|
So, I
have made my pilgrimage to SFI
(A bright place on a bright hill, from where
the bright ideas of some bright people
have brightened my mind)
as a Buddhist to Bodhgaya
a Muslim to Mecca, or
a Christian to Jerusalem
Sitting between the fathers of CAS, in a conference
room
I become lost in some kind of aura
While the father of Quarks quickly relates my Chinese
name to Japanese
"It's a square plus a cross," he says
The father of Genetic Algorithm jokes (as he always
does)
"She is a peasant." (Tian
means field)
But the father of Q says I am a good-looking peasant
(which makes me J)
It seemed as if yesterday those legends in Waldrop's
Complexity world
gathered here kicking off a scientific new journey on
CAS
But when I watch Don Farmer (one of the legends) on
the podium
(He is talking about regulation and stability of the
economy)
I have to believe twenty five years have passed since
then
In twenty five years
People do age and things do change
But the spirit remains
The father of GA still has the highest volume of
voice in the room
His remarks are sharp (just as his eyes)
The father of Q still has beautiful dense curly hair
His head is up and face alive when it comes across
names like
Faraday, Maxwell and Albert
Not just them though
The Yale economist, the Stanford demographer, the
UCLA neurologist
the Harvard biologist, and the UM archeologist ...
The staff members and the waitress in the restaurant
And those people (rich but unlike usual businessmen) from
Intel, Lockheed, Citicorp ...
Everyone is interesting (nice too)
And everyone is enthusiastic -
Enthusiastic about CAS
So twenty five years have passed
How much progress have we made? I ask
It's very little, the father of Q says
We need lots lots of people
to work on it, and
We need theorists besides data mining, he continues
Let us get on and carry on what the legends have
begun then
And let us march on, as we must
(No matter how hard it is)
P.S.
Retracing the footprints of the legends
I drive up the mesa from Santa Fe to Los Alamos
Stopping at the Valley of the Rio Grande
to watch Sangre de Cristo Mountains above and far (as the legends
did)
The father of GA tells me Sangre means blood and Rio is river
P.P.S.
Rereading Waldrop's Complexity, I realize
twenty five years ago, the father of Q (He helped set up World
Resources Institute)
already had a vision on sustainability (where my work perfectly fits)
A sustainable human society is one
that is adaptable, robust, and resilient to
lesser disasters
that can learn from mistakes
that isn't static, but
that allows for growth in the quality of
human life instead of just the quantity of it
The transformation to a sustainable
society requires understanding
economic, social, and political forces
that
are deeply intertwined and mutually
dependent upon one another
and we can't look at each piece of the problem
but must study the system as a whole, he said
And I must study harder to get my "union
card"
P.P.P.S.
Luckily sitting next to Cormac McCarthy at
breakfast
I get to have a small conversation with the Pulitzer winner writer,
who said
It is more important to be good than it is to be smart (which I
can't agree more)
And he looks genuine and surprisingly gentle
Thus my pilgrimage to SFI goes beyond satisfaction
(Of course, thanks to the father of GA - he has been my host)
P.P.P.P.S Life on the edge of complexity
|