Simplifying Complexity

Latest Episodes:

How cultural evolution shapes us - Part 2 Mar 31, 2025

Show notes

In the last episode, Paul Smaldino, Professor of Cognitive and Information Sciences at the University of California, Merced, and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute discussed how human behaviour is shaped by cultural evolution.

In this episode, Paul discusses social learning and identity signalling and how they’re both being affected by rapidly changing technologies.

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This show is produced in collaboration with Wavelength Creative. Visit wavelengthcreative.com for more information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How cultural evolution shapes us - Part 1 Mar 17, 2025

Show notes

We all know that we are shaped by evolution, but we're also shaped by cultural evolution.

In this episode, we’re joined by Paul Smaldino, Professor of Cognitive and Information Sciences at the University of California, Merced, and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute, to explain how cultural evolution has shaped human behaviour.

Connect:

This show is produced in collaboration with Wavelength Creative. Visit wavelengthcreative.com for more information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is your country good at? Mar 03, 2025

Show notes

Ricardo Hausmann is the Founder and Director of Harvard’s Growth Lab and the Rafik Hariri Professor of the Practice of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School.

In this episode, Ricardo explains how the amount and diversity of knowledge within an economy shapes its current capabilities and influences a country’s possible economic growth.

Resources and links:

The Atlas of Economic Complexity website

Connect:

This show is produced in collaboration with Wavelength Creative. Visit wavelengthcreative.com for more information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you have free will? - Part 2 Feb 17, 2025

Show notes

In the last episode, Kevin Mitchell, Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin, compared human brains with single-celled organisms to introduce us to the impact of genetics on conscious thought.

In this episode, Kevin discusses metacognition, or how humans think about thinking, and its implications on free will versus determinism.

Connect:

This show is produced in collaboration with Wavelength Creative. Visit wavelengthcreative.com for more information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you have free will? - Part 1 Feb 03, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Kevin Mitchell, Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin, takes us on a journey from single-celled organisms to human consciousness to explore if we have free will.

Connect:

This show is produced in collaboration with Wavelength Creative. Visit wavelengthcreative.com for more information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Law and complexity science Jan 20, 2025

Show notes

Today we're joined by Michal Shur-Ofry, Associate Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem law faculty, as she discusses the law and complex systems.

In this episode, you'll hear how traditional legal approaches often take an overly simplistic view of the systems they're trying to regulate, how the patent system could be improved by using network science to measure true innovation, and why understanding exponential growth during events like pandemics challenges our conventional legal principles of proportionality.

Resources and links:

Connect:

This show is produced in collaboration with Wavelength Creative. Visit wavelengthcreative.com for more information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The scientist who made the digital world possible - Part 2 Jan 06, 2025

Show notes

In the last episode, Jimmy Soni introduced Dr Claude Shannon, whose work laid the foundation for the technologies we use today.

In this episode, Jimmy dives into the significance of Dr Shannon’s 1948 paper “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” to the creation of information theory.

Resources and links:

Connect:

This show is produced in collaboration with Wavelength Creative. Visit wavelengthcreative.com for more information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The scientist who made the digital world possible - Part 1 Dec 23, 2024

Show notes

Dr Claude Shannon is one of the most influential scientists you’ve likely never heard of whose work laid the foundations for the information age.

To explain the significance of Dr Shannon’s impact on modern computing, we’re joined by Jimmy Soni, author of “A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age” and “The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley”.

Resources and links:

Connect:

This show is produced in collaboration with Wavelength Creative. Visit wavelengthcreative.com for more information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The dynamics of financial instability Dec 09, 2024

Show notes

Steve Keen is an Economist and Honorary Professor at University College London and is currently lecturing at the University of Amsterdam.

In this episode, Steve explains the differences between neoclassical and post-Keynesian economics before discussing how concepts from complexity science and chaos theory can be used to develop economic models that actually factor in booms and busts.

Resources and links:

Connect:

This show is produced in collaboration with Wavelength Creative. Visit wavelengthcreative.com for more information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The brain as a complex system Nov 25, 2024

Show notes

How does the brain actually work?

In this episode, Christopher Lynn, Assistant Professor of Physics at Yale University, explains how network science can help us understand how our brains work.

Connect:

This show is produced in collaboration with Wavelength Creative. Visit wavelengthcreative.com for more information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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