UW seminars look for order in chaotic worlds
Most people try to rid their lives of chaos, whether it be in their work schedules or their sock drawers. But a growing group of UW–Madison researchers actually embrace chaos as they look for fundamental new ways to understand the natural world.
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Seminars scheduled
The fall 1998 Chaos and Complex Systems seminars will be held on Tuesdays at 12:05 p.m. in room 4274 Chamberlain Hall, 1150 University Ave. The talks are free and open to the public. Speakers (from UW–Madison unless noted) include:
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Their efforts are built around the academic theory of chaos and complex systems, which holds that incredibly complicated systems in nature and society can be governed by simple, understandable rules. Finding those rules can help shed insight on vast and unpredictable “systems” like the stock market, the Internet, or the human brain.
Locally, the field is coming together through an annual seminar series that, since 1994, has invited talks on subjects ranging from mathematics to the arts. The theory cuts across practically every academic discipline — wherever researchers are trying to get a handle on very large, multi-dimensional issues.
This year’s seminar, organized by an eight-member steering committee, will have a stronger emphasis on the social and behavioral sciences, and include talks about language development, political organization and human perception.
Physics Professor Clint Sprott, one of the founders of the seminar, says the field is changing many approaches to science. “The whole spirit of science is based on figuring out the laws that govern nature, then making reliable predictions on what we can expect to happen,” he says.
But that premise falls short when dealing with complex questions, such as predicting an earthquake, knowing what El Nino will do to next year’s winter, or predicting fluctuations in the stock market.
Those questions are getting a boost through huge advances in computing, Sprott says. Powerful computer programs are changing the face of science by allowing researchers to simulate complex systems.
Computer simulation projects exist today that are working to mimic the behavior of the brain, predict the weather and the stock market, or look at communication patterns within a big company. “We can begin to tackle some of these large problems for the first time through simulation,” he says.
Charles Franklin, a UW–Madison political scientist, will give a talk Nov. 17 about a computer simulation project that will help answer a fundamental question in the field: Why do political parties form?
Every government in the world has political parties, he says, even though political beliefs are very idiosyncratic and specific to the individual. His simulation project will attempt to find whether any natural organizational patterns emerge in a group of 1,000 or more individuals, each with different backgrounds and beliefs.
A Nov. 24 talk by limnology Professor Stephen Carpenter will focus on whether computer simulations can provide a better way to study lake ecosystems, and how human use of lakes affects water quality. His computer models study the interactions between ecosystems and the large number of people making decisions about them.
“The complex systems field is highly relevant to what we’re doing with this computer model,” he says. “We’re very much looking for simple rules of behavior that underlie very complex things, like lakes and human interaction.”
Ultimately, Sprott says the group is seeking funding to make a center for chaos and complexity a permanent fixture on campus. Such a center could be a resource for scientists wanting to bring the power of computer simulation into their research.
For more descriptions on this fall’s topics, visit the seminar’s Web site.
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