01158nas a2200121   4500008004100000245009600041210006900137300001000206490000700216520075500223100002300978856003501001       2011                        eng d00aThe Sigma Profile: A Formal Tool to Study Organization and its Evolution at Multiple Scales0 aSigma Profile A Formal Tool to Study Organization and its Evolut  a37-440 v163 aThe σ profile is presented as a tool to analyze the organization of systems at different scales, and how this organization changes in time. Describing structures at different scales as goal-oriented agents, one can define σ ∈ [0,1] (satisfaction) as the degree to which the goals of each agent at each scale have been met. σ reflects the organization degree at that scale. The σ profile of a system shows the satisfaction at different scales, with the possibility to study their dependencies and evolution. It can also be used to extend game theoretic models. The description of a general tendency on the evolution of complexity and cooperation naturally follows from the σ profile. Experiments on a virtual ecosystem are used as illustration.1 aGershenson, Carlos  uhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0809.0504