Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences and Department of
Economics
Conference on Decentralization
Schedule of Events
Social Science Plaza A, room 2112.
Conference aims:
- 1. to assess our knowledge of decentralized systems,
- ARCHITECTURE:
- How dense are connections among elements?
- Are the elements modular assemblies of cooperating smaller elements?
- Is the organization hierarchical or flat?
- What zone of autonomy is given to each element?
- What information flows and reward/selection processes serve to propagate patterns?
- DYNAMICS:
- Are dynamics fundamental to form?
- Do decentralized systems that exhibit order undergo phase transitions?
- How variable are the dynamics and how important is variability to what the system can do or where it goes?
- SCALABILITY:
- Do the systems look the same a larger or smaller scales of observation (scaling self-similarity?)
- Does system performance scale with size?
- Is there an optimal size and does the system self-organize to that level?
- and 2. why they are difficult to understand (if they are)
Wednesday Evening: Reception for Conference Participants (RSVP)
4:30-8:00: Wine and light buffet dinner at Arthur De Vany’s home, 72
Whitman Court, Irvine, CA, 949-509-9207. The house is on campus up
the hill from the main campus. Check map that came with earlier
material.
Thursday
Morning: Brains
and Organisms
9:00: William Calvin, Neurophysiology,
University of Washington, School of Medicine
"Bootstrapping Consciousness via Darwinian Processes"
10:00: Gary Lynch and Linda Palmer, Psychiatry and Human Behavior,
UCI
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