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The universe exhibits a strong tendency to create - the universe itself arose out of nothing; galaxies, stars, and planets formed out of the primordial plasma; life began and evolved; human beings acquired the faculty of language and created complex societies. The universe can also destroy - stars collapse to form black holes; ecosystems collapse when stressed or deprived; companies and ventures fail; organisms die.

This talk presents a common mechanism for creation and destruction in life, the economy, and the universe, based on the concept of information. There is a natural tendency for information to be created and, once created, to evolve into more complex forms. By the same mechanism, however, there is an equally natural tendency for these complex forms to degrade, malfunction, and collapse. Implications for economics, ecology, and cosmology will be discussed by Professor Seth Lloyd, Oxford Martin Visiting Fellow and Nam P. Suh Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

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About the speaker

Professor Seth Lloyd an Oxford Martin Visiting Fellow and Nam P. Suh Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Seth's research focuses on problems on information and complexity in the universe. He was the first person to develop a realizable model for quantum computation and is working with a variety of groups to construct and operate quantum computers and quantum communication systems.

Professor Lloyd has worked to establish fundamental physical limits to precision measurement and to develop algorithms for quantum computers for pattern recognition and machine learning. Seth's work on complex systems currently focuses on transitions between stability and instability in complex dynamical systems. He is author of over two hundred scientific papers, and of ‘Programming the Universe’ (Knopf, 2004).