This New Idea Could Explain Complexity

The universe creates complexity out of simplicity, but despite many attempts at understanding how, scientists still have not figured it out. We do know that complexity relies on the emergence of new features and laws, but then again we don't understand emergence either. The first step must be to clearly define what we are talking about and to measure it. A group of scientists now put forward a way to do exactly this. Let’s have a look.

Correction to what I say at 04:07 "You will still get the correct prediction". I meant to convey that the prediction doesn't get worse if you average "lumped" classes rather than the full set. Either way, it will be a probabilistic prediction so it's correct only in a statistical sense either way.

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#science #sciencenews #math #complexity #maths

[carlbrenninkmeijer]

what a great explanation of such a fascinating subject. Our cat is called Kant, now he gets a new name, we call him Emergence. He is lumped with dogs

[Dr.M.VincentCurley]

I gave this some thought when I was sequencing DNA in 1994 using the God awful method "dideoxy chain termination sequencing" method. Very painful, but the point is. Identical twins are the same (ignoring the complexity) and yet you find a large number of emergent properties between them that are unexplainably different. While there are aspects we can certainly lump together, there are strange permutations that are unexpected.

[delicious_seabass]

"Usually these people are computer scientists." Shots fired.

[hallstewart]

This reminds of software architecture. The underlying purpose of code encapsulation is causal closure to reduce complexity. Similarly the lumpability of data reduces the test complexity to manageable levels

[NotJustBikes]

3:46 I get the idea, but I hate this example, because I have yet to see a traffic flow prediction that was actually correct. They always predict far more traffic than in reality.

In my experience, there are two reasons for this:

First, traffic engineers almost exclusively plan for moving as many cars as possible, rather than as many people as possible, so they overplan for cars to the detriment to every other form of transportation.

Second, traffic engineers are paid to build roads. They are not paid to _not_ build roads. So every projection always results in (surprise!) proof that they need to build more roads.

[antman]

I don’t undestand the details, but a clear understanding emerges.

[alieninmybeverage]

Lumpability? I would have gone with "Glomular."

[ANunes]

4:00 - having conducted a few traffic studies in the US... "You still get the correct prediction" is giving us a LOT of credit we probably don't deserve.

But then, the fact that your individual odds of getting stuck at any traffic light (not involving a train, anyway) for more than 120 seconds are basically zero means that statistics kinda work. Which is reassuring.

And yes, rather than use actual stats terminology, traffic engineers and city planners call "the value that tells you how meaningful your grouping selections have been" "Lumpability". The reason for this is that they often have to explain the results of their research to town councils and city board selectpersons who barely understand the concept of "road".

[noop]

Lumpability sounds a lot like computational reducibility.

[bartroberts]

Nice shot at Wolfram.. Oh. Just all computer scientists in general? Well, we are kinda lumpable. Lumpen? Lumpy?

[cuthbertallgood]

Wolfram's A New Kind of Science uses some of these ideas as a fundamental property, particularly that complexity arises out of simple rules, as with Cellular Automata. What's fascinating is that from simple rules, you can derive BOTH the math of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, and why they are the way they are is completely explained and understandable. Again, from very simple rules. Simple rules can even produce what seems to be "randomness" -- unpredictability is what's called computational irreducibility. It's impossible to predict the output in the future without running the rules in sequence. It's still early, and we don't have experiments to make predictions and provide evidence that it's "what's really going on" yet, but it's fascinating stuff.

[oldsarge]

"Highly lumpable man" made my day, I feel, channel is gold.
Big thanks to you!

[scottperry]

In addition to Wolfram's work, the Santa Fe Institute has done great work in Complexity and Emergence. My favorite novel about Emergence is "Lila" by William Pirsig, the same guy/genius who wrote "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".

[Four_Words_And_Much_More]

Great review of a seminal article. It applies directly to my current research. I will look into how it might be used "by the numbers." That is to say, using the exact ideas and doing rigorous application to the concepts in my work. TY Sabine.

[bodotrenaud]

So much to learn, so little time. Thank you for lumping together such high density information.

[ullrichfischer]

Who doesn't want a t-shirt with "Highly Lumpable" emblazoned on it? 😆

[stevemartin]

Thank you Sabine. This is one of the more interesting and timely podcasts to my particular situation — helping build alternative / supplemental schools for young children in Japan.

In the broadest sense, education as a process of social maturation is an emergent process, though typical institutionalization of that process tends to restrict human potential. My research area as a college instructor was in tapping into the students' intrinsic motivation as a social primate by replacing end of semesters tests and papers with what I termed an "Event-Driven Curriculum" ... student presentations in front of a real audience as a fractal of what we professors do in academic conferences.

By chance (synchronicity?), only a few days ago, I came across a link in substack's "Naked Emperor" to an on-line article in Quanta Magazine named "The New Math of How Large-Scale Order Emerges" ... a great supplement to this video. Thank you again Sabine!

[David-lcw]

Separation of Scales ... Sabine is such an illuminating teacher ... this idea was seldom discussed or even mentioned in my classes ...

[f.schmid]

Instant subscription. Who ever has the ability to speak so eloquently and easy to understand at the very same time and giving out deeper Understanding of the Universe is a Master in Teaching. very inspiring

[remitemmos]

So happy to see that! I’ve been fascinated by threshold effect as general principle forever but never found literature on it… so it’s emergence! Good to know