Stephen Wolfram, Unpredictable Causality (Chaos), and Free Will

Addendum (20110314), "Chaos theory, and Stephen Wolfram's Mathematica emulation of "chaos," could help us understand how complexity can arise out of chaotic events. And thus Mathematica may give us an inkling of how life could have arose from simple interactions (what he calls "programs") between certain molecules under the right circumstances. However, one must bear in mind that once life arose, pure chaos ended, because after biological systems arose, natural selection begin regulating the degree of "chaos" and complexity existing within each system. Sure, the random mutation and genetic drift may still fit the definition given to chaos. Thus, in that sense chaos may contribute to new genotypes. But then natural selection acts upon those genotypes via the emerging phenotypes. Therefore, the organs of the body, such as the brain, are not chaotic systems but causally determined systems created by natural selection. And thus free will isn't a phenomenon that can ever be emulated by Mathematica and explained by chaos theory. This is because Free will is an old illusion that can be understood for what it is by using interdisciplinary, reductionistic, and reverse engineering approaches for studying the human brain." The three clips of which this video is composed came from a lecture by Stephen Wolfram. Details follow, including links to a Wiki bio and to his WWW Sites. --------------------------------------------- The H. Paul Rockwood Memorial Lecture: A New Kind of Science - Stephen Wolfram First Aired: 6/1/2003 Total run time: 86 minutes Noted scientist Stephen Wolfram shares his perspective of how the unexpected results of simple computer experiments have forced him to consider a whole new way of looking at processes in our universe. http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=7153 --------------------------------------------- Stephen Wolfram: Official Website Site created 1995. © 2010 Stephen Wolfram, LLC http://www.stephenwolfram.com --------------------------------------------- Wolfram Science -- The Official Website of Stephen Wolfram's 'A New Kind of Science' http://www.wolframscience.com --------------------------------------------- Stephen Wolfram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Stephen Wolfram (born 29 August 1959) is a British physicist, software developer, mathematician, author and businessman, known for his work in theoretical particle physics, cosmology, cellular automata, computational complexity theory, computer algebra, the Mathematica software application, and the Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Wolfram --------------------------------------------- Chaos theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Applications · Chaotic dynamics · History · Distinguishing random ... Chaos theory is a field of study in applied mathematics, with applications in several disciplines including physics, economics, biology and philosophy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory --------------------------------------------- Game theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that is used in the social sciences, most notably in economics, as well as in biology (particularly evolutionary biology and ecology), engineering, political science, international relations, computer science, social psychology, philosophy and management. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory --------------------------------------------- Tags: Software application, Mathematical software, Stephen Wolfram, Partical physics, Complexity theory, UCTV, UCtelevision, Unseenstrings, Determinism, Causality, Free will, Cosmology, Randomness, Human uniqueness, TOE, Theory of everything, Chaos theory, Deterministic chaos, AI, Artificial intelligence, Game theory