COMPLEXITY: Physics of Life

Michael Garfield & David Krakauer on Evolution, Information, and Jurassic Park

Jun 30, 2023

01:39:24

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Quick takeaways

Bayesian reasoning provides an algorithm for forming beliefs optimally but lacks the understanding of priors, explanation, and integration with other fields.

Childhood serves as a period of high-temperature exploration, allowing for noise, randomness, and broad focus to seek new ideas and possibilities.

Deep dives

The Complexity Podcast Tracing the Contours of Complexity Itself

In this special 106th episode of the Complexity Podcast, the host, Michael Garfield, engages in a retrospective masterclass with SFI President David Krakauer. They review nine past conversations with researchers like David, Brian Arthur, Jeffrey West, Don Farmer, Deborah Gordon, Tyler Margitas, Simon DeDao, Caleb Sharf, and Alison Gopnik, focusing on key themes that explore the implications of a world transformed by science and technology. The episode delves into the importance of understanding complexity, the relationship between machine learning and complexity science, the significance of innovation in sustainable growth, the fluid task allocation in ant colonies, the resilience of ecosystems and its application to jazz improvisation, and the parallels between Bayesian reasoning and knowledge building. The conversation highlights the interconnectedness and dynamic nature of complex systems across various fields of study.

The Limitations of Mathematics in Studying Novelty and Invention

01:29

Advancements in Science and Data Analysis

00:40

The Two Ways of Engaging with Reality: Machine Learning vs Complexity Science

01:00

Harmony in Complexity Science

00:40

Introduction

2min

Michael Garfield on Complexity

2min

The Lost World, 1995

3min

The Evolution of Combinatorial Language

2min

Complex Systems Science and Machine Learning

3min

Machine Learning Versus Complexity Science

2min

The Impact of SFI on Economics

2min

Lindgren's Prisoners Dilemma Tournament

5min

The Complexity of Intelligence

2min

10.

The Creative Misuse of Technology

2min

11.

The Treadmill Red Queen Dynamics of Successive Inventions

2min

12.

The Sublinear Scaling of the Economy of Scale

1min

13.

The Paradox of Open-Ended Growth

5min

14.

The Importance of Ecological Dynamics in Economics

2min

15.

How Market Ecology Explains Market Disfunction

5min

16.

The Protopianism of Cryptocurrency

3min

17.

The Division of Labor in Ants

2min

18.

The Evolution of Ant Behavior

2min

19.

The Fluid Task Allocation of Ants

4min

20.

The Myth of the Modern Self-Authoring Self

2min

21.

The Complexity of the Nervous System

2min

22.

The Role of Early Warning Signals in Critical Transitions

4min

23.

The Hourglass Emergence Model

2min

24.

The Importance of Individual Agency

2min

25.

Bayesian Reasoning and the Immune System

3min

26.

The Innovation of Baysian Reasoning

4min

27.

The Inherent Tensions Between Individual Agency and Institutional Demand

2min

28.

The Locus of Information

2min

29.

The Importance of Brain Size in the Evolution of Life

3min

30.

The Energy of Punch Cards

4min

31.

The Importance of Noise in Childhood

2min

32.

The Evolution of Childhood

2min

33.

The Exploit Trade-Off in AI

2min

34.

How to Find a New Idea

2min

35.

The Pros and Cons of Exploring the High Temperature and Low Temperature Perspectives

3min

36.

Michael Garfield's High Temperature Exploration

2min

37.

The Importance of Qualitative Approaches to Analysis

2min

38.

The Ethics of Power and Control

4min

Episode Title and Show Notes:

106 - Michael Garfield & David Krakauer on Evolution, Information, and Jurassic Park

Welcome to Complexity, the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. I'm Michael Garfield, producer of this show and host for the last 105 episodes. Since October, 2019, we have brought 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. Today I step down and depart from SFI with one final appearance as the guest of this episode. Our guest host is SFI President David Krakauer, he and I will braid together with nine other conversations from the archives in a retrospective masterclass on how this podcast traced the contours of complexity. We'll look back on episodes with David, Brian Arthur, Geoffrey West, Doyne Farmer, Deborah Gordon, Tyler Marghetis, Simon DeDeo, Caleb Scharf, and Alison Gopnik to thread some of the show's key themes through into windmills and white whales, SFI pursues, and my own life's persistent greatest questions.

We'll ask about the implications of a world transformed by science and technology by deeper understanding and prediction and the ever-present knock-on consequences. 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 SFI at Santa fe.edu/engage. Thank you each and all for listening. It's been a pleasure and an honor to take you offroad with us over these last years.

Follow SFI on social media: Twitter • YouTube • Facebook • Instagram • LinkedIn

📚Reading & Videos:

The Lost World
by Michael Crichton

Jurassic Park
by Michael Crichton

The Evolution of Syntactic Communication
by Martin Nowak, Joshua Plotkin, and Vincent Jansen

InterPlanetary Festival 2018 + SFI Science Explainer Animations
by SFI

Complexity Economics
by SFI Press

Supertheories and Consilience from Alchemy to Electromagnetism
by Simon DeDeo (2019 SFI Seminar)

How To Live in The Future, Part 4: The Future is Exapted/Remixed
by Michael Garfield

Artists Misusing Technology
by NXT Museum

The Collapse of Artificial Intelligence
by Melanie Mitchell (2019 SFI Symposium Talk)

The Debate Over Understanding in AI's Large Language Models
by Melanie Mitchell & David Krakauer