---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Kenneth McLeod <[email protected]> Date: Mon, Feb 27, 2017 at 6:55 AM Subject: URGENT - Complexity Science at Sydney Uni Wednesday eveningkenneth To: [email protected] Anthropocene Transition Project The Emergence and Evolution of Life Beyond Physics ------------------------------ Dear ATP participants, * On Wednesday this week at 6pm one of the world's leading complexity scholars will speak at Sydney University. *There are only a few places left for this lecture so if you're interested don't delay. *Click here to register now* <http://whatson.sydney.edu.au/events/published/sydney-ideas-professor-stuart-kauffman> . *Professor Stuart Kauffman* ...is one of the most distinguished scholars of complexity and the author of several acclaimed books, including *The Origins of Order: Self Organization and Selection in Evolution* (1993 <1993>), *At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity* (1995 <1995>), and *Humanity in a Creative Universe* (2016). [image: Kauffman CMS] The emergence and evolution of life is based on physics but is beyond physics. Evolution is an historical process arising from the non-ergodicity of the universe above the level of atoms. Most complex things will never exist. Human hearts exist. Prebiotic chemistry saw the evolution of many organic molecules in complex reaction networks, and the formation of low energy structures such as membranes. Theory and experiments suggest that from this, the spontaneous emergence of self reproducing molecular systems could arise and evolve. Such “collectively autocatalytic systems” cyclically link non-equilibrium processes whose constrained release of energy constitutes “work” to construct the same constraints on those non-equilibrium processes. Cells yoke a set of non-equilibrium processes and constraints on the energy released as work to build their own constraints and reproduce. Such systems are living, and can propagate their organization with heritable variations, so can be subject to natural selection. In this evolution, these proto-organisms emerge unprestatably, and afford novel niches enabling, not causing, further types of proto-organisms to emerge. With this, unprestatable new functions arise. The ever-changing phase space of evolution includes these functionalities. Since we cannot prestate these ever new functionalities, we can write no laws of motion for this evolution, which is therefor entailed by no laws at all, and thus not reducible to physics. Beyond entailing law, the evolving biosphere literally constructs itself and is the most complex system we know in the universe. Co-presented by Sydney Ideas <http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/professor_stuart_kauffman.shtml> with the Centre for Complex Systems <http://sydney.edu.au/complex-systems/> and the Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science <http://sydney.edu.au/foundations_of_science/> the University of Sydney Register here: http://whatson.sydney.edu.au/events/published/sydney-ideas- professor-stuart-kauffman All best wishes, Ken PS: Here's the link for the project proposal template if you haven't already shared your ideas for 2017 ATP initiatives: http://www.123contactform.com/form-2503259/Survey -- ------------------------------ UTS CRICOS Provider Code: 00099F DISCLAIMER: This email message and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be the views of the University of Technology Sydney. Before opening any attachments, please check them for viruses and defects. Think. Green. Do. Please consider the environment before printing this email. -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/