At this year's Systems Biology Summer Course (run by the CRG, Barcelona) participants explored the difficulties of understanding networks by becoming a real live network of themselves! Simple rules of connectivity were explained by Yogi Jaeger and Hilde Janssens, and then the game unfolded in 3 steps:
Step 1 - The Central Controllers. Two people had to position the nodes of the network (their fellow participants) to satisfy the connectivity rules with optimal distances - not easy.
Step 2 - Self-Organisation. When the nodes were allowed to position themselves an optimal arrangement emerged much faster.
Step 3 - Deducing the rules by manipulating the system. Three participants had been kept away from the group during the first 2 steps. They now had to deduce what the rules were, simply by moving nodes around and observing how these "perturbations" affected the network structure. (Our normal everyday scientific approach to understanding complex systems).
Moral of the story? Networks are non-trivial! A systems-level understanding is essential...
Movie by James Sharpe
Негізгі бет Human Network Game at SBSC 2014
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