Connectance of Large Dynamic (Cybernetic) Systems: Critical Values for Stability

MANY systems being studied today are dynamic, large and complex: traffic at an airport with 100 planes, slum areas with 10⁴ persons or the human brain with 10¹⁰ neurones. In such systems, stability is of central importance, for instability usually appears as a self-generating catastrophe. Unfortunately, present theoretical knowledge of stability in large systems is meagre: the work described here was intended to add to it.