312 - Chaos and Complexity - Neil Theise (rebroadcast)

You Are Not So Smart

Science, Psychology, Brain, Business, Mental Health, Culture, Neuroscience, Mind, Health

4.6 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Professor Neil Theise, the author of Notes on Complexity, provides an introduction to the science of how complex systems behave – from cells to human beings, to ecosystems, the known universe, and beyond – and we explore if Ian Malcolm was right when he told us in Jurassic Park that "Life, um, finds a way."

Transcript

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0:00.0	You can go to Kitted K-I-T-T-E-D dot shop and use the code Smart50, SMART-50 at checkout,
0:09.0	and you will get half off a set of thinking superpowers in a box.
0:14.2	If you want to know more about what I'm talking about, check it out.
0:17.0	Middle of the show.
0:30.9	Music Check it out. Middle of the show. The Cool thing is the middle of the show.
0:34.6	And for the cool thing of the happy, they went fire.
0:37.0	And then talking about the power of a gospel. Welcome to the You Are Not So
0:45.8	Episode
0:47.1	Episode 312
0:49.2	312 In 2020, the movie Jurassic Park turned 30 years old, yes. And 30 years ago, Stephen Spielberg's Jurassic Park turned 30 years old. Yes. And 30 years ago, Stephen Spielberg's Jurassic Park wasn't just the biggest movie of the year. It felt like it was the biggest movie of all time. Today, it's still a highest-grossing movie of Spielberg's career, which says a lot. His career includes Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jaws and
1:28.6	E.T., all of which were blockbusters in their day. But the cultural impact of Jurassic Park was
1:35.0	immense and long-lasting, and it's still with us. It's still making money, too. It cost about $63 million
1:41.6	to make. And thanks in part to the re-release in 2013, it has now grossed
1:47.5	more than $1.1 billion, my favorite character, by far, was Dr. Ian Malcolm,
2:12.2	a scampy, flirty, self-amused, playful shades, and all-black-wearing rock star mathematician portrayed by
2:19.3	Jeff Goldblum, who really dialed up his overall gold-bloomingness for the role that he was playing
2:28.1	as an expert on chaos theory. Based on that expertise, Ian Malcolm, the character, was very skeptical and pessimistic about the idea of bringing dinosaurs back to life.
2:40.2	Throughout the first third of the film, he keeps telling people that, based on what we know in the realm of complexity science, life as a complex system is dangerously unpredictable, even when you know
2:54.0	a great deal about the starting conditions, a great deal about all the bits and pieces of
3:00.5	the thing you're about to do. When you include life in such a thing, he laments the hubris
3:07.1	required to assume a small number of human beings
3:11.9	could control nature to the point that they could run a theme park featuring long extinct
	...

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