Society needs a software update: measuring, predicting and managing the complexity of socio-environmental systems

People around the world are embedded in natural systems and depend upon a myriad of ecosystem services to maintain wellbeing. The coupled nature of socio-environmental systems means that they are complex and dynamic, where strategic agents interacting at microscopic scales to create macro-scale emergent properties. The complexity and dynamic nature of socio-environmental systems makes it an extreme challenge to measure, predict and manage desired outcomes, such as the continued production of food and income. In this talk I will discuss numerous forms of complexity exhibited by socio-environmental systems, including spatial ecological connectivity and the collective behavior exhibited by ecological aggregations as well as human groups. I will also discuss the importance of non-linear dynamical flickering on human well-being, and how we can predict non-linear dynamics using “scientific machine learning”. Last, I will introduce new work on the usefulness of Integrated Information Theory for capturing the functioning of hypergraphs, in the context of human group performance with an application to Spanish football teams. The goal for these efforts is to enhance our capacity to anticipate and adapt to the significant and rapid environmental and technological shifts that humanity will encounter in the coming decades

Presential in the seminar room. Zoom stream: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/98286706234?pwd=bm1JUFVYcTJkaVl1VU55L0FiWDRIUT09