The first seminar of the CS4: Complexity systems simulation seminar series, will take place on Wednesday 30 January.
Dr Rachel Armstrong from the University of Greenwich will give the talk, ‘A Hitchiker’s Guide to Complexity’, at 4-5pm, B53/4025, Highfield Campus.
All talks within the CS4 seminar series are free and take place fortnightly on Wednesdays, 4-5pm, B53/4025, Highfield Campus. All are warmly welcome to attend.
For details of future talks, including videos and interviews of previous talks, please visit: http://cs4southampton.wordpress.com
No registration is required. Please contact James Dyke ([email protected]) for all queries.
The seminar series is brought to you by the Complexity in Real World Contexts USRG and the Institute for Complex Systems Simulation (ICSS).
ABSTRACT:
“A Hitchiker’s Guide to Complexity”
By Dr Rachel Armstrong from the University of Greenwich
“This talk offers a multi-disciplinary view of complexity from the perspective of an informed amateur – an ideas hitchhiker – curating concepts relevant to its philosophical, technological and cultural importance. These ideas are co-ordinates for a hitchhiker’s map that provokes discussion about the theory, method and application of complex systems in addressing cultural agendas and how they may work as a counter point to prevalent practices. Of particular interest is how complexity may offer alternative technological systems to machines, which shape our Modern era. Although complexity is still an emerging practice and not a ‘cure-all’ to the significant challenges that we face this century, it may offer a point of reflection on the processes that underpin human development – to identify opportunities where the interests of humanity and the environment may be one and the same – say for example, by considering the Earth to be a giant ‘natural’ supercomputer.”