Revisiting "scale-free" networks.
Recent observations of power-law distributions in the connectivity of complex networks came as a big surprise to researchers steeped in the tradition of random networks. Even more surprising was the discovery that power-law distributions also characterize many biological and social networks. Many attributed a deep significance to this fact, inferring a "universal architecture" of complex systems. Closer examination, however, challenges the assumptions that (1) such distributions are special and (2) they signify a common architecture, independent of the system's specifics. The real surprise, if any, is that power-law distributions are easy to generate, and by a variety of mechanisms. The architecture that results is not universal, but particular; it is determined by the actual constraints on the system in question.
Keller
Evelyn Fox
EF
Program in Science, Technology and Society, MIT, 77 Mass Ave, E51-185, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. efkeller@mit.edu
D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D013598:Systems Theory