Aalto Systems Forum

Who and What Determines the Future?

A Public Lecture by Dr. John Casti

Thursday, November 25th 2010 at 16.00-17.00
House of Science and Letters, Kirkkokatu 6, Helsinki, Hall 505

His latest book, Mood Matters: From Rising Skirt Lengths to the Collapse of World Powers addresses the directions and patterns of social causation and their implications for future trends and collective social events, such as styles in popular culture, the outcome of political processes, and even the rise and fall of civilizations. Dr. Casti will address these phomenona in the light of this book which has received plenty of positive acclaim. Link to full abstract.

Background:

Dr. John Casti is a Senior Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria, where he heads an initiative for the study of Extreme Events in Human Society.

He has previously worked at the RAND Corporation, University of Arizona, New York University and Princeton University. He took up a position as a Professor of Operations Research and System Theory at the Technical University of Vienna. He has also been a member of the faculty of the Santa Fe Institute.

Dr. Casti has written numerous articles, technical monographs and textbooks on mathematical modeling. His research interests have gradually shifted to the exploration of questions in the social and behavioral realm and, in particular, the relationship between social "moods" and their consequent social actions and behaviors.

Please register:

The event is organized in collaboration with the Finnish Operations Research Society (FORS). Participants are kindly requested to register in advance by sending an email to Jussi Kangaspunta by November 21 (jussi.kangaspunta@tkk.fi).

Related seminar:

Finnish Operations Research Society seminar on the recognition of extreme events in risk management. This seminar takes place in the same lecture hall starting at 13.00. Inquiries: Jussi Kangaspunta, jussi.kangaspunta@tkk.fi

Aalto Systems Forum

The growing challenge of our time is the need to have the ability to see and manage wholes, i.e. systems. The Aalto Systems Forum aims to be a platform of dialogue for practitioners and reasearchers to share the latest results of the field by top international scholars.

Aalto Systems Forum is organized by the Systems Analysis Laboratory of the Aalto University School of Science and Technology. http://www.sal.hut.fi/en/aaltosystemsforum/