22 Apr 2010
I N V I T A T I O N
L u n c h l e c t u r e
Network Sustainable Development TU Delft
Date: Thursday, 29 April 2010, 12.30-13.30
Location: Cultureel Centrum, Mekelweg 10
Lecturer: Dr. ir. Igor Nikolic
Complexity of Sustainability
Engineering from the bottom up?
Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, “OK, today I am going to be unsustainable!” It is the large number of people and the myriad of different decisions taken every moment of the day that has led to the self-organization of an unsustainable society.
It is the same kind of process that leads to hurricanes, termite mounds and Wikipedia. They are all emergent complex phenomena, arising from simple interactions of many components, acting and reacting to each other simultaneously. They are all complex adaptive systems, that have evolved from simple systems over time. Complexity theory allows for a coherent, holistic perspective on this process of emergence.
Complex adaptive systems are chaotic, resilient to change, observer and path dependent, which makes a single perspective on, and solution for sustainability impossible. Acknowledging this complexity potentially allows for emergence engineering, providing new perspectives on sustainability.
Please sign up before Monday 26 April 12.00, at TPM, Technology Dynamics and Sustainable Development group, e-mail secretariaat-T&DO@tbm.tudelft.nl, p: 015-2783791, www.tbm.tudelft.nl/tdo.
