Science of Human Nature and Behavior: A Master Class

I was reminded of this conference by a correspondent,  held in 2011:

In The Edge:
" ... Princeton psychologist Daniel Kahneman on the marvels and the flaws of intuitive thinking; Harvard mathematical biologist Martin Nowak on the evolution of cooperation; UC-Santa Barbara evolutionary psychologist Leda Cosmides on the architecture of motivation; UC-Santa Barbara neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga on neuroscience and the law; Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker on the history of violence; and Princeton religious historian Elaine Pagels on The Book of Revelations ... ". 

At the link, videos, written materials and links to many of the authors' work.  A rich set of materials.

Probing the Hive Mind

To what degree does the Wikipedia act as a single brain? In Sciencenews: What implied rules underlie its operation as a useful resource?  I can see this as the future of all knowledge compendiums.  The Santa Fe Institute links to supporting paper and full article.

Advanced Maths Win Wall Street

A view of what used to be called 'rocket scientists' in Wall Street.  I recall going to the Santa Fe Institute and hearing a talk about this phenomenon,  just before the crash.   Now its math, big data and analytics.  Its not that I do not believe in these methods, I just look at the predictive value with caution.  Note something new here, the use of forward-looking, unstructured data analysis to look for causal triggers.    As opposed to quant forecasting.

Cities in a Complex World

From the Santa Fe Institute:  I used to be our representative to SFI in the 90s and we got quite a few inspirations from them, and we provided them with problems to solve.  Some led to major projects. " ... Cities have been compared to everything from beehives to river networks, but most of these metaphors fall short. In the Santa Fe New Mexican, SFI Professor Luis Bettencourt looks to the data to suggest a new way of thinking about how cities function and grow. ... " .  The SFI article is non technical, but points to others that give you the complexity technology.