My name is Mason Porter. I am a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at UCLA. Previously I was Professor of Nonlinear and Complex Systems in the Mathematical Institute at University of Oxford. I was also a Tutorial Fellow of Somerville College.
Sunday, July 24, 2022
What Happens at Santa Fe Institute Stays at Santa Fe Institute
I am heading off to Santa Fe Institute (SFI) for a bit.
It is I, Ellie Kesselman, sometimes EllieAsksWhy, whom you may recall from Quora. We follow each other there. Quora has degraded a lot, as you may have noticed. I know a few of your UCLA math department colleagues slightly, as fellow Wikipedia math editors. I suspect that I know you from some other nook or cranny of the Internet but it has slipped my mind.
All of that is by way of preface to my perhaps impertinent question: Might you give us some insights about what goes on at the Santa Fe Institute? It need not be too detailed. I am curious because I grew up in Las Cruces which was due south of Santa Fe a few miles from New Mexico State University. Emmanuel Derman, the cranky physics guy (well, he is cranky with me but nice to better-behaved people) would go to Santa Fe Institute periodically, and had the same 'Fight Club' ethos as you of keeping what went on there a secret. My father majored in physics with Murray-Gellman a few, um, a lot of years back; M-G is at Santa Fe Institute, so it isn't as though I don't know who frequents the place. That was a tiny joke.
I have also been curious to ask you about some of the more flamboyant complexity accounts on Twitter. There are lots of impresarios on Twitter! Although I am skeptical of many of them, I notice that people who are otherwise credible in another field of expertise are easily awed by complexity types. It is almost an Elon Musk wow-factor! There is one in particular, Paul Port3si, about whom I have some doubts. I have resorted to l337 speak for discretion.
I do notice that, say, NN Taleb, Derman, and Judea Pearl (admittedly not hard core complexity types) are polite and encouraging but never give extravagant praise on Twitter!
It is I, Ellie Kesselman, sometimes EllieAsksWhy, whom you may recall from Quora. We follow each other there. Quora has degraded a lot, as you may have noticed. I know a few of your UCLA math department colleagues slightly, as fellow Wikipedia math editors. I suspect that I know you from some other nook or cranny of the Internet but it has slipped my mind.
ReplyDeleteAll of that is by way of preface to my perhaps impertinent question: Might you give us some insights about what goes on at the Santa Fe Institute? It need not be too detailed. I am curious because I grew up in Las Cruces which was due south of Santa Fe a few miles from New Mexico State University. Emmanuel Derman, the cranky physics guy (well, he is cranky with me but nice to better-behaved people) would go to Santa Fe Institute periodically, and had the same 'Fight Club' ethos as you of keeping what went on there a secret. My father majored in physics with Murray-Gellman a few, um, a lot of years back; M-G is at Santa Fe Institute, so it isn't as though I don't know who frequents the place. That was a tiny joke.
I have also been curious to ask you about some of the more flamboyant complexity accounts on Twitter. There are lots of impresarios on Twitter! Although I am skeptical of many of them, I notice that people who are otherwise credible in another field of expertise are easily awed by complexity types. It is almost an Elon Musk wow-factor! There is one in particular, Paul Port3si, about whom I have some doubts. I have resorted to l337 speak for discretion.
I do notice that, say, NN Taleb, Derman, and Judea Pearl (admittedly not hard core complexity types) are polite and encouraging but never give extravagant praise on Twitter!