Introduction to Online Complexity: The New Social Physics of Extremes, Misinformation, and AI

by Frank Yingjie Huo, Pedro D. Manrique, Minzhang Zheng, Neil Johnson

Overview

Today's online and offline world is an immensely complex system. We see numerous surprising "black swan" events emerging, yet it is hard to make sense of them. This book attempts to quantitatively address many of these phenomena from the perspective of physics. Physics is used as a tool to model interactions and provide potential control schemes to complex systems.

The new science of systems interacting including heterogenous humans, technology, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an exciting prospect, with applications ranging from space missions through to new medical procedures. Introduction to Online Complexity lays out the new science of these systems with an aim to help equip the next generation of physicists and other scientists with knowledge of what to expect, how such systems can be described quantitatively, and what tools could be used to design behaviours or mitigate undesired behaviours.

This book operates as both a source book and a textbook for this deeply interesting new physics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198921011
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/30/2025
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 1.50(h) x 9.50(d)

About the Author

Frank Yingjie Huo, PhD Student, George Washington University,Pedro D. Manrique, Assistant Professor of Physics, Florida Polytechnic University,Minzhang Zheng, Senior Bioinformatics Research Scientist, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital,Neil Johnson, Professor, Head of Dynamic Online Networks Laboratory, George Washington University

Frank Huo is a PhD student at the George Washington University, having graduated with BA, MA, and Mmath degrees from Pembroke College, Cambridge University. His research interests include theoretical physics of complex systems.

Professor Neil F. Johnson is Head of Dynamic Online Networks Laboratory, George Washington University. He was Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford until 2007, and has been a Professor of Physics at George Washington University since 2018.

Professor Pedro D. Manrique is Assistant Professor of Physics, Florida Polytechnic University. He has had research appointments at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Director's fellow and at George Washington University.

Dr Minzhang Zheng is a Senior Bioinformatics Research Scientist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He is also an adjunct Assistant Research Professor at George Washington University.

Table of Contents

1. New science for a new need2. Empirical patterns3. Multi-body physics 1.0: Single-species fusion and fission4. Multi-body physics 2.0: Multi-species fusion and fission5. Multi-body physics 3.0: General fusion-fission theory for time-dependent heterogenous systems6. Online wars: Bad-actor AI and beyond7. Online spreading: Contagion and broadcast8. Adding adaptation: emergence of anticrowds9. Controlling human-technology-AI systems10. Final thoughtsReferencesIndex