Influencia oculta de las redes socialesHidden influence of Social Networks

Charla en TED de profesor Nicholas A. Christakis, sobre como las redes sociales influyen el desarrollo de fenomenos sociales. La importancia de las redes no es siempre obvia y esta charla promueve muy bien el interés por identificar esa importancia e ilustrar sus efectos, en especial con la caracterizacion de fenomenologias complejas como la obesidad.
En ingles.

TED talk by Nicholas A. Christakis on how social networks influence the development of social phenomena. The importance of networks is not always obvious, and this talk does a very good job in identifying this importance andd highlighting its effects, specially with regard to complex social phenomena such as obesity.



Investigador
El profesor Christakis enseña en la universidad de Harvard y mayor información sobre su trabajo se puede encontrar en: Professor Christakis teaches at Harvard University and more information on his work can be found at:
1.- Su pagina en Harvard / His harvard page
2.- Pagina EDGE sobre su biografía / EDGE article
3.- Wikipedia

Alerta: primera Celula Sintetica / Alert: first Synthetic cell

En un anuncio esperdo pero preocupante el 21 de mayo 2010, Craig Venter anuncia la creacion de la primera celula sintetica, cuyo DNA fue disenado por un computador.

In an expected but anyway unsettling announcement on 21 may 2010, Craig Venter informs on the successful creation of an synthetic Cell, whose DNA has been completely designed by a computer.

Introduccion a la Ciencia de la Complejidad / Introduction to Complexity Science

Introduction to Complexity Science

Lecture at Southampton University by professor Dr. Seth Bullock

Superorganismos - Superorganisms

Superorganismos son individuos agregados que poseen un comportamiento de un organismo unificado. Miembros de un superorganismo tiene instintos sociales altamente especializdos, division de trabajo, y son incapaces de sobrevivir lejos del su superorganismo por mucho tiempo. El ejemplo estandar para un superorganismo son las colonias de hormigas, pero existen muchos otros -- colonias de termitas, abejas, nidos de abispas, coral, sociedades de arboles geneticamente identicos, etc.

Este video muestra una charla en relacion al libro "Super-Organismo", publicado el 2009, y escrito por Bert Hölldobler & E.O. Wilson (autor además del clasico "Sociobiologia")

A superorganism is any aggregate of individual organisms that behaves like a unified organism. Members of a superorganism have highly specialized social cooperative instincts, divisions of labor, and are unable to survive away from their superorganism for very long. The standard example of a superorganism is an ant colony, but there are many others -- termite mounds, bee hives, wasp nests, coral reefs, fungal colonies, groves of genetically identical trees, etc.

This video shows a talk in relation to the 2009 published book "Super-Organism" by Bert Hölldobler & E.O. Wilson (Author also of the classic work "Sociobiology")

Product Details (Amazon) Hardcover: 544 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (November 17, 2008) Language: English ISBN-10: 0393067041 ISBN-13: 978-0393067040 Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.1 x 1.6 inches

Product Details (Amazon) Paperback: 720 pages Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition edition (March 4, 2000) Language: English ISBN-10: 0674002350 ISBN-13: 978-0674002357 Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 9.7 x 1.5 inches

La vida Secreta del Caos - The Secret Life of Chaos

Este es un programa de la BBC de Londres, que investiga el desarrollo de la Ciencia del Caos y la Complejidad. Fascinante. Esta en Ingles.

This is a program from BBC broadcasted in 2010, and which investigates the development of complexity Science. Fascinating.

PART 1 / PARTE 1


PART 2 / PARTE 2


PART 3 / PARTE 3


PART 4 / PARTE 4


PART 5 / PARTE 5


PART 6 / PARTE 6

Estructuras complejas - Enjambres

Este impresionante video muestra el resultado de cientos de miles de pajaros volando y las impresionantes estructuras que forman a la distancia.

Centro de Ciencia de la Complejidad en Univ. de Warwick

La Universidad de Warwick se esta convirtiendo en uno de los centros mas importantes a nivel europeo y mundial en la investigacion de sistemas adaptativos complejos. Es necesario saber como funcionan, como es posible influir sobre sus efectos, como es posible medir la complejidad.
Este video muestra la actividad de este centro y entrega una pequeña introduccion en aplicaciones pracicas potenciales de esta forma de enfrentar los fenomenos complejos.

Warwick University is quickly becoming on the main research centres at a european level in the subject of Complexuty Science and Complex Adaptive Systems. It's necessary to determine how they work, how is it possible to influence their effects and how the complexity can be measured, for effective scientific approach to its management.
This video shows the activity of ths Research Center, and introduced briefly some practical ways in which this new form of approaching complex problems can be applied.

Resolviendo el trafico como las hormigas

El uso de algoritmos basados en la organizacion de las hormigas para la generacion de modelos para el control de trafico, parece ser una prometerdora aplicacion de la inteligencia distribuida de enjambres, y la modelacion basada en agentes. Reportaje está en ingles.

The use of algorithms based on ant organization for the generation of trafic control models, appears to be a promessing application for distributed inteligence, and agent based models. Video in english

Comportamiento emergente - canto de multitudes

Este video es un ejemplo de comportamiento emergente de las multitudes. Bobby McFerrin, musico de vasta trayectoria habilmente y literalmente "orquesta" a la multitud para cantar la escala pentatonica sin errores.
Aqui nuevamente, ninguno de los miembros del publico necesariamente es un musico (la conferencia donde todo esto ocurre es sobre neurociencia), sin embargo la multitud en su conjunto genera un comportamiento que sorprende incluso a sus mismos miembros de la multitud experimentando el comportamiento. Por favor veanlo, es soprendente.

This video is an example of the emergent behaviour of crowds. Bobby McFerrin, a musician of vast experience craftfully and literally, "orchestrates" the crowd into singing a pentatonic scale with no flaws.
Here again, although no single crowd member might be a musician (the conference was about neuroscience), the crowd as a whole achieves a behavior perfectly, and which suprises even the members of the crowd achieving the behaviour. Please watch it's staggering

Arquitectura que se auto-repara? TED Talk

La forma de construir actual se basa en gran medida en metodos victorianos que resultan en una transferencia unidireccional de energia desde la naturaleza hacia nuestros hogares y ciudades. Esto no puede ser sustentable.

El presente video, muestra una idea aun en su etapa conceptual, sobre formas distintas en que podria organizarse esta transferencia de energia que conectara a las ciudades con la naturaleza en vez de aislarla de ella. Rachel Armstrong, medico, se encuentra actualmente trabajando en tecnologias de materiales metabolicos, buscando las caraceristicas que puedan convertirlos en auto-reparables.

The present form of construction is largely based on victorian methods, that result in a uni-directional transfer of energy from nature into our cities and homes. This is not sustainable.
The video presented here is an idea, still in its conceptual phase (with some laboratory research under way), on ways this energy transfer could connect the cities to the enviroment, instead of isolating them from it. Rachel Armstrong, Medical Doctor, is at present working on technologies relating to metabolic materials, that would render them auto-repairable, for instance.

Enjambres roboticos

Como seguimiento al blog publicado por mi el pasado (ver aqui), se presenta este video sobre tecnologias roboticas que estan haciendo uso de modelos sobre sistemas adaptativos complejos para oraganizar un enjambre de minirobots en la resolucion de problemas.
As a follow-up of my previos posts on the subject (see here) I present this video on robotic technologies making use of Complex Adaptive systems Models to organize a swarm of mini-robots in the search for possible solutions to complex problems.

Entrevista a Richard Dawkins - Nuevo libro

Esta es una entrevista el pasado 11 de septiembre a Richard Dawkins, Zoologo de la Universidad de Oxford, acerrimo defensor de la teoria de la evolucion, y apodado el "Rottweiler de Darwin" por su forma de fieramente defender su legado
En esta ocasion es entrevistado a causa de su ultimo libro, "The greatest show on earth", en el cual habla de las pruebas alrededor de todos nosotros que fundamentan que la evolucion tal como fue modelada y mostrada al mundo inicialmente por Charles Darwin, esta perpetuamente ocurriendo, y afecta cada aspecto de nuestra existencia.
El siguiente video es una introduccion del mismo profesor Dawkins sobre su libro.

Debo decir que felizmente espero añadir esta nueva obra a mi biblioteca en cuanto llegue desde Amazon, informado como a comienzos de octubre.

Economia de Codigo Abierto

Yochai Benkler, profesor de derecho en la Universiad de Nueva York, comenta sobre el tema que lo ha apasionado desde hace ya varios años: la economia de codigo abierto y la forma como la sociedad ha cambiado bajo la influencia de nuevas capacidades de comunicacion y el rol que cada uno esta tomando en la generacion de conocimiento.

Susan Blackmore sobre los Memes

Susan Blackmore, autora del libro "The Meme Machine", y en respuesta y desarrollo del concepto de Meme indicado por Richard Dawinks en su influyente libro "El gen egoista", define estos procesos de transferencia cultural y su modelacion como verdaderas "infecciones" a traves de los seres humanos.

The secret, social lives of bacteria

This video above is called The secret, social lives of bacteria, by a very dynamic speaking and brilliant molecular biologist named Bonnie Bassler of Princeton.

Unless you need to study about bacteria in some way, this 18 minute talk is pretty much all you need to know about bacteria and their impact on us. However, this is not just basic fundamental Bacteria 101. It also has cutting edge science put in such basic terms we could all understand it and be amazed. So even if you did study bacteria, there is likely something you can still learn from this talk. They need to show this video in any introductory class having anything to do with bacteria!

The amazing parts about this talk show a simple but potent system in the way bacteria strategically work together, and how we can use that system to negate their potential harm to us rather than killing them with antibiotics. Bacteria have to strategically work together because they are so small it is only together that they can have any impact on us. Their communications system is a simple but brilliant system of determining how many bacteria are in some locale, and bacteria of each types around them, and if that is sufficient numbers to do something. So much for having no brains! We have brains and yet we couldn’t hope to organize ourselves so effectively most of the time!

The language of bacteria is also discussed, and what’s shocking is the molecules they use to send out and receive to detect their numbers and identities all have a common root. No exceptions! It’s like our languages stemming from a common family! This discovery then allows us to create similar molecules to fool the bacteria into not doing what we don’t want them to, without killing them like antibiotics does. The reason for this is because antibiotics, in killing the bacteria, allows the ones that survive to mutate and become stronger. We are facing a huge antibiotic resistance from bacteria right now due to our overuse of antibiotics. If we keep this up, we will not win this war.

However, if we just fool the bacteria by running interference with their communication systems, to the point they never know there are enough of themselves to attack, they won’t mutate nearly as quickly. And we can do this specifically for all kinds of bacteria because their language molecules are very simple to determine.

Uncovering the secret of the ants

Giant Ant Colony is a World Wonder - Watch more Funny Videos

Behavioural Economics - Stealing

In this Video, DAn Ariely examines what are the probable bases for stealing. According to his experiments, there are several factors influencing the likelihood that someone will cheat or steal: "Distance" from money, Ingroup/Outgroup cheating incentive, anonimity, etc.

Apparently the capability to cheating is something endemic and widespread, albeit the cheating is normally small.

Stepping outside the Moral Matrix

In this Video Jonathan Heidt proposes al alternative for stepping "outside" the moral matrix (just as in the movie The Matrix) we are all constantly immersed. Several things are proposed here:

1.- Human beings are born with an innitial draft in regard with moral principles, which are modelled afterwards (amplified or diminshed) by the environment. This is reinfoced by several other researchers, whose books I will comment later.

2.- Cooperation is reinforced by punishing the freeriders, and what is more, people will spend resources in this punishment, aiming towards a state of "Fairness". Please consider Axelrod's book Evolution of Cooperation for other good example of this conclusion.

3.- Basic differences in regard with the innitial moral aspects are shown between Liberal, Libertarian and Conservative points of view,

"If you want the thrith to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between "for" and "against" is the mind's worst disease - Sent ts'an, 700CE