Stuart Kauffman: There Is No Theory of Everything
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What does Stuart Kauffman mean when he says there is no Theory of Everything?
So if I'm right, there is no theory of everything.
We tend to operate on the sonorous promise that the world is understandable. Plato called it the Logos, Newton built his mechanics on it, even I, Kurt J. Mungle, with this channel, explicate theories of everything which assumes this intelligibility. Stuart Kaufman, one of the founders of complexity theory, says this assumption is egregiously incorrect. Kaufman actually finds a parallel to ancient Chinese philosophy. The Tau that can be said is not the eternal Tau. The biosphere that can be described is not the biosphere that will become. Toward the end of this conversation, Stuart Kaufman outlines some speculation on quantum gravity. He believes non-locality rules out string theory, loop quantum gravity, and even the holographic principle.
He maps von Neumann entropy to spatial distance, deriving DeSitter's space from entanglement. Don't worry, all of these technicalities are explained in the podcast itself. Now, whether this holds up, he admits, requires independent verification, but the biology, that's been 63 years in the making. I'm excited to bring you one of the only ever recorded podcasts with someone who helped build complexity theory from scratch, invented random Boolean networks at 23, and helped found the Santa Fe Institute. Institute Stuart Kaufman. What's the largest unsolved problem in complexity science?
Getting beyond its Utter dependence upon mathematics. Now, how's that for a strange response? L let me tell you about complexity theory. I know it well. Uh I was a you know I started doing it when I was twenty three. I'm eighty six. So that's sixty three years ago. Let me tell you what the problem was then. Um We didn't know why different cells express different genes. And at that time Jacob and Mano showed that one gene can make a protein That turns another gene off. Then they published a paper two years later, sixty-three, showing, imagine you've got two genes. Gene one represses gene two, gene two represses gene one, so it can have two states. One on, two off, one off, two on. So they solved a fundamental problem and got the Nobel Prize for it.
So I took one of the early steps, Kurt, in in inventing what became complexity theory. I wondered it was obvious that if there's we thought a hundred thousand genes at the time, and I thought, well, what if there's a hundred thousand genes and they're turning one another on and off? And I asked a funny question. I asked, Is there a class of networks and dynamics that would generically give rise to the order we see in ontogeny? And that's an odd question. To ask it you have to invent a class of networks. I invented random Boolean nets. So there's N binary variables and genes. Each one receives inputs drawn at random from k genes. and each one realizes an arbitrary Boolean function on its K inputs. There's two to the two to the K Boolean functions.
And then I studied the generic behavior of that ensemble of systems. It's really interesting. It turns out they're ordered, critical, or chaotic. And critical behavior predicts lots of the behaviors of actual cells and differentiation. So that was one of the early birthings of complexity theory published in nineteen sixty nine. In 1984, the Santa Fe Institute was founded. Two years later, Gellman and then chairman David Pines titled the conference Complex Adaptive Systems. It was wonderful, Kurt. About 20 people got together for two weeks. We absolutely fell in love with the idea of complex adaptive systems, but we didn't know what we were talking about. So the institute focused on for 15 years and has now.
It's spectacular. And SFI established complexity as a new field. That was wonderful. Here's where it's stuck. Evolving organisms are actually physical organisms. Um May I take a few moments now and actually tell you? Sure. The the the point is This is fundamental. You you are what is called a Kantian whole. Well, I call it a Kantian whole. So Kant in seventeen ninety-three or whatever said, in the critique of judgment. This profound, an organized being
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What does Stuart Kauffman mean when he says there is no Theory of Everything?
0:00–13:30
2
How did Kauffman’s invention of random Boolean networks shape complexity theory?
13:30–26:31
3
Why does Kauffman compare biological evolution to the ancient Chinese Tao rather than Plato’s Logos?
26:31–38:40
4
What are Darwinian exaptations and how do they illustrate open‑ended evolution?
38:40–51:18
5
How does Kauffman’s concept of a “Kantian whole” challenge reductionist physics?
51:18–1:04:05
6
What is the new quantum‑gravity proposal Kauffman outlines and why does it rule out string theory and loop quantum gravity?
1:04:05–1:16:02
7
How does the idea of constraint‑closure explain self‑organizing biological systems?
1:16:02–1:22:53
8
What advice does Kauffman give to young scientists and what does he see for the future of humanity?
1:22:53–1:24:08
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal
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Tim Maudlin: Quantum Nonlocality Explained FROM SCRATCH
Adrian Owen: Awake. Aware. Unable to Move.
Peter Godfrey-Smith: This Scientist Found Earth’s “Alien” Minds
Jacob Tsimerman: He Won Math's Highest Prize. Then Announced the End