But the arrival of cheap, powerful, widespread computing capability over the past decade or so has changed the situation entirely. This talk will examine the way in which the ability to create surrogate versions of real complex systems inside our computing machines changes the way we do science. But these are laboratories in which we explore the informational rather than the material structure of systems. And since the ability to do controlled, repeatable experiments is a necessary precondition to the creation of a scientific theory of anything, the argument will be made that for perhaps the first time in history, we are now in a position to realistically think about the creation of a theory of complex systems. These essentially philosophical points will be illustrated by on-going work with the world's catastrophe insurance industry, as well as with a supermarket simulator done for the British chain J. Sainsburys.
Evolution is the defining property and the organizing process of life.
Evolution has organized the form and process of matter and energy on Earth from the molecular level to the ecosystem level, spanning twelve orders of magnitude of scale of hierarchically organized structure. The same evolutionary process has been started in the digital medium, providing independent instances of evolution, and broadening our concepts of life and evolution. I will discuss the philosophy and practice of cultivating evolution in the digital medium. The model is based on the fundamental observation that essentially all of life, regardless of size, is constrained, and ultimately limited, by the rate at which essential resources that sustain it can be supplied. General principles that are complementary to the principle of natural selection are proposed.