Evolution, Development, and Complexity
A full day satellite meeting at the Conference on Complex Systems, Cancun, Mexico, Sept 18-22, 2017.
DATE: September 20, 2017.
VENUE: Cancun International Convention Center, Cancun, Mexico
SATELLITE WEBSITE: http://tinyurl.com/CCS-EDC17
CONFERENCE WEBSITE: http://ccs17.unam.mx/
Our satellite explores Biologically-Inspired Complexity Science & Philosophy (BICS&P). We seek to advance conceptual and mathematical models and empirical applications in three major and potentially foundational research themes:
A. Evolution / Diversity / Phase Space Creation / Unpredictability
B. Development / Constraint / Phase Space Reduction / Predictability
C. Complexity / Nonlinear Dynamics / Intelligence / Learning / Adaptation
The satellite seeks to evaluate biologically-inspired approaches to understanding complex adaptive systems at multiple scales, including the universe as a complex system, from any of the following academic disciplines: complexity science, physical science, information and computer science, theoretical and evo-devo biology, cosmology, astrobiology, evolution, development, and philosophy.
Confirmed Keynote Speakers:
Yaneer Bar-Yam, Multiscale Dynamical Representation
Hiroki Sayama, Morphogenetic Evolution, Development and Complexity in Collective Systems
H. Eugene Stanley, Constraint Laws in Econophysics
Paper Topics (partial list)
Accelerating Complexity, Adaptive Networks, Agent-Based Models, Artificial Life, Astrobiology, Bio-Inspired Models, Convergent Evolution (in any System), Cosmology, Developmental Models, Evo-Devo Biology, Fine Tuning (Biology and Cosmology), Hierarchy Theory, Information Hierarchies, Intelligence Models, Nonlinear and Adaptive Dynamics, Origin of Life, Performance Curves, Philosophy of Modeling, Reverse Engineering of Biological Complexity, Scaling Laws, Self-Organization, Theoretical Morphology, Top-Down Causation, Universality (Principles)
Questions of Interest (very partial list)
What can the interaction of evolutionary stochasticity and developmental determinism in biological systems teach us about these processes in other complex systems?
How can bio-inspired complexity science and philosophy inform astrophysics? geophysics? astrobiology? biological sciences? cognitive sciences? social sciences? Engineering and machine learning?
What are our best network and collective models for adaptation? For learning and intelligence? For cooperativity and competition?
How does cumulative information and relation constrain physical dynamics in complex environments (modularity, hierarchy, top-down causation)?
How do scaling laws (scale-invariance) constrain evolutionary process in adaptive systems?
Is the fine-tuning of universal parameters in cosmology equivalent to fine-tuning of genetic parameters in biological development?
If our universe is a replicator, as in theories of cosmological natural selection, is there a fitness function (adaptive value) for evolved complexity or intelligence?
Why do we see temporal deceleration of complexity in the early universe, and acceleration of complexity (eg., Chaisson’s energy rate density) once large scale structure exists?
What are our best morphological and functional models of convergent evolution? When can we consider evolutionary convergence (eg. eyes, intelligence) an example of universal development (an astrobiological universal)?
Are any of Earth’s past convergences (eg, organic chemistry, RNA, multicellularity) likely to be developmental bottlenecks (the only path to significantly greater learning rate for adaptive complexity)?