Rick Quax

University of Amsterdam

Title: Defining and discovering (causal) information flows: nudge causality

Abstract

Seemingly very different systems may actually display the same kind of (complex) emergent behavior. We argue that (Shannon's) information theory, or an appropriately generalized version, may bring a revolution in the form of a unified theoretical framework in complexity science. A crucial concept in this framework is that of 'information flows' among (stochastic) dynamical variables. In this talk I will explore causal interpretations of information flows, a possible way to detect causal information flows, and present an outlook of challenges in the multivariate setting. The work presented is part of an ongoing effort to develop a novel viewpoint on causality based on small interventions.

CV

Dr. Rick Quax is Assistant Professor in the Computational Science Lab (CSL) at the University of Amsterdam. His interests include studying emergent behaviors exhibited by complex adaptive systems such as phase transitions, tipping points, and controllability, using information theory and computational modelling. The application domains are diverse and include financial markets, social systems, ecosystems, and marine and cell biology.