Causality: prelude

For the rest of this week I am ensconced at a resort hotel on the Gold Coast talking about causality with a mixed group of academics and practitioners. Expect a few posts on this as the seminar opens up and I have the closing keynote on Friday. Leaving Heathrow on an A380 with new windows (see picture of the Thames after take off) I reflected on the fact that I was about to engage in two 26 plus hour trips in a week to spend three days in conference on a ten hour time difference. Now it may sound crazy, but physical presence is necessary for complex discussions with people from difference disciplines whose personalities and thoughts you don’t know. It is also an important subject. I suspect we will have on on one side what I will call the Engineering faction who talk about systems of systems and on the other those of us who see complex systems as being to all intents and purposes non-causal in nature, but we will see. I’ll publish reflective comments as the week progresses.