Want to join the complexity group email list?

Update: Over 100 people have signed up so far, from a broad range of experience (faculty to undergrad) and expertise. I’m cautiously optimistic this will be a fun discussion group!

The complexity group meets periodically to discuss papers in the collection:

 

Foundational Papers in Complexity Science.

 

Meetings are open to anyone. They are recorded and shared with patreon supporters.

 

The group was inspired by my conversation with David Krakauer. David created the foundations collection and wrote an excellent introduction to boot:

The Complex World: An Introduction to the Fundamentals of Complexity Science

 

More details below.

 

Below are more details about how the group will at least start. I’m sure things will change as we move forward….
The idea is that, as a group, we pick and choose among the papers in the foundations collection. Every month or so, we will decide on one of the papers and meet to discuss it. People who show up will participate, and I’ll record the meetings to post to the patreon feed in case you can’t make it, or just want to lay back and learn from afar.
Anyone in the group can suggest one of the papers in the foundations collection. The catch is we will need someone to take the lead in the discussion. So if you suggest one of the papers, you’ll just need be be willing to give at least a broad overview of the ideas in the paper. I don’t mean you’ll need to create a full-on presentation and deliver a monologue, because the point is to discuss it as a group. But ideally you’ll have a sense of what the researcher was going after.
I will try to find an expert or two on the topic to bring in as a participant as well.
The discussions can go anywhere we want them to go, but there are a few guiding background questions I’d like to keep in mind and address along the way:
  • Ideas in the paper, historical context.
  • How it has been (or not) used historically in the study of brains, minds, and machines.
  • How it may (or may not) connect with ideas/research in modern cognitive sciences and/or AI.
  • How any of us is using or could use the ideas in our own work.
I see these meetings to last about an hour. Some might be much shorter, or carry on as long as we want.