Making Sense of Chaos

We live in an age of increasing complexity, where accelerating technology and global interconnection hold more promise – and more peril – than any other time in human history. Financial crises, as well as issues around climate change, automation, growing inequality, and polarization are all rooted in the economy, yet standard economic predictions fail us. Using big data and ever more powerful computers, we can, for the first time, apply complex-systems science to economic activity, building realistic models of the global economy. The resulting simulations and the emergent behaviour we observe form the cornerstone of complexity economics. This new science, which grew in part from research conducted at the Santa Fe Institute, will allow us to test ideas and make significantly better economic predictions — and, ultimately, create a better world.

Doyne Farmer will be signing copies of his new book, also titled “Making Sense of Chaos: A Better Economics for a Better World” in the Lensic Lobby in advance of this lecture, starting at 6:30 pm.

After this ground-laying lecture, Farmer will be joined by American Economist John Geanakoplos for further discussion on contemporary economic complexity, before they both open up discussion to questions from the audience.