Simplicity and Complexity

Join us for the Department of Physics and Astronomy's annual Heilborn Symposium, which features three general interest talks designed for the public.

The third is "Simplicity and Complexity," presented by Murray Gell-Mann of the Santa Fe Institute and Cal Tech.

We start by examining what is usually meant by complexity in ordinary conversations and in most scientific discourse.  We consider the effective complexity of an entity, which is a kind of minimum description length for the regularities of the entity as opposed to features that are treated as incidental.  The effective complexity depends, of course, on the level of detail at which the entity is described.  We inquire why, in a variety of situations, complexity seems to keep increasing.  An example is provided by the anthropological concept of social complexity.  We discuss whether it makes sense to place pre-industrial societies on a scale of social complexity and whether such societies acquire certain important traits in a more or less regular sequence.

Coffee will be served at 3:30 pm, with the lecture at follow at 4:00 pm.