| Change Leaders
Directory
Science
and Research
Including:
Models of accelerating change in cosmology, biology, human history,
and technology. Growth metrics in computation, communication, and
systems theory.
These
distinguished thought- and change-leaders are not affiliated with
ASF, but where we have contact information, they are all
formally invited to attend our annual conference, Accelerating
Change. Others to suggest? Please let
us know. Potential candidates should have published work that
deals uniquely, incisively and pragmatically with some scientific,
technological, business, or social dimension of accelerating change.
Female
and underrepresented minority
leaders are listed in green, and international
leaders in orange. Accompanying each individual's entry are sample
publications, and occasional ASF comments regarding topics of interest
for future Accelerating
Change or Acceleration
Studies conferences. Each
leader has been categorized on the basis of our subjective assessment,
from a small sample of their work. All may contact
us to edit, recategorize, multiply categorize, or delist their
entries at any time.
Comment
on "Intelligent Design." A
few of the individuals listed below have been cited as working in
the area of "Intelligent Design (ID)." Unfortunately this
term has been coopted by groups (like FTE
and Mere Creation), who
are seeking to advance Christian religious agendas, and can no longer
be used to describe the promising but early post-Darwinian models
of several of the researchers below. Scientific
efforts to understand the nonrandom "intelligence"
of the universe originally grew out of anthropic cosmology theory,
models posited by Fred Hoyle, Martin Rees, Lee Smolin, Frank Tipler,
and many others to better characterize the apparent uniqueness of
the initial conditions and emergent laws at the origin of our universe.
Such models put boundaries or constraints on the random Darwinian
paradigm in explaining macroscopic change, both in biology and other
complex systems. They are important early attempts to describe the
"bounded randomness" that we observe in all complex systems.
They are within the domain of science as they are increasingly testable
and falsifiable by our emerging sciences of simulation. Emergent
developments that appear to be coded in the genes of an evolutionary
developmental universe can from some perspectives be called "design".
But the word design may also connote the idea of an embodied, supernatural
designer, even though we have good evidence that all our splendid
biological "design" was self-organized, over multiple
successive cyclings, within an evolutionary developmental environment.
In summary, given the current social context, we think it best to
avoid using the words "design" and "intelligent design"
when discussing post-Darwinian models of change. We prefer the phrases
evolution and development, and
the phrase "evolutionary development"
to describe the synthesis of these two perspectives on change. The
phrase "self-organization" is also often
seen in the literature, and seems useful when defined as cyclicly
tuned development within an evolutionary developmental environment.
Ralph Abraham
(1996)
Evolution and morphogenesis of the world wide web.
Fred Adams, The
Five Ages of the Universe, 1999; Origins
of Existence, 2002
Reka Albert
Power laws and internet growth
Wallace Arthur, Evolutionary
Devel. Biologist, U. Sunderland, UNITED
KINGDOM. Homepage.
The
Origin of Animal Body Plans, 2000
Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Physics, University of
Notre Dame. Network Theory.
Fractal
Concepts in Surface Growth, 1995; Linked:
The New Science of Networks, 2003
John Barrow, Applied
Math and Theor. Physics, U. Cambridge, UNITED KINGDOM.
Homepage.
The
Anthropic Cosmological Principle, 1986; Pi
in the Sky, 1993;
Impossibility:
The Science of Limits, 1999;
The
Book of Nothing, 2002; The
Constants of Nature, 2003
The
Universe that Discovered Itself, 2000
Bela Balazs, Physicist, Eotvos
Lorand U, HUNGARY. Homepage.
Dynamical
Astronomy, 1986
"The
Role of Life in the Cosmological Replication Cycle",
2001
Stafford Beer [Deceased 2002], Management Science/Operations
Research; Cybernetics Theorist.
Decision
and Control, 1966 (Classic); Management
Science, 1967; Cybernetics
and Management, 1967;
Automaton
Theory and Learning Systems, D.J. Stewart (Ed.), 1967;
VSM Trilogy: Brain
of the Firm, 1994; The
Heart of Enterprise, 1995; Diagnosing
the System for Organizations, 1995
Platform
for Change, 1995; Beyond
Dispute, 1994; Designing
Freedom, 1995
Viable
System Model, Raul Espejo, 1989;
Susan Blackmore, The Meme Machine, 1999
Daniel R. Brooks (Evolution as Entropy, 1988)
The relation between energy, information flow, and entropy
Otavio Bueno. Philosophy, USC. Old
homepage. New
homepage.
Logical and mathematical indeterminacy. Constraints
on self-reproducing automata.
William Calvin (The Cerebral Code, How Brains Think, The
River that Flows Uphill
The Throwing Madonna)
John Casti, Mathematician, SFI. Homepage.
Connectivity,
Complexity, and Catastrophe in Large-Scale Systems, 1979
Paradigms
Lost, 1990; Complexification,
1995; Would-Be
Worlds, 1996;
Five
Golden Rules, 1997; Five
More Golden Rules, 2000; Paradigms
Regained, 2001
Edward Castronova, Virtual Worlds Economist, Indiana
U. Homepage. Arden
Institute.
Synthetic
Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games, 2005.
Eric
Chaisson, Physicist, Tufts U. Homepage.
The
Life Era, 1987; Cosmic
Dawn, 2000; Astronomy
Today, 2001
Cosmic
Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature, 2001
Free Energy Rate Density as a Driver of Universal Change
Don Chamberlin, IBM Almaden, and ACM Fellow. Workpage.
"Sharing Our Planet" from Beyond Calculation:
The Next 50 Years of Computing, 1997
Peter Cheeseman, NASA
Ames Computational Sciences Division Automated Learning Group.
Collective intelligence, unsupervised baysian classification,
and other automated learning tools
Jack Cohen
The
Collapse of Chaos, 1995
Parochials vs. universals; Evolution vs. development
John Collier
(AUSTRALIA)
Autonomy,
Hierarchical Systems Theory.
Ramon Compano
(BELGIUM)
Nanoforecasting with science and technology indicators,
Nanotechnology 13, 2002
Richard Coren
The
Evolutionary Trajectory, 1998
Gregory Chaitin, Mathematician, IBM Research. Homepage.
Information,
Randomness, and Incompleteness, 1987; The
Unknowable, 1999;
Exploring
Randomness, 2001
The
Limits of Mathematics, 1997
Paul Davies, Philosophy, Macquarie
U, AUSTRALIA. Homepage.
God
and the New Physics, 1984; The
Cosmic Blueprint, 1989; The
New Physics, 1992;
The
Mind of God, 1993; The
Fifth Miracle/The Origin of Life, 1999;
Christian deDuve (Vital Dust: Life as Cosmic Imperative,
1995)
Arguments for the statistical inevitability of life
in the universe
Daniel Dennett (Brain Children, Consciousness Explained)
Michael Denton, Evolution,
1996; Nature's
Destiny, 1998
Understanding developmentalism: moving beyond the orthodox
Darwinist paradigm
D.J.
Depew (and B.H. Weber)
(Entropy, Information, & Evolution, 1988;
Darwinism Evolving, 1995;)
Beyond darwinism: developmental self-organization
David Deutsch, ENGLAND. The
Fabric of Reality, 1998
Ensemble theory and the quantum multiverse
Keith Devlin, CSLI,
Stanford U. Homepage.
Goodbye, Descartes, 1998; Life
by the Numbers, 1999; Mathematics,
2001;
The
Math Gene, 2001; InfoSense,
2001; The
Millennium Problems, 2002
Data, information, knowledge, and meaning; Non-cartesian
intelligence.
Dan Fiscus. Homepage.
Ecosystemics, interdependence, and intelligence
Ed Fredkin. DigitalPhilosophy.org
Digital physics and the limits of computation
Ronald F. Fox (Energy and the Evolution of Life, 1988)
Homepage.
Energetics and evolution; Biogenesis.
James Gardner
Biocosm,
2003; The Intelligent Universe, 2007
The Selfish Biocosm Hypothesis (SBH).
Susantha Goonatilake, New School for Soc. Research. Homepage.
The Evolution of Information, 1992; Merged
Evolution, 1999; Toward a Global Science, 2000
The evolution of information; Infotech and biotech convergence.
John Gribbin, Cosmic
Coincidences (with Martin Rees), 1989; In
the Beginning, 1994;
Hyperspace,
2001
F.J. Hahne (1983)
Phase transitions and critical phenomena
Herman Haken (Synergetics, 1978)
Cooperative phenomena and self-organization
Charles Hall (after Howard Odum, U. Florida. (Deceased 9.2002)).
Homepage.
H. Odum: Energy
Basis for Man and Nature, 1981; Ecological
and General Systems, 1994;
Modeling
for All Scales, 2000; The Prosperous Way Down, 2001;
The
Wealth of Nature, 2003
Charles Hall: Ecosystem
Modeling in Theory and Practice, 1990
Maximum
Power: The Ideas of H.T.Odum,1995; Quantifying
Sustainable Development, 2000
Lotka's maximum power principle: evidence and validation
challenges
Robin Hanson
Long term growth as series of exponential modes
Edward Harrison, Physicist, U. Mass (ret).
Cosmology,
2000; Masks
of the Universe, 2003
"The Natural
Selection of Universes Containing Intelligent Life," QJRAS,
36:193, 1995
Francis Heylighen
Metasystems transition theory; Emergence of a global
brain
Douglas Hofstadter, Godel,
Escher, & Bach, 1980/99; Fluid
Concepts & Creative Analogies, 1996
Metamagical
Themas, 1996; The
Mind's I, 1981/2001
Fluidity of Self, Consciousness and the Perception of
Time
Wolfgang Hofkirchner (The Quest for a Unified Theory of
Information, 1999)
Toward an integrated understanding of the information
sciences
John Holland, Adaptation
in Natural and Artificial Systems, 1976/92; Hidden
Order, 1995;
Emergence,
1998
R. Jervis (System Effects: Complexity in Political and
Social Life, 1997)
Complexity in political and social life
Norman Johnson (http://ishi.lanl.gov/symintel.html)
Diversity, symbiotic intelligence, and the web
Michio Kaku (Hyperspace, Visions)
Stuart Kauffman (Origins of Order, At Home in the Universe,
Investigations)
Chris King, NEW ZEALAND
The
Biocosmology Hypothesis (PDF)
John Koza, Genetic-Programming.com.
Exec. Board, ISGEC.
Homepage.
(Genetic
Programming: On the Programming of Computers by Means of Nat. Selection,1992;
Genetic Programming II: Automatic Discovery of Reusable
Programs, 1994;
Genetic
Programming III: Automatic Programming and Automatic Circuit Synthesis,
1999;
coming: Genetic Programming IV: Routine Human-Competitive
Machine Intelligence, 2003)
Biologically-inspired computing; Evolutionary
computation, genetic algorithms, ev. hardware.
Greg Laughlin, The
Five Ages of the Universe, 1999
Christopher Leidich, NASA
Ames Computational Science Division, Autonomy & Robotics.
Autonomy trends in robotics; Model-based diagnosis,
planning, and spacecraft.
Andrei Linde, Particle
Physics and Inflationary Cosmology, 1990;
Science
and Religion in Search of Cosmic Purpose, 2000
Inflation and the multiverse
Mario Livio, The
Accelerating Universe, 2000; The
Golden Ratio, 2003
Acceleration cosmology; The Kerrigan problem
Seth Lloyd,
"Moore's
Law and the Ultimate Laptop," Edge.org,
July, 2000
"Ultimate Physical Limits to Computation" Nature,
31 August, 2000
Universal limits of computation
William Lowenstein (The Touchstone of Life, 1999)
Molecular, cellular, and organismic communication; Information
flow in living systems
Klaus Mainzer (Thinking in Complexity, 1994)
Microscopic nonlinear interactions; Macroscopic emergent
phenomena
Lynn Margulis
(Symbiotic Planet, 1998)
Symbiosis and competition
Wil McCarthy, Engineer; Sci-Fi and Non-Fiction
Author. Homepage.
Hacking
Matter: Levitating Chairs, Quantum Mirages, and the Infinite Weirdness
of Programmable Atoms, 2003
Daniel McShea, Homepage.
Review
of Chaisson's Cosmic Evolution
Empirical approaches to organismic complexity
Stephen Meyer, The Cambrian Information Explosion: Evidence
for Evolutionary Development (ED)
Developmental body plans and the Cambrian explosion:
beyond neo-Darwinism
Comment: ED is a new paradigm for macroscopic change that is also
increasingly a testable theory, through our emerging sciences of
simulation. Classical neo-Darwinists presently have no good models
for why only 35 body plans emerged during the Cambrian Explosion,
and more importantly, why no new body plans have emerged in the
500 million years since. Evolutionary developmental biologists and
theorists, on the other hand, can offer valuable insights into this
saturation of innovation, by explaining it as an inevitable process
of developmental path dependency.
Marvin Minsky, Computer Scientist, MIT (Emeritus)
Society
of Mind, 1988
"Will
Robots Inherit the Earth?," Scientific American,
1994
Universals vs. parochials
Simon Morris (Crucible of Creation, 1998)
Convergent evolution
Paul Nelson, On Common Descent, 2003
Ontogenetic depth as a complexity metric for the Cambrian
explosion
Clifford Pickover, Author in Science, Computer
Science, Math, Culture, and Science Fiction. Homepage.
Dreaming
the Future: The Fantastic Story of Prediction [actually, Divination],
2001
Surfing
through Hyperspace, 1999
And approximately 30 other mind-stretching books on
the above topics.
Rudolf Raff, Evolutionary Developmental Biologist, Indiana
U. Homepage.
Time,
Space, and Pattern in Embryonic Development, 1983;
Development
as an Evolutionary Process, 1987;
Embryos, Genes, and Evolution, 1991;
The
Shape of Life, 1996
Michel Rascle, Mathematician,
Nice U., FRANCE. Homepage.
"Finite-time Blowup in Some Models of Chemotaxis,"
J. Math. Biol.(33), 1995
Martin Rees, Physicist, Cambridge
U., UNITED KINGDOM.
Our
Cosmic Habitat, 2003
Before
the Beginning, 1998; Just
Six Numbers, 2000
Rudy Rucker, Mathematician and Computer Scientist, SJSU.
Homepage.
Mind
Tools, 1988; Infinity
and the Mind, 1995; The
Fourth Dimension, 1985; Seek!,
1999;
Software
Engineering and Computer Games, 2002
Geometry,
Relativity, and the Fourth Dimension, 1977
Stanley Salthe, Evolutionary Developmental Biologist, CUNY
Brooklyn. Homepage.
Evolving
Hierarchical Systems, 1985;
Development
and Evolution, 1993; Evolutionary
Systems, 1998
Developmentalism and infodynamics: a new paradigm of
universal change
Terrence Sejnowski, Neural
Network Models, 1987;
Neural
Codes and Distributed Representations, 1999; Liars,
Lovers and Heroes, 2002
Cosma Shalizi, SFI and U Michigan. Homepage.
Self-organization, complexity, automata, and computational
mechanics
Seth Shostak, Sharing
the Universe, 1998; Life
in the Universe, 2002
SETI and astrobiology
Tom Siegfried, Science Writer (Information Theory, M-Theory)
(Bit and the Pendulum; Strange Matters)
John Smart, AccelerationWatch.com
Accelerating change; Evolutionary development
Vaclav Smil (General
Energetics, 1991; Energies,
1999; Cycles
of Life, 2000;
The
Earth's Biosphere, 2002. Homepage.
Relative energy comparisons; Energy as a change metric.
Lee Smolin, Theoretical Physicist, Perimeter
Institute.
Three
Roads to Quantum Gravity, 2001
The
Life of the Cosmos, 1997
Cosmological natural selection: an evolutionary developmental
model
Didier Sornette
Critical
Phenomena in Natural Sciences, 2000;Why
Stock Markets Crash, 2002;
Singularities and critical phenomena in complex
systems
Julian Clinton (Clint) Sprott, Physicist, Complex
Systems Theorist. Homepage.
Chaos
and Time Series Analysis, 2003
Ian Stewart, Mathematician,
Warwick U, UNITED KINGDOM.
Homepage.
Life's
Other Secret, 1999
Figments
of Reality, 1997
Parochials vs. universals, Evolution vs. development
Leonard Susskind, Theoretical Physicist, Stanford
University
An
Introduction to Black Holes, Information, and the String Theory
Revolution, 2004; The
Cosmic Landscape, 2005
Comment: Discoverer of string theory, the string theory
of black hole entropy, the principle of "black hole complementarity",
the holographic principle, the matrix description of M-theory, the
introduction of holographic entropy bounds in cosmology, and the
idea of an anthropic string theory landscape.
Rod Swenson
Maximum entropy production (MEP) principle
(Maximum energy gradient destruction principle of Schneider
and Kay)
Frank Tipler, The
Physics of Immortality, 1995
Anthropic cosmology; the 'Omega computer.'
A.F.J. van Raan (2000)
Growth, ageing, and fractal differentiation of science.
Duncan Watts, Small
Worlds, 1999; Six
Degrees, 2003
Jeffrey Wicken
Evolution, Thermodynamics, & Information: Extending
the Darwinian Program, 1987)
Physical mechanisms of information production
E.O. Wilson, Sociobiology, 1978/2000;
Biophilia, 1986; Consilience, 1999
Pioneering conservationist, sociobiologist, and integral thinker
with regard to the value of biodiversity and sustainability to the
human future.
Stephen Wolfram, Founder and CEO, Wolfram
Research (Mathematica). Complexity Scholar.
Author, Cellular
Automata and Complexity, 1994; A
New Kind of Science, 2002
Simulation; Universal cellular automata as a developmental
framework.
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