It was an adaptation that radically changed the performance of our species, the appearance of the planet and the rules of evolution. I will discuss how natural selection can lead to the basic design features of human language, such as arbitrary signs, words, syntactic messages and universal grammar. Tim Kohler, archaeologist at Washington State University and external faculty member at SFI, proposes that between A.D. 1150 and the arrival of the Spanish, the puebloan societies in Bandelier underwent one minor and one major organizational transformation that archaeologists would be delighted to explain. Oral tradition, and recent survey and excavation in Bandelier discussed by Kohler, contribute greatly to this goal. Some of the most significant contributions to twentieth century science have been the result of long-term partnerships.
Collaborations take form in diverse patterns.
Most of these collaborations develop a shared vision as well as achieve jointly negotiated outcomes. This talk will examine such collaborations as those between Richard Feynman and Freeman Dyson, Niels Bohr and his collaborators, Albert Einstein's generative friendship with Marcel Grossman, and two generations of partnership among the Curies'. The brain is one of the most complex of the complex adaptive systems known. The essence of complex systems is that they possess emergent properties, often quite complicated ones, that arise from the cooperative interactions between much simpler constituent components. The brain is, in many regards, a perfect example of this scheme.