In many cultures and religions the mandala signi es spiritual oneness with the universe.
Different scientific disciplines traditionally approach their subject matters quite differently. Physics tends to focus on generalities and aggregates, whereas biology tends to focus on particularities and individuals.
SFI Distinguished Professor Geoffrey West has remarked, in fact, that had Galileo been a biologist, he might have noted the minutely differing air resistances on the two distinct objects he dropped from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and perhaps written extensively about how every object falls at a unique speed.
Such differing worldviews can sometimes spark scientific disagreement. This year’s SFI Business Network and Board of Trustees Symposium November 3-5 puts these differences center stage.
“Does the Individual Matter?” looks at the role of individuals in complex systems and considers when the components of such systems can be treated as aggregates and their behaviors understood as a whole, and when it is important to pay attention to the unique characteristics and behaviors of the components.
The meeting also will explore the meaning of individuality when nearly all individuals can be broken down into subsystems and subunits.
“There’s a hierarchy of scales — one scientist's aggregate is another’s individual,” notes Chris Wood, SFI’s VP for Administration and Manager of the Business Network. He and SFI Faculty Chair Doug Erwin are organizing the meeting.
Traditionally, as you move from the physical to the biological to the social sciences, the more important individuals and their quirks have become. But it will be difficult to predict from a speaker’s background — be it physics economics, or law — how he or she will answer the question in the meeting’s title, says Doug.