COMPLEXITY

Carlos Gershenson on Balance, Criticality, Antifragility, and The Philosophy of Complex Systems

Mar 9, 2023

01:06:41

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Quick takeaways

Complex systems challenge predictability and reductionist approaches by highlighting the importance of interactions and the concept of computational irreducibility.

Organizations must balance robustness and adaptability to effectively deal with complexity and dynamic problems.

Designing anti-fragile systems requires understanding the interconnectedness of humans with nature and shifting focus towards enhancing our ability to inhabit nature.

Deep dives

The Influence of Complexity on Predictability

Complex systems, characterized by interactions and the generation of new information, challenge the predictability offered by reductionist approaches. While reductionism simplifies to enable prediction, it tends to overlook interactions. The concept of computational irreducibility further highlights the limitations of predictability. The balance between robustness and adaptability emerges as an essential consideration, allowing for the exploration of new possibilities while maintaining functioning systems. Heterogeneity plays a crucial role in effective adaptation, as relevant elements remain stable while less relevant ones explore and innovate.

Is There a Balance Between Memory and Forgiveness?

04:02

The Scale of Selves, Information, Life, and Buddhist Philosophy

03:38

You've Dedicated Your Life to Complex Systems Science and Philosophy

03:16

The Importance of Mind Training Practices in the Intensity of Modern Life

04:08

Introduction

3min

You've Dedicated Your Life to Complex Systems Science and Philosophy

3min

How Complexity Science Changes Classical Thinking in Philosophy

4min

The Slower Is Faster Effect - Is That Really Possible?

4min

The Complexity of Object Oriented Ontology

3min

Is There a Balance Between Memory and Forgiveness?

4min

The Law of Prerequisite Variety

3min

How to Adapt to Changes in Transportation Systems

2min

The Importance of Mind Training Practices in the Intensity of Modern Life

4min

10.

The Balance Between Criticality and Heterogeneity

5min

11.

When Slower Is Faster?

4min

12.

Anti-Fragility

3min

13.

How Can We Better Take Our Place in Nature?

2min

14.

The Scale of Selves, Information, Life, and Buddhist Philosophy

4min

15.

The Scales of Selfhood

5min

16.

Is There a Good Way to Regulate the State?

5min

17.

The Late Model Smart Phones Compared to the Phones Two Years Ago, Not All That Different

2min

18.

The SFI Sabbatical, a Book About Balance?

4min

19.

How Much Suffering Is Necessary?

2min

How do we get a handle on complex systems thinking? What are the implications of this science for philosophy, and where does philosophical tradition foreshadow findings from the scientific frontier?

Welcome to COMPLEXITY, the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. I’m your host, Michael Garfield, and every other week we’ll bring you with us for far-ranging conversations with our worldwide network of rigorous researchers developing new frameworks to explain the deepest mysteries of the universe.

In this episode we speak with Carlos Gershenson (UNAM website, Google Scholar, Wikipedia, Twitter), SFI Sabbatical Visitor and professor of computer science at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, where he leads the Self-organizing Systems Lab, among many other titles you can find in our show notes. For the next hour, we’ll discuss his decades of research and writing on a vast array of core complex systems concepts and their intersections with both Western and Eastern philosophical traditions — a first for this podcast.

If you value our research and communication efforts, please subscribe, rate and review us at Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and consider making a donation — or finding other ways to engage with us — at santafe.edu/engage.

For HD virtual backgrounds of the SFI campus to use on video calls and a chance to win a signed copy of one of our books from the SFI Press, please help us improve our scicomm by completing a survey linked in the show notes.

Or just a copy of the recently resurfaced SFI Press Archival Volume Complexity, Entropy, and The Physics of Information.

There’s still time to apply for the Complexity GAINS UK program for PhD students – apps close March 15th.

Or come work for us! We are on the lookout for a new Digital Media Specialist, an Applied Complexity Fellow in Sustainability, a Research Assistant in Emergent Political Economies, and a Payroll, Accounts Payable & Receivable Specialist.

You can also join our Facebook discussion group to meet like minds and talk about each episode.

Podcast theme music by Mitch Mignano.

Mentioned & Related Links:

Carlos publishes the Complexity Digest Newsletter.

His SFI Seminars to date:
A Brief History of Balance
Emergence, (Self)Organization, and Complexity
Criticality: A Balance Between Robustness and Adaptability
Festina lente (the slower-is-faster effect)
Antifragility: Dynamical Balance

W. Ross Ashby & The Law of Requisite Variety

Hyperobjects
by Timothy Morton

How can we think the complex?
by Carlos Gershenson and Francis Heylighen

The Implications of Interactions for Science and Philosophy
by Carlos Gershenson

Complexity and Philosophy
by Francis Heylighen, Paul Cilliers, Carlos Gershenson

Heterogeneity extends criticality
by Fernanda Sánchez-Puig, Octavio Zapata, Omar K, Pineda, Gerardo Iñiguez, and Carlos Gershenson

When Can we Call a System Self-organizing?
by Carlos Gershenson and Francis Heylighen