Waitangi and Māori rights – in pictures
A protest march has travelled for nine days across New Zealand, culminating at Wellington and parliament on Tuesday Continue reading...
dlvr.it
I created a starter pack for complex systems researchers in portugal, and portuguese researchers around the world. Unfortunately many of the people I would like to add are still not here! Please send me suggestions for who to add. Very much work in progress. go.bsky.app/A8RRk6j
If you’re working in #NetworkScience or #ComplexNetworks, I strongly encourage you to consider joining #CompleNet25 in Fortaleza, Brazil. It’s a great opportunity to share ideas and connect with the community. Deadline is tomorrow, 15 November. @CompleNet cmt3.research.microsoft.com/CompleNet2025
Conference Management Toolkit - Login
Microsoft's Conference Management Toolkit is a hosted academic conference management system. Modern interface, high scalability, extensive features and outstanding support are the signatures of Micros...
cmt3.research.microsoft.com
It's great to see the massive wave of people coming to 🦋. Here's my first stab at a Computational Social Science starter pack: go.bsky.app/2m6iQ68 Go check out similar lists to bootstrap your network: bsky.app/starter-pack... bsky.app/starter-pack... Wonder if these lists could be merged somehow..
Some hard truths from Cory Doctorow: doctorow.medium.com/https-plural... It misses only one fact: Mastodon was born shitified! I still believe that the free software principles are strong and people will eventually unshitiffy it. But this hurdle will cost it a unique moment in history.
Bluesky and enshittification
No one is the enshittifier of their own story.
doctorow.medium.com
