UM6P will host the third edition of the "UM6P Science Week"
From February 20 to 26, 2023: The Science Week of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University addresses the theme of complexity
Wednesday, February 15, 2023: On the occasion of its third edition of Science Week, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University brings together scientists, researchers and thinkers from February 20 to 26, 2023, on its campuses in Benguerir and Laayoune.
This year, Science Week will be placed under the theme of complexity, one of the most important themes of our time. Complexity is present in the acceleration of time, in generalized communication and its spectacular transformations, in the interdependence of societies within the biosphere (which they now affect). Financial markets and digital networks, social insects and swarm intelligence, flocks of birds and schools of fish, lightning gathering and the wisdom of crowds, earthquakes and floods, global warming, etc., all these phenomena are part of the sciences of complexity.
Complexity, intuitively, is when ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’. Classical science, deterministic and reductionist, cuts objects into elementary parts to better analyze them. Conversely, the sciences of complexity highlight non-linearity, the emerging dimension of properties and the evolution over time (the becoming) of a system, an object or a phenomenon. All this is part of the non-linear sciences that have developed since the 1970s, particularly within the Santa Fe Institute, whose founding members will participate in Science Week. UM6P intends to continue research on complexity by highlighting another perspective, that of the countries of the South.
Among the most prominent figures taking part in Science Week, Edgar Morin will open with a discussion on the ‘challenge of complexities in times of crisis’; Stephen Wolfram will address ‘the foundations and implications of complexity’; Dany-Robert Dufour, Muhammad Yldirim, Alan Kirman, Pierre-Noël Giraud and Redouane Taouil will discuss complexity in economics; David Chavalarias and Johan Bollen will discuss ‘toxic data and networks’.
Jamal Chaouki, Hassan Ghaziri and Steen Rasmussen will discuss ‘engineering and ingenuity’; Luc Steels will present his views on the promises and limitations of contemporary AI; Hugues Bersini will continue with ‘algocracy’ and will ask whether algorithms will ever take power; Hervé Zwirn will focus on ‘computational irreducibility and emergence’; Gregory Chaitin will give a lecture on ‘‘Complexity and Metamathematics’’; Stuart Kauffman will discuss the choices that must be made to act in a short time frame within the Anthropocene; while Ivar Ekeland will address the crucial question of the nature of climate change: transition, bifurcation or catastrophe?
Each department of the university, supported by external speakers, will explore the relationship between ‘‘complexity’’ and its discipline through lectures and discussions throughout the week.
Alongside these scientific exchanges, exhibitions will be set up, a bookstore will offer a variety of works on non-linear sciences and cultural activities will also address the artistic expression of the theme: a talk-recital by Giovanni Bellucci devoted mainly to Beethoven and his monumental Hammerklavier sonata, a choir led by Ikram Chairi and a concert of Gnaoua music by Hamid Kasri are notably on the program of a scientific week rich in experiences and knowledge sharing.
