Social networks influence the evolution of cooperation and they exhibit strikingly systematic patterns across a wide range of human contexts. Both of these facts suggest that variation in the topological attributes of human social networks might have a genetic basis. While genetic variation accounts for a significant portion of the variation in many complex social behaviors, the heritability of egocentric social network attributes is unknown. Here we show that three of these attributes...

In this talk, Dr.Scott E. Page, University of Michigan, will present three models for explaining the wisdom of crowds phenomenon, in which collections make better predictions than the individuals that comprise them. The first two models will be traditional models based on error cancellation and averaging. The third will be based on aggregating diverse predictive models using a framework developed by Hong and Page (2008). This talk is part of Calit2's 2008-2009 Behavioral, Social and Computer...

I will consider the design of efficient and profit-maximizing Bayesian incentive-compatible mechanisms for general dynamic environments with private information. In the environment, agents observe a sequence of private signals over a number of periods. In each period, the agents report their private signals and choose public (contractible) and private actions based on the reports. The probability distribution over future signals may depend on both past signals and past decisions. The general...

Presentation by Christos Papadimitriou, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department, UC Berkeley, CA. Computational research transforms the sciences (physical, mathematical, life or social) not just by empowering them analytically, but mainly by providing a novel and powerful perspective which often leads to unforeseen insights. Examples abound: quantum computation provides the right forum for questioning and testing some of the most basic tenets of quantum physics, while...

Presented by Siddharth Suri, Yahoo! Research Scientist. A fundamental principle in social network research is that individuals can benefit from serving as intermediaries between others who are not directly connected. Through such intermediation, they potentially can broker the flow of information and synthesize ideas arising in different parts of the network. These principles form the underpinning for the theory of structural holes, which studies the ways in which individuals, particularly...

This is 25 MINUTE VIDEO OF THE 8 HOURS event. (Good resolution please wait for download if no immediate streaming.) Designing Design Research 7: "MORE is MORE 2 - 4D Product Design for The Everyday" DANA CENTRE, Science Museum, Queen's Gate, South Kensington, London, SW7, UK. Tuesday 6th May 2008. "Is complexity science with arts&design about give us 'polite robotic traffic lights', an 'angry robot toaster', and delightfully choreographed buildings"? MORE is MORE 2 was an...