A historical Pachinko machine, a relative of Francis Galton's
Quincunx and the AAKKOZZLL, and the predecessor of the widely popular amusement
in today's Japan. Click here for more info – photo
by Gnsin.
Maurice G. Kendall
I propose to discuss the extent to which we observe laws of behaviour in
social phenomena.
Matthew Nuenke
Every person born is a highly probabilistic creature.
B.F. Skinner
In the scientific picture, a person does not act upon the world, the world
acts upon him.
Frederick Soddy
The laws of thermodynamics control the general physical welfare of the human
race.
Hollis R. Cooley et al
Knowledge of the nature of mathematical method pays dividends
to the average man who seeks to understand and cope with political, religious,
and economic problems
Walter Lippmann
How opinions are crystallized into what is called Public Opinion, how
a National Will, a Group Mind, a Social Purpose, or whatever you choose
to call it, is formed.
Joshua M. Epstein
Perhaps one day people will interpret the question, “Can you explain it?”
as asking, “Can you grow it?”
Ivars Peterson
We can grow [complex, recognizable behavior] with incredibly simple rules and
simple agents.
BOOKS
Designing
Freedom,
by Stafford Beer
By advocating a new insistence on variety reducing methods which worked in a
bygone epoch, we advocate precisely the wrong thing, and seal our doom. THIS
is the real threat to all we hold most dear. (pdf)
Ethical implications of the laws of pattern abundance distribution
by Stephan R.P. Halloy and Jeffrey A. Lockwood
The purpose of this paper is three-fold: 1) to briefly describe the nature
of power and lognormal distributions as a case-study in complexity theory,
2) to explore the overt and subtle use of the naturalistic fallacy as
a means by which scientists derive moral principles from empirical foundations,
and 3) to examine the role of free-will in the context of natural law
as a means of escaping a nihilistic determinism.
(click authors' names)
QUOTES
Lambert A.J. Quetelet
Are human actions regulated by fixed laws?
Maurice G. Kendall
I propose to discuss the extent to which we observe laws of behaviour in social phenomena.
Matthew Nuenke
Every person born is a highly probabilistic creature.
B.F. Skinner
In the scientific picture, a person does not act upon the world, the world acts upon him.
Frederick Soddy
The laws of thermodynamics control the general physical welfare of the human race.
Hollis R. Cooley et al
Knowledge of the nature of mathematical method pays dividends to the average man who seeks to understand and cope with political, religious, and economic problems
Walter Lippmann
How opinions are crystallized into what is called Public Opinion, how a National Will, a Group Mind, a Social Purpose, or whatever you choose to call it, is formed.
Joshua M. Epstein
Perhaps one day people will interpret the question, “Can you explain it?” as asking, “Can you grow it?”
Ivars Peterson
We can grow [complex, recognizable behavior] with incredibly simple rules and simple agents.
BOOKS
Designing Freedom,
by Stafford Beer
By advocating a new insistence on variety reducing methods which worked in a bygone epoch, we advocate precisely the wrong thing, and seal our doom. THIS is the real threat to all we hold most dear. (pdf)
Full Book
Science and Technology and the Future Development of Societies
International Workshop Proceedings
Presentations made at at the estate of the Fondation des Treilles in Toutour, France, to discuss issues concerning the role of science in the development of modern societies. (full text online)
ARTICLES
A Tale of Two Thermos Bottles: properties of a genetic model for human intelligence,
by C.C. Li
Only very strong social and environmental forces can perpetuate an artificial class; heredity does not. From this point of view, social forces are more conservative than hereditary ones. (pdf)
Double standards: the history of standardizing humans in modern life insurance
by Martin Lengwiler
Why study the case of life insurance? Following the works of Lorraine Daston, Ted Porter, and Ian Hacking, life insurance can be understood as a crucial institution for the rise of,modern statistical and probabilistic thinking. (Daston 1988; Porter 1986; Porter 2000; Hacking,1990)
Ethical implications of the laws of pattern abundance distribution
by Stephan R.P. Halloy and Jeffrey A. Lockwood
The purpose of this paper is three-fold: 1) to briefly describe the nature of power and lognormal distributions as a case-study in complexity theory, 2) to explore the overt and subtle use of the naturalistic fallacy as a means by which scientists derive moral principles from empirical foundations, and 3) to examine the role of free-will in the context of natural law as a means of escaping a nihilistic determinism.
The wisdom of herds: How social mood moves the world
by John Casti
To see what our world might be like tomorrow, next year or next decade, we need to spend time and money investigating "social mood".
VIDEOS
The Social Atom: Why the Rich Get Richer, Cheaters Get Caught and Your Neighbor Usually Looks Like You
If we study patterns, not people, then rules emerge that explain how movements form, how interest groups operate and even why ethnic hatred persists.
BOOK DESCRIPTIONS
A Cultural History of Causality: Science, Murder Novels, and Systems of Thought
by Stephen Kern
Causality is a centerpiece of the inquiring human mind, so fundamental to human understanding and so universal in its explanatory function that it would seem to transcend any historical development.