Citizen Science and Topology of Mind: Complexity, Computation and Criticality in Data-Driven Exploration of Open Complex Systems

Recently emerging data-driven citizen sciences need to harness an increasing amount of massive data with varying quality. This paper develops essential theoretical frameworks, example models, and a general definition of complexity measure, and examines its computational complexity for an interactive data-driven citizen science within the context of guided self-organization. We first define a conceptual model that incorporates the quality of observation in terms of accuracy and reproducibility, ranging between subjectivity, inter-subjectivity, and objectivity. Next, we examine the database’s algebraic and topological structure in relation to informational complexity measures, and evaluate its computational complexities with respect to an exhaustive optimization. Conjectures of criticality are obtained on the self-organizing processes of observation and dynamical model development. Example analysis is demonstrated with the use of biodiversity assessment database—the process that inevitably involves human subjectivity for management within open complex systems.