Where would we be without transportation networks, communication networks and especially energy networks. This is something Anna Nagurney stresses in Networks – The Science-Spanning Disciplines. We never think about how we would would get anywhere if it wasn’t for transportation networks. So many of us use apps that help us get to our daily activities for example the Waze App, Transit App, Google Maps App, what would our lives be without it we would need a very good memory on how to get to places in a very big city. Communication networks are one of the biggest things that our society uses to connect to others like FaceTime and Skype. Those two apps essentially help us to connect to family that we would never be able to see if we lives without it. One thing Anna Nagurney emphasizes is how we never realize that energy networks is something that is crucial to our society that we sometimes disregard. What would like be like if we lives through that time of the September blackout in 2003. Anna Nagurney states “some of you guys were probably having withdrawal” and this wasn’t even the peak of societies networking, imagine if that took place today. Something that stood out to me is that early on in her audio talk Anna Nagurney states “It’s not a paperless society.” Many of us would be less connected with each other and society if these networks didn’t exist.
This leads me to the article Albert-Laslo Barabasi – Taming Complexity – which shows how nodes in life are connected to links when it comes to networks. For example in the article it states “ Hollywood actors linked to movies”. These nodes that are connected to links ultimately lead to flows. In the article Albert-Laslo Barabasi – Taming Complexity – it states “For instance, the epidemiologist’s desire to predict the extent of the next influenza outbreak,
the computer security expert’s need to contain the next worm, or the social scientist’s need to explore the emergence of ideas are all limited by the need to quantify how the structure of a network impacts the spreading processes taking place on it”. This shows how a node that is connected to a link can ultimately give off the desire to find a flow in networking. The need for a physicist studying complex networks in such a diverse world is the fact that the way nodes and links work in networking is unpredictable.
2 comments
I agree ! transportation apps have helped us get to places and has even saved us time by giving us estimates and allowing us to see what time we would actually arrive to our destination. Many drivers rely on GPS to get to where they need to go as well as finding the fastest route to save time and avoid being stuck in heavy traffic jams. social media apps allow us to take a quick second to check up on family and loved ones by sending them a direct message that is delivered in a matter of seconds !
Great job on this post. Networks have a huge influence in our lives and most of the networks that do are hidden, meaning we don’t even realize they are networks until they are examined closer or one of the nodes of the network breaks, causing the rest to fall apart.