Under the title of ‘Toward Sustainable Social Systems’, scientists from around the world gathered to discuss a variety of issues under a common theme of complex systems.
Chris Wood, vice president of the Santa Fe Institute, a non-profit organization, kicked off the symposium with a discussion of research underway at his organization, which leads the world in complex systems research. Monique van Donzel from Nanyang Technological University outlined her institution’s drive to foster research connections across diverse fields, a theme also expounded by Erling Norrby of the recently founded Institute Para Limes. Norrby, science board chairman and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, stressed the importance of “vertical science”—new ways of thinking that break away from prevailing dogmas. All of these organizations maintain strong ties with the CHC centered around a common philosophy of encouraging vertical science and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
One field in which collaboration is common is brain science. Atsushi Iriki of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute demonstrated the reach of research in this area with his discussion of neuroscience experiments on macaque monkeys, which he showed can be trained to use sensory tools. Taking a step back, Michel Hofman of the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Science drew a comparison between clustering of information in the brain and hubs in the World Wide Web.
Looking at evolution in a broader sense, John Holland of the University of Michigan, a pioneer in complexity research, emphasized the value of complex adaptive systems in tackling a range of problems. Hideyuki Okano of the Keio University Faculty of Medicine demonstrated the power of one such adaptive system, the marmoset, as a non-human model for neuroscience research that could reveal clues regarding the causes of neurological diseases and the basis of higher brain function. Other fields covered by the complex system approach included linguistics, discussed by Helena Hong Gao from Nanyang Technological University, intellectual property law, as discussed by Institute Para Limes President Jan Vasbinder, and even science itself, as shown by Rathenau Institute Director Peter van den Besselaar.
The challenges science confronts today are broad in scope and complex in nature. In offering a diversity of perspectives, CHC’s first international symposium has set out a path toward a future science better able to understand these challenges, and a future society better able to overcome them.
