Descriptions of how high-level, often unexpected structures arise from small-scale properties or individual behaviors (in ant colonies, for example) recently have been applied in fields far from their origin fields of physics and biology. Less well understood are the processes by which such structures are built from the ground up.
A series of seminars at SFI this summer will begin to share ideas from a variety of SFI research threads, and may prompt work toward a common theoretical framework for the building of structure across many scales, from viruses to societies.
The “Construction Dynamics Seminar Series” organized by SFI Research Professor Jessica Flack will explore, among other topics, the computational processes underlying construction, how structural feedback influences lower- level behaviors, and how principles and rules governing construction evolve.
“Of particular interest is whether cells or organisms, or individuals in social groups, by building their ecological and social environments, reduce uncertainty about the cost of social interactions or the availability of resources, and are therefore better able to develop appropriate strategies for competing,” she says.
The seminar series is broad enough to include much ongoing research within the Institute’s community: the major transitions in evolution,
levels of selection, evolution of development, evolution of signaling systems, animal behavior, cognitive science, niche construction, the origins of individuality, robustness and innovation, scaling, information theory, and theories of computation and emergence, to name a few.
The series kicks off May 7 with a presentation by SFI Sabbatical Visitor John Odling-Smee (University of Oxford), a leading researcher in animal learning, its role in evolution, and niche construction.