César Hidalgo, a physicist and expert on information's role in societies, shares fascinating insights into how information drives economies and enhances collective learning. He discusses Maxwell's Demon as a metaphor for converting knowledge into work, and the significance of economic differentiation in fostering competitiveness. The impact of communication revolutions on societal structures is explored, alongside the importance of data visualization in understanding complex systems. Hidalgo also reflects on the evolution of collective memory shaped by technology, offering a hopeful outlook for the future.
01:16:35
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
insights INSIGHT
Information as a Fundamental Quantity
Information, like energy and matter, is fundamental, representing the arrangement of things.
It's distinct from meaning, which arises from interaction with the environment.
insights INSIGHT
Origin of Complexity
Complexity on Earth arises from being out of equilibrium and sustained by energy flows, unlike barren places like the Moon.
Prigogine's dissipative structures show how systems self-organize when out of equilibrium.
insights INSIGHT
Interplay of Complexity and Information
Complexity and information have a symbiotic relationship; complexity uses information, and information makes complexity possible.
"Knowledge" is the ability to transform or create, distinguishing it from encoded "information".
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Elizabeth Eisenstein's "The Printing Press as an Agent of Change" is a seminal work that explores the transformative impact of the printing press on various aspects of society, including science, religion, and culture.
Why Information Grows
Cesar Hidalgo
The gift of global talent
William Kerr
In *The Gift of Global Talent*, William R. Kerr examines the transformative impact of global talent flows on the knowledge economy. The book discusses how skilled migration has reshaped the U.S. economy and society, and argues for policy reforms to maintain competitiveness in attracting global talent. It delves into the controversies surrounding visas like the H-1B and the economic inequalities created by superstar firms.
Maxwell's Demon is a famous thought experiment in which a mischievous imp uses knowledge of the velocities of gas molecules in a box to decrease the entropy of the gas, which could then be used to do useful work such as pushing a piston. This is a classic example of converting information (what the gas molecules are doing) into work. But of course that kind of phenomenon is much more widespread -- it happens any time a company or organization hires someone in order to take advantage of their know-how. César Hidalgo has become an expert in this relationship between information and work, both at the level of physics and how it bubbles up into economies and societies. Looking at the world through the lens of information brings new insights into how we learn things, how economies are structured, and how novel uses of data will transform how we live.
César Hidalgo received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Notre Dame. He currently holds an ANITI Chair at the University of Toulouse, an Honorary Professorship at the University of Manchester, and a Visiting Professorship at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. From 2010 to 2019, he led MIT’s Collective Learning group. He is the author of Why Information Grows and co-author of The Atlas of Economic Complexity. He is a co-founder of Datawheel, a data visualization company whose products include the Observatory of Economic Complexity.
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas 
