The Future of Complexity

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complexity has increased steadily over the evolution of the universe and so although in theory it can be a sort-hust increase nevertheless it has generally gone up but something that you said in your talk which made me kind of pause and contemplate the future grimly is that complexity inevitably as the universe unfolds over the next umpteen billion years is going to go down again. If I understand you correctly the reason is to do with entropy but I'm not free sure I have a handle on why so can you unpick that a bit more like? "Yeah I think it's very much a double edged sword," he says."There's no room for complexity in the heat death of the

Our observable universe started out in a highly non-generic state, one of very low entropy, and disorderliness has been growing ever since. How, then, can we account for the appearance of complex systems such as organisms and biospheres? The answer is that very low-entropy states typically appear simple, and high-entropy states also appear simple, and complexity can emerge along the road in between. Today’s podcast is more of a discussion than an interview, in which behavioral neuroscientist Kate Jeffery and I discuss how complexity emerges through cosmological and biological evolution. As someone on the biological side of things, Kate is especially interested in how complexity can build up and then catastrophically disappear, as in mass extinction events.

There were some audio-quality issues with the remote recording of this episode, but loyal listeners David Gennaro and Ben Cordell were able to help repair it. I think it sounds pretty good!

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Kate Jeffery received her Ph.D. in behavioural neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh. She is currently a professor in the Department of Behavioural Neuroscience at University College, London. She is the founder and Director of the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience at UCL.

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