A debate: Reductionism vs Emergence
Thursday 29th March 7pm-onward

@Guest Projects

Is it really possible for mankind to understand the world by breaking it down into ever smaller parts – a process that would hopefully lead us to something like a unified theory of everything?  In the world of art it is not contentious that to understand the work one cannot look only at its smallest constituents in isolation.  In the world of science the community stands divided. On the one hand, many, if not most, prominent physicists take the reductionist view that the universe can in fact be understood through its constituent particles. However, there are those to whom the nature of existence can be seen not through its parts but rather in the complex interdependent patterns that emerge to produce the phenomena we call physical reality. In science the distinction is known as those who favour reductionism versus those who favour emergence.
This event will bring together leading scientists from rival fields to debate this fundamental distinction, to discuss the possibility of new approaches and to discuss limitations of the traditional scientific method of understanding our universe.

Panelists include:

David Jennings http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/people/d.jennings
Gunnar Pruessner http://www2.imperial.ac.uk/~pruess/
Jonathan Halliwell http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/people/j.halliwell
Ray Rivers http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/people/r.rivers

An event facilitated by Terry Rudolph and Chooc Ly Tan

The Institute for Mathematical Sciences
Guest Projects
Sunbury House
1 Andrews Road
London
E8 4QL