THE WORKSHOP WAS CO-ORGANIZED BY CSH EXTERNAL FACULTY MEMBER MIRTA GALESIC (SFI) AND TOOK PLACE ON OCTOBER 19–21, 2022 AT THE COMPLEXITY SCIENCE HUB (VIENNA)
Collectives emerge, change, grow and dissolve across temporal and spatial scales. These processes have been studied and modeled in different species, but many of the underlying mechanisms and regularities still remain elusive. This is problematic as understanding these collective processes is essential for maintenance, curation, and development of our own, human societies facing a rapid succession of physical and social challenges.
This workshop brought together scientists (and TheElab member Daniel Oro) studying collectives from biological, evolutionary, neurological, psychological, and sociological perspectives, to discuss the following questions:
- Are collectives bound by the same forces of selection as are multicellular species? Do collectives develop, reproduce (fission), age and die, analogous to multicellular individuals?
- How do collectives adapt and evolve to maintain/increase function (obtain resources, protect against antagonists, expand in size) and to what extent are there trade-offs, or constraints that result in aging and failure through time?
- How can collective responses to perturbations and challenges across scales inform theories, quantitative models, and design of resilient social systems including human societies?
