Curiosity

The human mind is without question a phenomenal event. Despite the rich complexity of mental processes, however, the world which my minds is driven to make sense of seems to be easily beyond the grasp of the neural storm that sweeps behind my eyes. I visited the Odyssium in Edmonton yesterday and I tried to comprehend the size of space as the planetarium guide described our galaxy and the miniscule element within it that we refer to as our solar system. Then he explained how this enormous galaxy was really like a piece of lint in a global-scale tornado.

Going the other way is equally difficult. Nanometers and picometers and on down into the sub-atomic particles does nothing in easing the burden of a mind tuned to the middle-size of things I can see and touch. One of my ongoing interests is in the role that emergent properties has in the interaction of things small, large and medium sized. I am interested in seeing how emergent properties apply to groups of people - not so much individuals though I value them - but how groups of people act, the swarm behaviour that we seem to exhibit when the collective action of enough of us is observable.

I'd also like to further my thoughts about how we solve our problems, how we come up with creative solutions to the holes and gaps that appear with rapidity in our medium-sized world. Why do some people solve problems that seem insurmountable to others? Why do some groups and companies and organizations thrive and change while others thrive a bit and then die off? It seems too simple to call it lucky. In each case we can probably say that it was this or that particular event but is there a larger pattern in these evolutions - successful and otherwise? Complexity - the interactions of multiple agents - is a new and fruitful possibility for attempting to answer these questions.

Social complexity - a science that moves across disciplines looking for answers through pattern-finding intelligence - is something we need to learn more about as we learn more about how things work, how we work. And I am happy to be among those who really want to know, to keep moving forward.