Wonderfest: When Complex Adaptive Systems Collide: Mismatches in Biology and in Culture - Livestream

 

The human immune system is complex - so complex and dynamic that it can actually adapt to a changing environment; i.e., it can evolve. Accordingly, we call the immune system a complex adaptive system. Within biology, species are complex adaptive systems whose environmental fitness tends to improve over time; species evolve. Sometimes, a species population divides, and each part evolves in isolation. Genetic mismatches may then arise that make hybrid creatures sterile and prevent re-mixing of the two populations. Similar processes operate in other complex adaptive systems, where isolation leads to crucial mismatches - in biological systems (such as the immune system and the brain) and in cultural systems (such as language and technology). Understanding cultural mismatches, in particular, may have large-scale consequences: informing humanity’s attempt to mitigate xenophobia.

Speaker: David Queller, Washington University