We consider a model of contagion in financial networks recently introduced in Gai, P. and Kapadia, S. [Contagion in financial networks, Proc. R. Soc. A 466(2120) (2010) 2401–2423], and we characterize the effect of a few features empirically observed in real networks on the stability of the...

Complex systems — when treated as systems accessible to natural sciences — pose tremendous requirements on data. Usually these requirements obstruct a scientific understanding of social phenomena on scientific grounds. Due to developments in IT, new collective human behavior, new dimensions...

No abstract received.

It has often been noted that most of the major world religions espouse a version of the "golden rule." In this paper we consider the cultural evolution of such a doctrine, where the responsibility to act altruistically towards others applies universally, not just to other members of the same...