What is history anyway? Most people would say it's what happened in the past, but how far back does the past extend? To the first written sources? To what other forms of evidence reveal about pre-literate civilizations? What does that term mean--an empire, a nation, a city, a village, a family, a lonely hermit somewhere? Why stop with people: shouldn't history also comprise the environment in which they exist, and if so on what scale and how far back? And as long as we're headed in that direction, why stop with the earth and the solar system? Why not go all the way back to the Big Bang itself?
There's obviously no consensus on how to answer these questions, but even asking them raises another set of questions about history: who should be doing it? Traditionally trained historians, for whom archives are the only significant source? Historians willing to go beyond archives, who must therefore rely on, and to some extent themselves become, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, archeologists? But if they're also going to take environments into account, don't they also have to know something about climatology, biology, paleontology, geology, and even astronomy? And how can they do that without knowing some basic physics, chemistry, and mathematics?
This inaugural volume of the SFI Press (the new publishing arm of the Santa Fe Institute) attempts to address these questions via thoughtful essays on history written by distinguished scholars--including Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann--from across a wide range of fields.

History, Big History, & Metahistory (Seminar)

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Santa Fe Institute Press

Like many other sciences, archaeology is experiencing a data deluge. The recent accumulation of accessible data on early urban societies, coupled with the re-emergence of comparative studies, puts modern scholars in a position to make significant theoretical advances concerning the key episode of human social organization that provided the foundations of the contemporary world: the formation of the state. A complex systems approach--pioneered at the Santa Fe Institute--involves fully interdisciplinary explorations of long-debated questions. Can basic quantitative analysis of human social evolution reveal macrocultural processes? Can we understand social cohesion by way of cultural genotypes? And does the emergence of social complexity involve the creation of new potential or the realization of latent human capabilities? In this volume, many of the foremost experts in quantitative archaeology and anthropology leverage innovative methodologies--including agent-based modeling, network analysis, and theoretical applications of evolutionary biology--to push the field in new directions.

The Emergence of Premodern States: New Perspectives on the Development of Complex Societies (Sfi Press Seminar)

Politics & Social Sciences

Anthropology

Over the last three decades, the Santa Fe Institute and its network of researchers have been pursuing a revolution in science.Ignoring the boundaries of disciplines and schools and searching for novel fundamental ideas, theories, and practices, this international community integrates the full range of scientific inquiries that will help us to understand and survive on a complex planet.This volume collects essays from the past thirty years of research, in which contributors explain in clear and accessible language many of the deepest challenges and insights of complexity science.Explore the evolution of complex systems science with chapters from Nobel Laureates Murray Gell-Mann and Kenneth Arrow, aswell as numerous pioneering complexity researchers, including John Holland, Brian Arthur, Robert May, Richard Lewontin, Jennifer Dunne, and Geoffrey West.

Worlds Hidden in Plain Sight: Thirty Years of Complexity Thinking at the Santa Fe Institute

Krakauer, David C.

Science & Math

Why do computers use so much energy? What are the fundamental physical laws governing the relationship between the precise computation run by a system, whether artificial or natural, and how much energy that computation requires? Can we learn how to improve efficiency in computing by examining how biological computers manage to be so efficient? The time is ripe for a new synthesis of nonequilibrium physics, computer science, and biochemistry. 
This volume integrates pure and applied concepts from these diverse fields, with the goal of cultivating a modern, nonequilibrium thermodynamics of computation.

The Energetics of Computing in Life and Machines (Seminar)

Physics

To fully understand not only the past, but also the trajectories, of human societies, we need a more dynamic view of human social systems. Agent-based modeling (ABM), which can create fine-scale models of behavior over time and space, may reveal important, general patterns of human activity. Agent-Based Modeling for Archaeology is the first ABM textbook designed for researchers studying the human past. Appropriate for scholars from archaeology, the digital humanities, and other social sciences, this book offers novices and more experienced ABM researchers a modular approach to learning ABM and using it effectively.\nReaders will find the necessary background, discussion of modeling techniques and traps, references, and algorithms to use ABM in their own work. They will also find engaging examples of how other scholars have applied ABM, ranging from the study of the intercontinental migration pathways of early hominins, to the weather–crop–population cycles of the American Southwest, to the trade networks of Ancient Rome. This textbook provides the foundations needed to simulate the complexity of past human societies, offering researchers a richer understanding of the past—and likely future—of our species.\nThe electronic version of this textbook can be downloaded for free at: https://santafeinstitute.github.io/ABMA/

Agent-Based Modeling for Archaeology: Simulating the Complexity of Societies

Romanowska, Iza

Wren, Colin D.

Crabtree, Stefani A.

Archaeology