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Emergent Systems: A Discussion

Schedule and Discussion Links
Participants
On Line Forum for continuing discussion
Archive of Prior Discussions

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The Emergence Breakfast Group is going to be taking a break.  If there are people interested in giving presentations, please contact Mark Kuperberg and we will start the group up again at a more convenient morning next semester.

People in a variety of disciplines and walks of life are in the business of trying to make sense of the world. In so doing, all make use of conceptual frameworks, habitual ways of thinking that influence both how one tries to make sense of new observations and the new questions one asks (and doesn't ask). These conceptual frameworks are themselves reflections of the kinds of observations that have and can be made.

Computers, like telescopes and microscopes, have opened a whole new world of possible observations. Because of the rapidity with which they can do well-defined calculations, computers have made it possible to explore the consequences of relatively simple interactions of relatively simple things in ways never before possible (try, for example, the Game of Life or Simple Networks, Simple Rules).

From this new capability are emerging in different arenas significant insights into phenomena long believed too complex for serious analysis ... and perhaps a new quite general conceptual framework applicable in a variety of disciplines and practical contexts. People who are interested the emergence of "emergent systems" as a way of thinking are invited to join this discussion by contacting Mark Kuperberg (Swarthmore) or Paul Grobstein.

emergent.brynmawr.edu/eprg/ - a collaborative, interactive hypertext discussion of emergent systems

Complex Systems on Serendip - additional resources

"If you knew the algorithm and fed it back say ten thousand times, each time there's be a dot somewhere on the screen. You'd never know where to expect the next dot. But gradually you'd start to see this shape, because every dot will be inside the shape of this leaf. ... The unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is. It's how nature creates itself, on every scale, the snowflake and the snowstorm." Tom Stoppard, Arcadia, 1993.


Schedule and Discussion Links

September 25
8-9:30am

"Language as an Emergent System"
Background paper
Discussion leader: David Harrison (SWAT Linguistics)
Swarthmore College, Rm. 102, New Science Center

October 9
8-9:30am

"Data-driven methods for discovering the structure of neural and cognitive representations"
Background paper
Discussion leader: Kenneth Whang (Computer Science)
BMC Campus Center, Rm. 200

October 23
8-9:30am

"Data-driven methods for discovering the structure of neural and cognitive representations" (continued)
Discussion leader: Kenneth Whang (Computer Science)
BMC Campus Center, Rm. 200
October 30
8-9:30am
"Data-driven methods for discovering the structure of neural and cognitive representations" (continued)
Discussion leader: Kenneth Whang (Computer Science)
BMC Campus Center, Rm. 200

Archives

Emergent Systems Schedule and Discussion Links Spring 2006 | 2006 Resources

Emergent Systems Schedule and Discussion Links Fall 2005

Emergent Systems Schedule and Discussion Links 2004-2005
Forum 2004-2005

Information Working Group, summer 2004

Emergent Systems Schedule and Discussion Links 2003-2004
Forum 2003-2004

Emergent Systems Schedule and Discussion Links 2002-2003
Forum 2002-2003


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