Jessica Flack talks to Jim about causality in complex systems, theoretical biology, emergence, agent-based modeling, social policing, & much more...

Professor Jessica Flack talks to Jim about micro vs macro causality in complex systems, coarse-graining, primate power hierarchies, downward causation, robustness, free will as a feeling, consciousness theories, theoretical biology, laws in adaptive systems, the non-spookiness of emergence, her work's philosophical connections, question asking vs answering, social engineering dynamics, Lord of The Rings & The Foundation Trilogy, agent-based modeling, social policing & punishment, how mature complexity science really is, Jessica's reflection on her experiences with primates, and more.

Episode Transcript

Mentions & Recommendations

Collective Computation Group @ SFI
Jessica's paper, Coarse-graining as a downward causation mechanism
The Feeling of What Happens by António Damásio
Geoffrey West
The Emergence of Everything by Harold Morowitz
Jessica on Edge.org
JRS: EP1 Simon DeDeo – The Evolution of Consciousness
Jessica's paper, Policing stabilizes construction of social niches in primates
Networks: An Introduction by Mark Newman

Jessica Flack is a professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Flack directs SFI's Collective Computation Group (C4). Flack was formerly founding director of the Center for Complexity and Collective Computation in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Flack received her Ph.D. from Emory in 2003, studying cognitive science, animal behavior and evolutionary theory, and B.A. with honors from Cornell in 1996. Flack's work has been covered by scientists and science journalists in many publications and media outlets, including Quanta Magazine, the BBC, NPR, Nature, Science, The Economist, New Scientist, and Current Biology.