Systems Sciences
Systems sciences, network theory or "complexity" is the second focus of our program. These new sciences that emerged in the mid-20th century are profoundly changing our understanding of virtually everything - both natural and human systems - and contributing to an unprecedented revolution in every discipline of science, including physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, ecology, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, geology, oceanography, atmospheric sciences, climatology, astronomy, cosmology, sociology, political sciences and economics. Through systems sciences, we are gaining an understanding of the nature of reality that is radically different from that presented by the mechanistic sciences of the last 300 years.
Principles of systems sciences taught in our program
- Self-organization and emergence (the whole is greater than the sum of the parts): contributes a scientific explanation of where everything came from - including the universe itself and life.
- Chaos theory or non-linear dynamics : the study of the unpredictable nature of complex systems and their sensitivity to infinitesimally tiny changes.
- Fractal geometry : the geometry of nature involving objects and images in which the parts look similar to the whole.
- Computational systems : like cellular automata and Turing machines, visual and elegant, looking little like mathematics, FAR easier to understand, and relevant to all sciences, music and art.
- Non-equilibrium thermodynamics (NET) : the science of energy & energy flows - offers an awesome new understanding of how the organization of organisms, ecosystems and societies depends on energy gradients and energy flows.
- Autopoiesis : a network model of biology contributing to an elegant new answer to the question, What is life?
- Symbiogenesis : a new theory of evolution proposed by Dr. Lynn Margulis, is the evolution of new organs and species via symbiosis in addition to natural selection.
- Gaia theory : a science of Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere coupled as a planetary-scale, self-regulating system with a metabolism and homeostasis that maintains the temperature and chemical composition of Earth's atmosphere and oceans at steady state conditions.
⇐Gaia System Sciences Biology⇒ Climate Program⇒