Summer 2019

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE SANTA FE INSTITUTE

Wanted: Algorithms for quantum computing The first theoretical framework for a quantum computer was proposed in 1982 by Richard P. Feynman, and in less than 40 years science and tech have rushed to build quantum machines. Today’s quantum computers sustain tempera- tures approaching absolute zero and are designed to solve problems that would require millions of years for even the world’s best supercomputers. However, the rate of hardware development is seemingly outpacing the growth of algorithms that can leverage the phenomena of quantum mechanics. Or to put it another way: “Everyone is trying to build these [quantum] machines, but we don’t know how to use them in many application domains,” says Helmut Katzgraber, a Principal Research Manager at Microsoft and an External Professor at SFI. “The number of quantum algo- rithms we have is limited, and most of them don’t really have any practical value,” he adds. Quantum computers today excel at solving Cumulative number of courses translated over time, by language. Note—“Chinese” includes multiple dialects. (Image: Nicholas Rougeux) small toy problems for a select subset of disci- plines, such as chemistry and physics, but the lack of practical algorithms limits their wide- spread application. And without useful algo- Subtitle heroes speak complexity in many languages rithms, many fields will continue to rely on They speak Bulgarian, Italian, Arabic, Mandarin, “If you can’t donate, you can participate,” says is a second language. A good English transcrip- classical, silicon-based computers and poten- Greek, Farsi, and more. Together, they’ve put Linden Schneider, SFI’s Online Education Coor- tion can also speed up the process of subtitling tially miss out on the revolutionary potential of thousands of hours into making complexity dinator. “It’s a way for people to contribute to in other languages, since subtitlers have a tex- quantum machines. research accessible to people around the world. tual foundation from which to work. the platform. And they give us so much.” To address this shortage of algorithms, Katzgra- “Subtitle heroes,” as they’re known in the SFI Worldwide accessibility — facilitated by a In 2014, when the subtitling project was ber and his colleagues Maliheh Aramon (1QBit) education office, are a community of people global, cooperative network — also has added launched by then-Interim VP for Education, and Jon Machta (the University of Massachu- worldwide who have dedicated their time to resonance in today’s political climate. Melanie Mitchell, much of the organization of setts and SFI) are convening a working group making SFI’s online courses available in 63 subtitling was painstakingly in-house with a this summer at SFI, from July 30 to Aug. 2. languages to date. “In this moment, the international reach of small team of volunteers. Now, the Education Complexity Explorer feels more important to team works with the subtitling platform Amara, During the workshop, an interdisciplinary team Since its inception, SFI’s online education plat- us than ever,” says Dave Feldman, SFI’s interim a branch of the Participatory Culture Founda- of attendees will consider several themes posed form, Complexity Explorer, has been dedicated Vice President for Education. “That reach tion, to help recruit volunteers, coordinate as questions. The considered topics will touch to making complexity science accessible. While includes those living in countries whose gov- assignments, and monitor the accessibility of on which domains classical and quantum algo- this mission initially involved keeping all core ernments are at odds with ours.” individual courses. All subtitling is done on a rithms are likely to thrive, problems facing content free, it has expanded to offer language volunteer basis, though individuals who subti- quantum computing, and recent developments accessibility as well, with subtitles in multiple As of this year, the top non-English languages tle 120 minutes or more receive a free Complex- in hardware, to name a few. The group will also offered as subtitle options are Arabic, Spanish, languages, including English. What most viewers ity Explorer T-shirt as a gesture of thanks. discuss and develop algorithms for optimiza- don’t realize is that these subtitles are provided and Mandarin. However, offering captions in tion, sampling, and machine learning. by volunteers, many of whom are former stu- English is also a core piece of the project, as it “What [the pro-level Amara platform] allowed “The main reason for the meeting is to think about dents in the courses themselves who want to makes courses accessible to those who are us to do was to open it up completely to any- stay involved and give back to the community. non-hearing as well as those for whom English > MORE ON PAGE 4 > MORE ON PAGE 4 Looking for entrenchment in all the right places Over the last few years, molecular biologist Ash- history of a system determines its current behav- share?” asks evolutionary ecologist Luis Zaman, ley Teufel has begun to notice an emerging trend iors. That idea is similar to hysteresis, a phenome- a Collegiate Fellow at the University of Michigan. in high-profile papers on protein evolution. In non in which a change in one part of the system To find out, Teufel and Zaman have organized a particular, researchers are reporting on entrench- can change its behavior later in time (often working group titled “The Point of No Return,” ment, a phenomenon in which a single event can observed in magnetic systems). Entrenchment is to be held at SFI in October. Invitees include have a widespread effect on an entire system. For also similar to the concept of evolutionary contin- researchers from disparate fields, including ecol- a protein, a genetic mutation that occurs at one gency, which suggests that random accidents ogy, network theory, atmospheric science, and point in time may help determine the way the shape the future course of a living system. The even sociology. Their goal is to identify the under- molecule evolves later. first plant seeds to land on a new volcanic island, lying properties driving entrenchment, and find ways to infer, predict, or even control it. Teufel, an SFI Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow, for example, may determine its future vegetation. Thediversity of interests in the working group realized that entrenched systems occur elsewhere. Evidence for entrenchment can be found in will fuel new insights and collaborations about “This can’t just be a weird thing that happens to biology, ecology, computer science, and elsewhere. how entrenchment works, says Teufel. “One proteins,” she says. “There must be an overarching, People’s ideas and feelings can even become of the strengths is having so many people from larger concept.” entrenched over time. different fields collaborate on this to build some Ohia seedlings sprout in lava cracks. (Photo: Alvis Upitis / Alamy) Entrenchment speaks broadly to the idea that the “What are the requirements that all these systems larger framework,” she says.

INSIDE . . . Mendelian moment . . . Women’s political power . . . Murray Gell-Mann . . . MORE BEYOND SFI IN THE NEWS BORDERS Nobel prize-winning physicist and featured in The Economist (April 4), On March 25, The New York Times External Professor Melanie Mitch- SFI co-founder Murray Gell-Mann following a March 19 op-ed in reviewed Matthew Jackson’s ell’s essay “How do you teach a car MURRAY GELL-MANN : passed away on May 24, 2019 at the Boston Review by External Pro- book, The Human Network: How that a snowman won’t walk across THE METAPHYSICAL DETECTIVE age 89. Best known for his contri- fessors and affiliated researchers Your Social Position Determines the road?” ran in Aeon on May 31. butions to particle physics, Gell- Your Power, Beliefs, and Behaviors. Eric Beinhocker, Brian Arthur, Rob- In an issue devoted to play, Nautilus How to describe someone for whom a narrow list of Mann also wanted to understand ert Axtell, Jenna Bednar, Doyne Nature reviewed External Professor magazine published an excerpt from his passions would include the life of birds, the col- the “chain of relationships” that lapse of ancient societies, the common roots of Farmer, Ricardo Hausmann, Alan Stuart Kauffman’s book,A World External Professor Andreas Wagner’s connected the universal laws of world languages, pre-Columbian pottery, the sym- Kirman, Scott Page, and others. Beyond Physics: The Emergence physics to complex systems like new book: Life Finds a Way. metries of space and time, and New Yorker cartoons? and Evolution of Life (May 1). economies and human cultures. Professor Mirta Galesic helped The 2019 InterPlanetary Festival In a profile of the editor of theNew Yorker cartoon He life was celebrated in more the BBC’s Why Factor understand External Professor Tim Kohler received pre-event coverage in section, Emma Allen, Andrew Goldstein wrote, “It’s than two dozen publications fol- how humans might be hardwired talked with the Christian Science an article of faith in literary circles that the proper local media including the Santa Fe to understand stories (April 8). Monitor about what we can learn way to read the New Yorker is to start with the car- lowing his death, including The New Mexican, Albuquerque Jour- toons and then place the magazine atop a neat pile New York Times, Nature, the BBC, External Professor Steve Strogatz from connecting climatic shifts nal, Richard Eeds Show, and Living of older issues and wait for nuclear winter to free Scientific American, The Guardian, was quoted along with other sci- with civilizations changes, and the on the Edge, and was featured in up time to read the rest.” and The Washington Post. ence-of-synch pioneers in an April challenges to making those con- international podcasts including It struck me that this is exactly the kind of satirical Roughly 30 years after its founding 4 Quanta feature about new pat- nections for a March 28 story. Interplanetary Radio and This observation that Murray would have relished. And at SFI, complexity economics was terns of synchronization. SFI Science Board Co-Chair and Week in Science. Emma Allen says: “I actually have an aversion to any idea of the rules of funny, because if I’ve learned any- thing over the past five and a half years, it’s that the things that are the funniest defy the rules.” She goes on to describe her latest favorite cartoon: “Recently I Postdocs get reckless in got a submission that I loved of a croissant lying in the desert, with the caption, ‘The driest croissant in sixth group conference the world.’” I am not entirely sure why, but I am con- Reckless Ideas will feature high on the agenda fident Murray would have loved that cartoon. of the sixth Postdocs in Complexity Conference, It seems to me that Murray achieved that point the latest in a twice-yearly series held at SFI and Cervantes did with Don Quixote, namely, finding a generously funded by the James S. McDonnell means of subverting reality in order to uncover its Foundation (JSMF). The conference, to take ubiquitous and hidden rules. And this is a subterra- nean tunnel to founding SFI — not aimed at recre- place Aug. 27-30, brings together early career ation or endorsement of the establishment, not a complexity postdoctoral fellows in a wide recapitulation of a reputation-obsessed academy, range of disciplines from institutions around but a spirit vehemently opposed to the cowardice the world. of the status quo that militates against human dis- The Reckless Ideas format encourages the par- covery and well-being. Murray, with all of his merit badges, medals, accolades, and prizes, did what ticipants to bring up untested propositions Quixote did in later life — he went in pursuit of they would otherwise be reluctant to voice. dragons. And he accomplished what Quixote could Originally started in 2010 by SFI President David not — he found them. Krakauer (then the SFI Faculty Chair), past One of the books that Murray and I discussed was Reckless Ideas have included a notion of “selfish” Gregory Bateson’s Naven, published in 1936. neurons, presented by SFI External Professor Bateson himself was one of the dying breed of Mendel— Gardens in the air” (Illustration: Anat Zeligowski) Daniel Dennett, and apparently “telepathic” polymaths who was drawn to a precursor of com- phenomena in social organisms, presented by plexity — cybernetics — as a framework that former Omidyar Fellow Jeremy Van Cleve. might integrate — and in some way make sense of — the great diversity of his interests. To encourage recklessness in presenters, audi- ence members give feedback in the form of Bateson is best known for his book Steps Toward an Working group seeks ‘Mendelian “yes, and . . .” statements, rather than the more Ecology of Mind, published later in 1972. Naven was critical “no, but . . . .” Presenters do their part by written while Bateson lived in New Guinea with Margaret Mead, studying with the Iatmul people of moment’ for cultural evolution limiting themselves to no more than one slide, the middle Sepik River. “Naven” is the name of a Until Gregor Mendel came along, students of Institute will host its second working group on no matter how complex the topic. ritual practiced by the Iatmul; it is performed to Darwin explored biological evolution without a cumulative cultural evolution. Along with All postdocs at the August conference will pro- congratulate members of the tribe on the comple- mechanism to explain heredity. With his pea Ferdinand, the event is led by longtime SFI pose a reckless idea. They will then divide into tion of heroic deeds, where homicide ranks highest experiments, Mendel began to illuminate the External Professor Rob Boyd, who is also smaller groups and choose four ideas for brain- followed by genderless sexual experimentation. genetic processes that underlie evolution — Origins Professor at Arizona State University’s storming and serious discussion. From the outside Naven looks impossibly opaque and eventually gave evolutionary theory a School of Human Evolution and Social Change, and baroque — with its apparent jumble of causal substrate. and Bill Thompson, a cognitive scientist at “In the past, participants have consistently rated elements drawn from nature, society, mythology, the research jam sessions and group discussion development, and warfare. According to former Complexity Postdoctoral Princeton University and Berkeley’s Computa- tional Cognitive Science Lab. time as the best parts of the conference,” said Over the course of the book, Bateson explores a Fellow Vanessa Ferdinand, now a cognitive Hilary Skolnik, Program Manager of SFI’s Post- detailed exposition of the Iatmul approach to scientist at the University of Melbourne, the Last year, Boyd and Ferdinand brought together doctoral Fellows Program. “So this is a novel each of these particular elements. By the end, field of cultural evolution is ripe for a Mende- a group to explore the meaning of cumulative way of incorporating group discussions so that without Bateson explicitly explaining it to you, lian moment. Ferdinand hopes that in the next cultural more broadly. The working group gath- participants can share ideas and collaborate you have come to understand the Naven several years, theorists of cultural evolution ered scientists studying cultural evolution from with each other”. ceremony — and more surprisingly — gained the will deepen their account of the mechanisms a broad range of fields including anthropology, key to Iatmul cultural life. that underlie cultural replication — and give cognitive science, and philosophy of biology. In addition to off-the-wall collaborative ses- Murray told me on several occasions that this themselves the kind of causal clarity that Their task was to synthesize the ways that sions, the participants will receive professional approach of Bateson’s — to investigate the whole Mendel gave to Darwin’s beginnings. different fields understand cumulative culture. training, practice science communications rich, perplexing phenomenology, and then care- through an improv session, and engage in social “Cognitive science,” Ferdinand says, “is the By all accounts, workshop participants found fully delineate its elements — reveals the essence Mendel of cultural evolution.” activities that include a mushroom hunt in the of understanding. An approach that you will be the group exciting and fruitful — and their Santa Fe National Forest and a yoga session on familiar with from his physics. I think that SFI was This summer, from Aug. 5-7, the Santa Fe > MORE ON PAGE 4 the SFI beach. for Murray in part the application of the insights of the Iatmul Naven ceremony: an effort to make sense of the labyrinthine complexities of the adap- tive world through an exploration of sufficient diversity and richness to make sense of it. And to From academia to industry and back: A case study in applied complexity do so with the all the power of mathematics and As a Texas Instruments researcher working on “The first morning, Mike Simmons, VP for After his studies at SFI, Smith went on to work computation that are the legacy of our own artificial neural networks and speech recogni- Academic Affairs, talked about how at SFI in industry at Popular Power to develop these post-enlightenment scholarly ceremonies. tion in the early 1990s, SFI Science Board mem- there were no barriers between disciplines, ideas, worked closely with US public heath I was recently re-editing with the SFI Press staff ber Derek Smith (University of Cambridge) was and I was completely and utterly gobsmacked,” colleagues at the US Centers for Disease David Pines’ proceedings of the founding meeting applying science to real-world problems every Smith says. “I knew this was the place for me Control, and eventually ended up as a full of SFI and was writing a new introduction with day. But he wanted to dig deeper. to explore my ideas.” Geoffrey West. We included the transcripts of all > MORE ON PAGE 4 “It seemed to me that the work that I was > MORE ON PAGE 3 doing on pattern recognition and speech rec- ognition might be related to how our immune systems recognize different strains of patho- CREDITS gens,” Smith explains, “so I started looking EDITOR: Jenna Marshall around to see where I might do such work.” CONTRIBUTORS: Natalie Elliot, Lucy Fleming, An invitation from SFI External Professors Wim Hordijk, Michael Garfield, Katherine Mast, Stephanie Forrest (Arizona State University) Stephen Ornes, Aaron Sidder, Paul Stapleton, Deb and Alan Perelson (LANL) to join Forrest’s Trevino Ph.D. program at the University of New DESIGN & PRODUCTION: Laura Egley Taylor, Mexico came with a suggestion: First, attend Melyssa Holik the Complex Systems Summer School at SFI. VP FOR SCIENCE: Jennifer Dunne One month later, Smith took a leave of Parallax is published quarterly by the Santa Fe Institute. Please send comments or questions to absence from industry and began the summer Jenna Marshall at [email protected]. program. The experience was transformative. www.santafe.edu At right: Derek Smith (Photo: James King-Holmes) New books by SFI authors The SFI Press publishes affordable, enlightening Law as Data, (SFI Press, books on some of the most ground-breaking Seminar Series, 2019) areas of complexity science, distilling scientific edited by External Profes- meetings and public-facing panels, as well as sor Daniel Rockmore fresh takes on historical texts. In recent (Dartmouth College) and months, the SFI Press has released four new Michael Livermore, (Uni- titles. versity of Virginia Law Worlds Hidden in Plain School), explores the new Sight, (SFI Press, Compass field of computational Series, 2019) edited by SFI legal analysis, which uses President David Krakauer, legal texts as data. This book introduces the legal is a collection of popular world to a broad range of computational tools essays from the past already proving themselves relevant to law schol- thirty years of research by arship and practice. SFI scientists, offering a clear and accessible over- The Energetics of oC mput- view of the deepest chal- ing in Life and Machines, lenges and insights of complexity science. (SFI Press, Seminar Series, 2019) edited by SFI’s David InterPlanetary Transmis- Wolpert, Chris Kempes, sions: Genesis, (SFI Press, Workshop: Do living things compute? Compass Series, 2019) Peter Stadler, and Joshua Biologists agree on many things that living Workshop participants will identify compo- edited by SFI President Grochow, explores the organisms can do: They eat, they respire, nents of living systems that might look like ele- David Krakauer and fundamental physical laws they reproduce, they die. Many would also ments of computation. They may have possible Caitlin McShea, InterPlan- governing the relationship agree, implicitly or explicitly, that living inputs and outputs, for example, or processes etary Festival Director, is a between the precise com- things compute. But a trio of SFI researchers that look like algorithms. Researchers have also record of the proceedings putation run by a system, natural or artificial, want to know: What does it mean for biological observed that the modular, hierarchical organi- of SFI’s first InterPlanetary and the amount of energy such computations systems to carry out computations? The zation of biological systems resembles that of Festival held in June 2018. require. answer isn’t clear. digital computers: A body is organized into “Biologists have a vague sense of what they separate organs, each containing cells that are mean by computation,” says biologist Albert organized into many separate organelles. Kao, a SFI Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow. Finding links between computers and biologi- RESEARCH NEWS BRIEFS “At a certain point, if your definition is too loose, cal system has been a longstanding goal of then anything can be computation. But if you researchers on the edge of both fields. “This make it too tight, then maybe nothing is com- topic has deeply puzzled scientists for decades,” putational in biology.” says Wolpert. “However, there have recently For three days this fall, biologists, physicists, been breakthrough in other fields, like collec- neuroscientists, and computer scientists will tive computation, coarse-graining dynamical come together for an SFI workshop to investi- systems, and non-equilibrium statistical physics, gate the links between computational theory that we believe can help us make major prog- and biological systems. The workshop is the ress on this topic.” brainchild of SFI Professor David Wolpert, who The organizers say the benefits will run both leads the Thermodynamics of Computation ways: Insights from computer scientists will project at SFI. It was co-organized by Kao and help guide new ways of thinking about biologi- SFI Professor Jessica Flack, who runs the Insti- cal computation, and biologists may help com- tute’s Collective Computation Group. puter scientists find ways to build scalable, Flack says the workshop’s goal “is to first estab- more robust machines. lish a rigorous conceptual framework for study- “If you remove half of a school of fish, the ing biological computation so that the remaining half can still do things,” Kao says. “If foundations of computation in adaptive sys- you take away half a CPU, it’s dead. What new tems can be identified and compared to those ways of computing can we think of that com- in synthetic computing systems.” pute scientists don’t typically think of?”

“Sand” (Image: SFI Press)

SFI celebrates Thirty Years of THE DISCRETE-TIME PHYSICS HIDING INSIDE OUR CONTINUOUS-TIME WORLD As scientists understand it, time is continuous rather than discrete; it “flows” rather than progress- Complex Systems Thinking ing in “chunks.” Scientists successfully model real-world processes from folding proteins to evolving ecosystems as continuous-time “Markov processes,” even though we observe the state of system This August 21-22, SFI will celebrate Stuart only in discrete times. In a pair of papers published in Nature Communications and New Journal of Kauffman’s contributions to complex systems Physics, SFI Professor David Wolpert, Postdoctoral Fellow Artemy Kolchinsky, and co- authors show science in a workshop: “Thirty Years of Com- that within seamless Markov processes are infinite hidden states and timesteps. The authors plex Systems Thinking.” The two-day workshop stumbled on the necessity of hidden states and timesteps while searching for the most energy- will cover new research linked to Kauffman’s efficient way to flip a bit of information in a computer. Any biological or physical system that adventurous career. computes would conceal the same hidden variables. Already a prestigious scholar by the 1980s, Kauff- man moved to Santa Fe in 1986 after the Insti- ILLUMINATING THE LIVES OF MAYAN COMMONERS tute’s first full-scale workshop on Complex Each year, the Annual Review of Anthropology selects a senior scholar to write the lead chapter. Adaptive Systems. A MacArthur Fellow, and one This year, SFI External Professor Emeritus and Past President Jeremy Sabloff was selected. Combin- of SFI’s first resident researchers, he helped ing an autobiographical perspective with an extensive literature review, Sabloff describes the changing nature of Maya archaeology, focusing on the role of settlement pattern studies in illumi- define the early science of complexity, developed nating the lives of commoners. As he writes: “In retrospect [...] scholars had, in effect, made a key new theories of the origins of order in biological sampling error by concentrating on the remains of the elite and, by and large, not paying much and technical systems, and added various other Stuart Kauffman attention to those of commoners. Settlement pattern studies helped rectify this error.” Sabloff also tools and ideas like NK fitness landscapes and recounts his personal contributions to this new understanding of pre-Columbian Mayan societies. the “adjacent possible” to the complexity lexi- New computational techniques have grown con. Kauffman’s scientific curiosity and desire to along with the adjacent possible to understand IN SCHOLARLY SUCCESS, PEDIGREE IS NOT DESTINY follow ambitious questions that disregarded the better the potent intuitions of the initial wave What matters more to a scientist’s career success: where they currently work, or where they got traditional boundaries between domains fit well of research in more rigorous terms. Kauffman’s their Ph.D.? It’s a question that SFI External Professor Aaron Clauset (University of Colorado, within the nascent institute and formed a key impact can be felt around the world, both Boulder), former Complexity Fellow Dan Larremore (University of Colorado, Boulder), and their part of its lasting culture. among scientists and in the broader public that co-authors tease apart in an April paper published in PNAS. Their analysis calls into question a Kauffman remembers thoseyears of intense was inspired by his many books on complexity. common assumption underlying academia: that a researcher’s productivity reflects their scientific collaboration and recombinant ideas, “Proba- skill, which is reflected in the prestige of their doctoral training. Rather, they found that “where you bly the most thrilling ten-year period of my “It’s hard to imagine the early years of SFI with- train doesn’t directly impact your future productivity,” says Clauset. However, they found that life. We thought we were onto something, but out Stu’s presence,” explains workshop co-orga- prestige of a researcher’s early-career workplace has a strong impact on future success. we didn’t know what. It was like a Rorschach nizer John Miller, who became the Institute’s test…and it led to this sprawling, innovative first postdoc in 1988. The workshop, co-orga- POSITIVE SELECTION IN OUR CHOICE OF WORDS learning from one another. I’ve never experi- nized by Miller and Shannan Distinguished Pro- A puzzle of language is how speakers come to use the same words for particular meanings, given enced it anywhere else.” fessor and Past President Geoffrey West, brings that there are many alternatives and seldom a connection between a word and its meaning. In a Since his early years at the Institute, much has in dozens of researchers, many of whom have study published on April 9 in PNAS, External Professor Mark Pagel (University of Reading) and changed — “most of the rail has been laid co-authored with Kauffman. Their talks will co-authors applied models of neutral drift and various forms of selection to explain word-use down since then” for complex systems science, span the broad panorama of Kauffman’s choices. What they find is that neutral drift alone is not adequate to explain shared vocabulary, but as he puts it. research interests and contributions. > MORE ON PAGE 6 5 SFI remembers Murray Gell-Mann Murray Gell-Mann, a Nobel laureate who fabric of the world that we perceive directly revealed symmetry and order in the world of and of which we are a part.” subatomic particles and leveled his genius at To enable a rigorous study of the latter aspect complex mysteries of life and mind, died peace- of reality — the fabric of the complex world fully May 24, 2019. He was 89 years old. around us — Gell-Mann co-founded the Santa Though he was best known for his contribu- Fe Institute in 1984, 15 years after winning the tions to particle physics, for which he won the Nobel Prize in physics for his classification of 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics, Gell-Mann wanted elementary particles. At SFI he collaborated to understand the “chain of relationships” that with economists, linguists, biologists, computer connected the universal laws of physics to com- scientists, and with other physicists who shared plex systems like economies and human cul- his passion for finding fundamental principles tures. He described these two extremes of in learning, evolving systems. Gell-Mann’s full interest in his 1994 book, The Quark and the obituary is available on santafe.edu. Murray Gell-Mann Jaguar, as “two aspects of nature . . . on the one hand, the underlying physical laws of matter Here, we share some remembrances From left: Murray Gell-Mann, unknown student, and James Tauber at the Fifth (1929–2019) Marcel Grossmann Meeting on General Relativity (Photo courtesy James Tober) and the universe, and on the other, the rich from his SFI friends and collaborators.

REMEMBRANCES OF MURRAY GELL-MANN In 1993, at SFI’s second campus by the Old Pecos Trail, Stu myriad of lunches with Murray entertainingly and intelligently Kauffman and I were heading out to lunch one day. In comes holding forth on whatever topic came up in conversation!” Murray Gell-Mann struggling with a large box of books for his Jerry Sabloff, Past President and External Professor, SFI office. He had many more in his SUV, and Stuart and I carried It’s a sad day for all who experienced his incomparably bright them in to his office. Murray beamed and thanked us. “Any genius. Discussing Physics and Complex Systems with Murray at time,” said Stuart, “For someone like you.” Murray looks at Stu lunch at SFI was always an exhilarating (and a little scary!) expe- with complete innocence. “But there is no one like me,” he says. rience. May his spirit live on in all of our lives and work! How true. Luis Bettencourt, External Professor, SFI W. Brian Arthur, External Professor, SFI Murray’s enduring interest and Losing Murray is like losing the Encyclopedia Brittanica. He knew passion was actually in everything . A great loss more things about more things than anyone I’ve ever met. . . Murray maintained throughout Cormac McCarthy, Author, SFI Trustee to humanity! his life and enduring passion for From left: Cormac McCarthy, Murray Gell-Mann, and Brian Arthur at the Aviv Bergman In about 1998 I began having conversations with Murray about Santa Fe Institute circa 2012 (Image: SFI archives) understanding how the messy earthquakes and markets. As a result of that, I invited him to one world of culture, economies, ecolo- External Professor, SFI of our meetings that was held in Maui, Hawaii during March 2000. The world lost one of its highest geniuses in science, and I lost a gies and human interaction, and He came with his wife Marcia. We all had a wonderful time. He dearest friend. We will forever miss his joy of life and of knowledge. especially language, evolved from the beautifully ordered world went on a helicopter ride over the island, and attended all our Constantino Tsallis, External Professor, SFI of the fundamental laws of nature. sessions. One day we went on a whale-watching trip west of Maui. Geoffrey West, Shannan Distinguished Professor and Past At one point, on the bow of the ship, he turned to me and began Because of Murray’s interest and urging, many innovative President, SFI singing the famous Hawaiian song “Aloha Oe,” all the verses in archaeologists are on the Science Board and External Faculty. Murray, knew, maybe all too well, the human side of science. Hawaiian. What a treat to have a Nobel laureate do that! . . . He They have been intimately involved in research projects at the And that’s the really difficult stuff. In the years that I knew him was always an elegant gentleman. We are indeed saddened at his Institute on the evolution of specific culture areas, as well as the at SFI he used that knowledge to guide and support many of us passing. more general evolution of human social and cultural complexity. in the younger generation. I know that Murray regretted being John Rundle, External Professor, SFI The archaeological practitioners at SFI have used the science of complexity to address pressing questions that underlie the evolu- too shy to engage with Einstein when they overlapped at the The task is not to see what no one else has seen, but to think tion of human behavior. Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. And I think that what no one else has thought, about that which everyone else maybe that contributed to his attitude towards the kids at SFI. Perhaps one of the most interesting things is that this one indi- has seen. That is Murray Gell-Mann. His door was always open . . . vidual could generate an entire research program that would Jim Hartle, External Professor, SFI (at a 2014 ceremony produce an understanding of the evolution of human behavior. The moments when his eyes lit up when something meaningful where Gell-Mann was awarded the Helmholtz Medal) Thank you, Murray, for introducing me to an organization that emerged — It didn’t matter one bit to him that my claims, Murray was called the Emperor of Theoretical Physics because has changed my life. which I didn’t quite dare to say out loud, came from a nobody when he was doing theoretical physics, nothing stirred without George J. Gumerman, External Professor, SFI who just turned 30 or so. He eventually asked me if I wanted to Murray hearing the nails falling down from far away. Murray co-author a paper with him. I have no doubt that Working with Murray Gell- was extraordinarily productive in this life, but Murray was also he did that to help me to keep telling this bit of Mann is one of the most price- an extraordinarily warm human being. One of the warmest I truth that I had discovered and not be silenced have ever met . . . . I have lost more than a mentor and collabo- less treasures in life for a by received wisdom or the fashions of the day, no rator: we were like brothers, and he was “one of the great ones scientist. Every memory that I matter how loud they are or who’s behind them. in science.” remember from Murray Gell- This kind of mental clarity goes far beyond sci- Mann’s conversations forms a Juan Perez-Mercader, External Professor, SFI ence. It goes to the core and is maintained only precious piece of history and by hard work, protected by a constantly chal- Recently, a student and I spent several days at [Murray’s] philosophy of science. lenged, but never defeated sense of humor. Mur- home in Santa Fe cataloging and documenting his astounding I am deeply saddened by the loss ray pitted this sense of humor against an open, collection of ancestral Pueblo pottery. I couldn’t help but notice of my unique mentor and collab- frustrating world. Those of us who are weak like the correspondences between his display and the periodic orator and invaluable friend. He me and often just want to give up, we need Mur- table — a prototypical example of every variety, arranged in lives in my heart forever. ray if no longer in person, then in memory. rows and columns according to their colors and symmetries. It G. Cigdem Yalcin, Faculty of Ole Peters, External Professor, SFI was a wonderful expression of his belief in the unity of complex Sciences, Istanbul University systems everywhere you find them . . . I think it provides a Murray’s precise mind was not just a great asset lovely window into perhaps the most perceptive person I There’s nothing more satisfying in the search for truth and fundamental laws of have been blessed to know. to a physicist than to find the Cigdem Yalcin and Murray Gell-Mann at SFI (Photo: nature. It was also a filter of daily life, sometimes hidden order beneath all the courtesy Cigdem Yalcin) Scott Ortman, External Professor, SFI brutal and paralyzing taskmaster, which reigned chaos. And he was better than over Murray like a tyrant. I loved my friend anyone in the world at doing Murray . . . Curiosity was leading him always to ask interesting I have lost more than a mentor that. questions. This observation of Murray led to my writing down a and collaborator: we were like Sean Carroll, Research Professor, Caltech maxim of sorts that has inspired me and guided my life request. The quality of life is determined by the quality of questions one A great loss to humanity! brothers, and he was “one of asks. To date this maxim has indeed been the driver of my life Aviv Bergman, External Professor, SFI the great ones in science.” and led me the inner most recesses of my being on my guide to a Murray helped make SFI so special from its founding to the days path with heart. Juan Perez-Mercader, External Professor, SFI when he was at the Institute full-time. I especially remember a Jerry Murdoch, Trustee, SFI

Beyond Borders (cont. from page 2) combine both. Some people call these Apollonian, Memorius” is a melancholy reminder of the extraor- but every time he had perceived or imagined that the founding discussions. These were dominated by Dionysian, and Odyssean types. If one can find just a dinary abilities of MGM. leaf . . . . He saw that by the time he died he would few people who can combine these various charac- still not have finished classifying all the memories Murray — in a very constructive way. One of the In Funes, Borges writes, “In the seventeenth century teristics, it would make an enormous difference.” of his childhood. things he says is: “You could say that it’s a problem of Locke postulated and condemned an impossible personality types, that there are people who like Most of you know that Murray was drawn to what language in which each individual thing — every We shall miss Murray, the original Metaphysical cold logic, reason, analysis, and careful structuring of one might call the metaphysical detective story — stone, every bird, every branch — would have Detective covering the precincts of complexity. problems, especially in their work. There are other those of Conan Doyle, GK Chesterton, Edgar Allan its own name. Funes once contemplated a similar Verae vollaut ea nientiandam ides sent volentotat. people who like syntheses, qualitative consider- Poe, and Jorge Luis Borges. And in the way that language, but discarded the idea as too general, too — David Krakauer ations, general remarks, natural history, and descrip- Borges is the keeper of the gates of the sensibility of ambiguous. The truth was, Funes remembered not President, Santa Fe Institute tion. Finally, there are a few people who try to our science — I think that the story “Funes the only every leaf of every tree in every patch of forest, 3 ACHIEVEMENTS

In 2009, SFI External Professor meeting to the authors of the paper “that is SFI External Professor Jenna ensembles of overlapping institutions and safe- Stephanie Forrest, director of judged to have had the most influence on the Bednar (University of Michi- guards balance exploration and exploitation to Arizona State University’s Bio- theory or practice of software engineering gan) has won the 2019 Martha produce robustness.” during the 10 years since its original publication.” design Center for Biocomput- Derthick Award for her book The Eric Hoffer Book award once again ing, Security and Society, The Robust Federation. The SFI External Professor John Geanakoplos was recognized SFI Miller Scholar co-authored a paper reporting honored with a Yale College undergraduate Award is conferred by the Laurence Gonzales, with a a practical demonstration of teaching prize on May 8. American Political Science Stephanie Jenna Bednar 2019 Legacy Nonfiction award using biological processes like Forrest Geanakoplos, the James Tobin Association for the best book for his book Flight 232: A Story evolution to find and repair Professor of Economics at Yale, on federalism and intergovern- software bugs. The paper, “Automatically Find- received the Lex Hixon ‘63 Prize, mental relations published at least 10 years ago of Disaster and Survival. In ing Patches Using Genetic Programming,” was which is awarded for teaching that has made a lasting contribution to the 2018, Gonzales had won the Eric Hoffer Book Award and recognized as the Ten-Year Most Influential excellence in the social sci- study of federalism and intergovernmental rela- Laurence Paper at the 41st International Conference on ences by the Yale College Com- tions. According to the University of Michigan, Montaigne Medal for his best- Gonzales Software Engineering (ICSE) in Montreal May mittee on Teaching and John Bednar’s book “carved out a new frontier of seller Deep Survival: Who Lives, Geanakoplos 25–31, 2019. The award is presented at each ICSE Learning. institutional analysis that contemplates how Who Dies, and Why.

Melanie Mitchell co-chairs SFI Science Board Language (cont. from page 1) Computer scientist Melanie Mitchell, creator of her deep expertise in artificial intelligence, she body,” says Gabrielle Beans, former Complexity happens, by Feldman. “I was studying mathe- SFI’s online education platform, was named is a valuable addition to the Science Board.” Explorer Program Manager. Volunteers can matics and was interested in the computational co-chair of SFI’s Science Board at its 2019 spring Since 1992, Mitchell has served SFI as a faculty choose which videos they work on, and the approaches for solving mathematical problems, meeting. member, advisor, and interim Vice President for Education team has up-to-date accessibility and I found Complexity Explorer presenting The principal role of the Science Board is to Education. In addition to being a Science Board data on every video. amazing courses that deal with the subjects advise the President and the Board of Trustees co-chair, she is also currently an SFI External So far, 467 people have contributed subtitles to both theoretically and computationally,” he on matters of scientific strategy for the Insti- Professor, and is based at Portland State Univer- Complexity Explorer. In 2019, two subtitlers, wrote from his home base in Istanbul, Turkey. A tute. Mitchell joins co-chair Daniel Schrag sity, where she researches artificial intelligence, Diego Diaz Cordova and Hazm Talab, broke the huge draw, he adds, is the knowledge that he is (Harvard University), who has co-chaired the machine learning and evolutionary computa- 600-minute mark for the first time. contributing to a free, accessible knowledge tion, cognitive science, and complex systems. board since 2016 with outgoing co-chair Mer- For Diaz Cordova, who is based in Buenos Aires, base. cedes Pascual (University of Chicago), an Exter- Mitchell earned her Ph.D. in computer science subtitling is a way to give others access to the To know that someone who may be thousands nal Professor. from the University of Michigan in 1990, then courses he’s enjoyed. “I thought it was a great of miles away is paying such close attention to “We are delighted to have Melanie play this in 1992, she “jumped at the chance” to work at idea to start to translate to Spanish, not only the words you’ve spoken is, for Feldman, a important advisory role for SFI — especially SFI on the new Adaptive Computation Program. because it is a way to reach Spanish language humbling thought. It’s difficult, he says, “to given her multifaceted involvement since the She became the director of the program, which communities, but a way to retake the course capture the magnitude of what some of these early days of the Institute,” says VP for Science over the course of six years made significant for my own and get a more comprehensive Jennifer Dunne. “With her long view of SFI sci- contributions to the rapidly developing field. view about complexity and chaos,” he wrote in folks have done.” ence activities and education programs, and She also originated the Santa Fe Insti- an email. “Subtitling was a great opportunity to Most thrilling, perhaps, is the way in which the tute’s Complexity Explorer platform, which refresh the learned lessons.” global subtitling project is self-referential: its offers online courses and other educational Talab, who subtitles in Arabic, recalls being network-based structure and emphasis on col- resources in the field of complex systems. Her inspired to get involved by the course on lective knowledge reflect the very content that wildly popular “Introduction to Complexity” Dynamical Systems and Chaos — taught, as it Complexity Explorer teaches. has introduced more than 38,000 students from around the world to complexity science, and is Complexity Explorer’s flagship course. Algorithms (cont. from page 1) Mitchell is the author of over 80 scholarly papers in the fields of artificial intelligence, cog- the next generation of algorithms,” says Katzgra- work really well, and what will not work at all.” nitive science, and complex systems, and is the ber. “We will not just focus on quantum hardware, Katzgraber hopes the meeting will spur new author or editor of six books including Com- but any type of hardware. We do not expect that algorithms, collaborations, and perhaps a new plexity: A Guided Tour (Oxford, 2009), which a quantum device will be able to solve all prob- collection of white papers or a special issue of a won the 2010 Phi Beta Kappa Science Book lems; the key is to determine what problems will journal. Award. Her newest book is Artificial Intelli- gence: A Guide for Thinking Humans, which will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in October 2019. Mendelian (cont. from page 2) During her tenure as Science Board co-chair, response reflects current enthusiasm in the have had very different technological experi- Mitchell will also return to SFI for an extended Melanie Mitchell field more generally. At the moment, the field ences — we find thattheir cognitive capabili- residency, from Jan. to Dec. in 2020. is bursting with new questions and diverse ties can be significantly different. “Yet we approaches. There are both micro (cognitive) cannot explain this difference biologically and macro (social) approaches to cultural or in terms of individual learning, and this evolution, and a wide variety of methods for suggests some other category of explanation.” Acknowledging royal women’s political power studying it that range from large-scale network Is this an evolutionary process? experiments to social decision-making models The narratives we tell about the past often fea- Aztec Empire, AD 1440-1520, and the Inca This year, the working group will focus specifi- to computational textual analysis. ture a cast of familiar main characters: kings and Empire, AD 1460-1532); and states in regions cally on mechanisms of cultural inheritance. rulers, warriors and diplomats — men who that contained both states and empires (Late According to Thompson, both the plethora of By homing in on the mechanisms that drive made laws and fought wars, who held power Classic Maya, AD 600-800, and Post-classic new cultural datasets and the ongoing refine- cultural stability and change, Boyd, Ferdinand, ment of computational methods have fueled over others in their own lands and beyond. Zapotec, AD 1050-1500). and Thompson hope to gain more clarity about When women enter our sto- current research. He explains that if we take the cognitive processes that generate the fabric As Sabloff described in another ries, we rarely afford them two people who are biologically identical from of cumulative culture — and open the way for recent paper, women were often much agency. But across two different time periods — people who may a new causal framework. used as bargaining chips, used to the globe in a variety of form strategic alliances between societies, royal women states through marriage. “Here are found ways to advance the Industry (cont. from page 2) issues they cared about and examples of, even when women advocate for the people were pawns in marriage, they still professor at Cambridge University. vaccine — a process he has been integrally important to them. ended up with a lot of power,” she As a direct result of Smith’s work at SFI, he involved in since that first invitation. says. She found remarkable similari- In a recent paper published in and colleagues Ron Fouchier and Alan “We felt that it was our responsibility to do ties in the types of power that royal the Journal of Archaeological Lapedes developed a method to understand this work because people’s lives are on the women used. Research, SFI External Professor the evolution of viruses they called antigenic line,” Smith says. “But we also recognized that Emerita Paula Sabloff analyzes “Queen rulers held nearly the same cartography, and their work was published in by applying our work, there was a real oppor- the archaeological and written political power as kings,” she explains. Science (2004). tunity. The possibility to see the complete records of eight pre-modern states “Main wives were active players in “We looked at the evolution of a virus in a new global evolution of the virus, in real time, is an separated by both time and space, Profile of queen Ankh- determining succession, governing the way, in particular, how it escapes our immune evolutionary biologist’s dream.” detailing ways that queen rulers and nespepy II of Egypt polity, building inter- and intra-polity response,” Smith explains. “Diseases like HIV, Empowered by this global data and $24 mil- main wives took political action. Her from her funerary alliances, and expanding or defending malaria, and influenza persist and are very lion in funding from NIH and BARDA, Smith comparative analysis reveals similar temple.” (Photo: Juan territory.” These women also exerted difficult to create vaccines for because viruses R. Lazaro/Wikimedia) and his colleagues are now working to under- patterns in the societies despite the influence by obligating courtiers and can change their surface proteins, making stand this evolution well enough to predict it fact that they were isolated from tradesmen through patron-client rela- them much more difficult to understand.” and apply it to the flu vaccine. one another. tionships, interceded on behalf of their relatives, Soon after the paper was published, Smith Sabloff’s analysis includes three types of and sometimes spied on or conspired against and team were invited to apply their work to “Derek’s success with his flu vaccine work is a regions: independent states or city-states their royal husbands. “Political agency wasn’t just the approximately 20,000 influenza strains perfect example of the insights that can be (including the Mari Kingdom of Old Babylonia, about waging war,” says Sabloff. “It was about analyzed each year by public health laborato- found in the liminal space between the tradi- 2000-1600 BC, and Protohistoric Hawaii, AD being able to influence policy, to influence who ries for the World Health Organization. Their tional domains of academia, industry, and 1570-1788); empires (Old Kingdom Egypt, 2686- is on the throne. There were levels of agency, but objective? Learn how the virus was evolving to public health,” says Will Tracy, SFI’s VP for 2181 BC, Late Shang China, 1250-1046 BC, the hers was right behind his.” identify which strains of flu should go in the Applied Complexity. 4 the lawn, IP Festival Director Caitlin McShea, panel on Diverse Intelligence, MAKE Santa Fe’s booth in the Expo tent, tent, Expo the in booth Fe’s Santa MAKE Intelligence, Diverse on panel McShea, Caitlin Director Festival IP lawn, the Planetary scientist Nina Lanza, Lanza, Nina scientist Planetary FESTIVAL 2019 THE INTERPLANETARY FROM SNAPSHOTS

Summer 2019 Moonsuit author Nicholas de Monchaux, Itchy-O, That 1 Guy, festival attendees on attendees festival 1 Guy, That Itchy-O, Monchaux, de Nicholas author

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE SANTA FE INSTITUTE

1399 Hyde Park Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 505.984.8800

www.santafe.edu left): top from inward spiraling and (clockwise “Genesis” theme of 2018 with a more playful investigation of the InterPlanetary Project’s central Project’s InterPlanetary ofthe investigation of2018“Genesis” theme with amore playful inaugural the upon which expanded annual festival, name second forthe code the was “Stardust” ‘Stardust’ in the rearview the in ‘Stardust’ Thousands of Earth and space enthusiasts attended SFI’s second InterPlanetary Festival in the Santa in the Festival SFI’s InterPlanetary second attended spaceand enthusiasts Earth of Thousands The fossil record of marine invertebrates since the Cambrian period reveals that extreme events events reveals thatperiod extreme Cambrian since the record of fossil marine The invertebrates Video recordings of all panel discussions are Institute’s Fe available through Santa ofall recordings the discussions panel Video YouTube A NEW NORMAL: STUDY EXPLAINS UNIVERSAL PATTERN IN FOSSIL RECORD PATTERN FOSSIL IN UNIVERSAL EXPLAINS STUDY NORMAL: A NEW enjoyed panel discussions with leading thinkers on topics central to the future of our species— ofour species— to future the with leading thinkers central ontopics enjoyed discussions panel civilization? an InterPlanetary —What would itquestion to take become ofa summer and science setting human in the ingenuity of complexity exploration an offered channel: youtube.com/user/santafeinst. including Additional information annual the about festival, space exploration, extremophile cities, game design, world building, diverse intelligences, creative intelligences, diverse building, world design, game cities, extremophile space exploration, Fe Railyard Park. Fueled and inspired by the research at the Santa Fe Institute, mid-June andthe Fe inspired by Fueled at research the Santa festival the Park. Railyard Fe Continuous power-law and are associ in studying systems, complex are distributions commonly used Research Briefs, continued from page 5 page continued from Briefs, Research information (code upcoming the about 2020 festival Voyager), name: found onthe be can In addition to live music, podcasts, immersive art, games, and an innovation expo, festival-goers and festival-goers an innovation expo, games, immersive art, In addition podcasts, to live music, InterPlanetary Festival website: www.interplanetaryfest.org www.interplanetaryfest.org website: Festival InterPlanetary Science AdvancesScience Review Letters black futures, and the origins oflife. and origins the black futures, festival full of music, film, art, food, drinks, more. and drinks, food, art, film, ofmusic, full festival InterPlanetary Festival 2019 Festival InterPlanetary Physical in Physical Inapublication distribution. that steps follow not do acontinuousdiscrete scale-free of diversification and extinction have happened more often than a typical, Gaussian, distribution distribution Gaussian, typical, than a havemore often happened extinction and of diversification self-similar showto data thatdiscrete then modeling thisapply They to empirical exponent. show that using Fuentes’ approach — in this case, looking at fluctuations within groupswithin of atanimals fluctuations show looking that Fuentes’ using approach —in this case, DISCRETE POWER-LAWSDISCRETE AND SELF-SIMILARITY introduce a discrete power-lawintroduce adiscrete estimate maximum-likelihood and forits the derive distribution, would predict. Previously, in 2009, SFI External Professor Miguel Fuentes used superstatistics superstatistics Fuentes used Miguel Professor Previously, in 2009, SFI External would predict. words is guided by positive frequency-dependent selection, a bias that disproportion- makes us abias selection, by frequency-dependent positive words is guided accurately describe the unusual patterns in the fossil record. record. in fossil the unusual the patterns accurately describe — could also oforganisms types that all shareacross than acommon fluctuations lineage rather asimilar in fat-tailed published InaJune market. 26 paper in stock to the describe distribution behavior and self-similarity. However, with scale-free ated many only occur at self-similar processes ately likely to use the words that most others use. ately words that the others likely most to use governs word Inparticular, choice. our ofdominant choice ofselection that form instead some processes with acontinuous power-law and distri that adiscrete to errors, lead processes can distribution bution is essential for properly describing many biological andsystems. physical many biological describing forproperly bution is essential 35-foot polar bear (Photos by Kimberly Corante) Kimberly by (Photos bear polar 35-foot Design’s DKLA all, it overlooking Futures—and, starsuit hula-hooper, panel on Creative Black on April 19, External Professor Van Savage (UCLA) and collaborator Mitchell Newberry Van (UCLA) Professor Savage Mitchell Newberry and collaborator 19, on April External , Fuentes, Omidyar Fellow Andy Rominger, and External Professor Pablo Marquet Pablo Fellow Andy Rominger, Omidyar , Fuentes, Professor and External

- -