Communication is a physical process. It’s common sense that sending and receiving intelligible messages takes work…but how much work? The question of the relationship between energy, information, and matter is one of the deepest known to science. There appear to be limits to the rate at which communication between two systems can happen…but the search for a fundamental relationship between speed, error, and energy (among other things) promises insights far deeper than merely whether we can keep making faster internet devices. Strap in (and consider slowing down) for a broad and deep discussion on the bounds within which our entire universe must play…
Welcome to COMPLEXITY, the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. I’m your host, Michael Garfield, and every other week we’ll bring you with us for far-ranging conversations with our worldwide network of rigorous researchers developing new frameworks to explain the deepest mysteries of the universe.
This week we speak with SFI Professor David Wolpert and MIT Physics PhD student Farita Tasnim, who have worked together over the last year on pioneering research into the nonlinear dynamics of communication channels. In this episode, we explore the history and ongoing evolution of information theory and coding theory, what the field of stochastic thermodynamics has to do with limits to human knowledge, and the role of noise in collective intelligence.
Be sure to check out our extensive show notes with links to all our references at complexity.simplecast.com. If you value our research and communication efforts, please subscribe, rate and review us at Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and consider making a donation — or finding other ways to engage with us, including a handful of open postdoctoral fellowships — at santafe.edu/engage.
Lastly, this weekend — October 22nd & 23rd — is the return of our InterPlanetary Festival! Join our YouTube livestream for two full days of panel discussions, keynotes, and bleeding edge multimedia performances focusing space exploration through the lens of complex systems science. The fun begins at 11 A.M. Mountain Time on Saturday and ends 6 P.M. Mountain Time on Sunday. Everything will be recorded and archived at the stream link in case you can’t tune in for the live event. Learn more at interplanetaryfest.org…
Thank you for listening!
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Podcast theme music by Mitch Mignano.
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Referenced in this episode:
Nonlinear thermodynamics of communication channels
by Farita Tasnim and David Wolpert (forthcoming at arXiv.org)
Heterogeneity and Efficiency in the Brain
by Vijay Balasubramanian
Noisy Deductive Reasoning: How Humans Construct Math, and How Math Constructs Universes
by David Wolpert & David Kinney
Stochastic Mathematical Systems
by David Wolpert & David Kinney
Twenty-five years of nanoscale thermodynamics
by Chase P. Broedersz & Pierre Ronceray
Ten Questions about The Hard Limits of Human Intelligence
by David Wolpert
What can we know about that which we cannot even imagine?
by David Wolpert
Communication consumes 35 times more energy than computation in the human cortex, but both costs are needed to predict synapse number
by William Levy & Victoria Calvert
An exchange of letters on the role of noise in collective intelligence
by Daniel Kahneman, David Krakauer, Olivier Sibony, Cass Sunstein, David Wolpert
When Slower Is Faster
by Carlos Gershenson & Dirk Helbing
Additional Resources:
The stochastic thermodynamics of computation
by David Wolpert
Elements of Information Theory, Second Edition (textbook)
by Thomas Cover & Joy Thomas
Computational Complexity: A Modern Approach (textbook)
by Sanjeev Arora & Boaz Barak
An Introduction to Kolmogorov Complexity and Its Applications (textbook)
by Ming Li & Paul Vitányi
Alien Crash Site Invades Complexity: Tamara van der Does on Sci-Fi Science, with Guest Co-host Caitlin McShea
Mark Moffett on Canopy Biology & The Human Swarm
Cris Moore on Algorithmic Justice & The Physics of Inference
Science in The Time of COVID: Michael Lachmann & Sam Scarpino on Lessons from The Pandemic
Artemy Kolchinsky on "Semantic Information" & The Physics of Meaning
Peter Dodds on Text-Based Timeline Analysis & New Instruments for The Science of Stories
Scott Ortman on Archaeological Synthesis and Settlement Scaling Theory
Helena Miton on Cultural Evolution in Music and Writing Systems
David Wolpert on The No Free Lunch Theorems and Why They Undermine The Scientific Method
Introducing Alien Crash Site, a new SFI Podcast with host Caitlin McShea
Vicky Yang & Henrik Olsson on Political Polling & Polarization: How We Make Decisions & Identities
Carl Bergstrom & Jevin West on Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World
Natalie Grefenstette on Agnostic Biosignature Detection
The Information Theory of Biology & Origins of Life with Sara Imari Walker (Big Biology Podcast Crossover)
Fractal Conflicts & Swing Voters with Eddie Lee
Fighting Hate Speech with AI & Social Science (with Joshua Garland, Mirta Galesic, and Keyan Ghazi-Zahedi)
The Art & Science of Resilience in the Wake of Trauma with Laurence Gonzales
Geoffrey West on Scaling, Open-Ended Growth, and Accelerating Crisis/Innovation Cycles: Transcendence or Collapse? (Part 2)
Scaling Laws & Social Networks in The Time of COVID-19 with Geoffrey West (Part 1)
Better Scientific Modeling for Ecological & Social Justice with David Krakauer (Transmission Series Ep. 7)
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