Every day seems to bring a new iPod, a new computer, a fancier cell phone, or some new gadget or device. Are there laws that drive this technological change? Our core knowledge of complex systems allows us to ask, and often answer, these types of questions: How does technological innovation compare with evolutionary innovation and natural selection? How do we understand 'repurposing', the recycling and transformation of old ideas into new ones? How can we predict the evolution of new technologies, such as the generation of solar power? Is the accelerating pace of innovation sustainable or doomed to inevitable collapse?
Networks of cells, people, and disease transmission, as well as the internet, can all be described and understood with a mathematical precision that was not possible fifteen years ago. From a general conceptual framework we can now understand how clusters form or dissipate, how ideas, people, disease, or technology spread. The importance and potential impact of such studies are obvious and the implications for various fields are vast - ranging from the social and biomedical sciences to understanding the structure and dynamics of organizations.
NOTE: Please excuse the production quality of some of our older videos. They were transferred from our video tape archive.
