We go right down the rabbit hole with limited imitation contagion and chaotic dynamics on fixed networks with deterministic up-down response functions. Really a long, long way down and it gets pretty weird. We then take a rampaging tour of generalized contagion showing how disease-like and simple social contagion models can be seen as part of a larger model. Lots of fun math leads to a triumphant conclusion that three basic universality classes exist for spreading dynamics starting from a small seed. Phew.

A real space hedonometer tests out some books, the long lives of untruths, the Barkley Marathon, the mystery of uneven death rates throughout the year.

(1) Comment after a presentation of the chaotic contagion work back in 2007 (years before publishing) "If I was a younger man, I would have stolen this from you." (2) A tweet re the madness of it all here. (3) This is also relevant.

2016/04/28

1:18:40