FYSP 041 - Emergence and the Unification of Knowledge

FC NSMA QFR

4 credits
This course explores the concept of “emergence,” in which systems of simple parts produce complex behavior without a central authority controlling all the action. Can what we know about how insect colonies find resources and build structures help us figure out how brains produce consciousness? Or why financial panics still disrupt the world economy? Or how the humanities relate to the sciences? This course will raise these questions and try to answer them. It will also apply computers in the form of Javascript programs to help formalize and mechanize the ideas we come up with (no previous programming experience necessary).