The Principles of Complexity: Life, Scale and Civilization II

Workshop Navigation Home Agenda Day 2 Discussion Questions Talk Abstracts Participants

organized by Jerry Sabloff (SFI), Geoffrey West (SFI), David Krakauer (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Ginger Richardson (SFI) and Melanie Mitchell (University of Portland)

The workshop organizes around three large-scale research projects and an educational component: (1) the evolution of complexity and intelligence on earth; (2) the scaling laws that pervade complex biological and social phenomena with specific reference to urban life; (3) universal patterns in the emergence of complex societies, and (4) education/curriculum development – complexity explorer. Each of these projects seeks to answer fundamental questions in areas of research where the Santa Fe Institute has a proven record of excellence.

The meeting will involve approximately 30 participants representing a broad range of backgrounds from the mathematical and physical sciences to the social sciences and economics. We will begin the evening of Wednesday July 31st with a reception (location TBD) and a public lecture at the James A. Little Theater. The following two days we will be holding the workshop at the Santa Fe Institute. At the two day workshop team leaders Jerry Sabloff, Geoffrey West, David Krakauer, Ginger Richardson and Melanie Mitchell, with SFI Faculty, Omidyar and program postdoctoral fellows, interns, and students will introduce their major research. Each group will take half a day for their presentations, related discussion and questions. To promote interaction between the projects each group’s questions will be made available ahead of the workshop, to all of the workshop participants.

This event is generously supported through a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.