#109 Simon DeDeo: From Atoms to Societies, Emergentism and Reductionism

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THIS TIME, IT’S AUDIO-ONLY. I’VE BEEN HAVING SOME ISSUES WITH THE RECORDING PROGRAM THAT I HOPE TO SOLVE DEFINITELLY IN THE NEAR FUTURE. PLEASE ENJOY!

Dr. Simon DeDeo is an Assistant Professor in Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He also runs the Laboratory for Social Minds, were he and his team undertake empirical investigations, and build mathematical theories, of both historical and contemporary phenomena.

In this episode, we talk about the ways we can apply knowledge and mathematical models from Physics to the study of human social behavior and cultural evolution. We also deal with the philosophical issue of emergentism vs reductionism.  

Time Links:

00:43 Why Dr. DeDeo decided to go from Physics to studying human social behavior

02:52 What a Physics-style perspective bring to the social sciences          

06:26 Are there common laws at all levels of existence?       

09:45 How people process social information     

15:14 Collectives and individuals     

20:51 Is collective organization spontaneous? 

25:10 Trying to get at our mental algorithms

30:55 Collecting information to study historical events

34:56 About game theory 

40:39 Studying cultural evolution

44:45 Emergentism vs Reductionism

57:28 Follow Dr. DeDeo’s work!  

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Follow Dr. DeDeo’ work:

Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/ybwzw2ee

Articles on Researchgate: https://tinyurl.com/ycpwv7c4

Twitter handle: @SimonDeDeo

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I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:

https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo

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