Paradigm David Krakauer: Free Will and Complexity
Aug 26, 2024
In this engaging discussion, David Krakauer, an evolutionary biologist and complexity scientist leading the Santa Fe Institute, explores profound themes like free will and the limits of predictability. He delves into the intricacies of AI, highlighting its challenges in predicting human behavior. Krakauer also redefines free will as arising from partial information, and examines how quantum fluctuations can lead to biological asymmetry. As they discuss emergence, reductionism, and future applications of complexity science, listeners gain a fresh perspective on intelligence and agency.
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Limits Of Fundamental Predictability
- Physics gives fundamental laws but they often don't predict mesoscopic phenomena we care about.
- Predictability improves when you coarse-grain and average, but fails at specific microscopic details.
Laplacian Determinism Is Historically Metaphysical
- Laplace's determinism was a metaphysical stance, not grounded in then-available math or physics.
- Modern discoveries (chaos, quantum, undecidability) make Laplacian certainty implausible.
Epistemic Horizons Prevent Perfect Prediction
- Many epistemic horizons block perfect prediction: measurement limits, chaos, undecidability, and quantum uncertainty.
- These constraints show that even an ideal predictor inside the universe cannot know everything.
