Foundational Papers in Complexity Science pp. 715–732
DOI: 10.37911/9781947864535.22
Café Roots & Fruits
Author: Erica Jen, Santa Fe Institute
Excerpt
Stan Ulam’s 1962 paper on the mathematics of growth patterns introduced the paradigm of complex behavior emerging in the spatiotemporal evolution of simple discrete dynamical systems, and pioneered the use of computer simulations to explore their analytically recalcitrant features.
The roots of Ulam’s work lay in a café known as the Kawiarnia Szkocka (Scottish Café) in the city of Lwów, Poland. From the 1930s up until the German occupation in 1941, it was a gathering place for Polish mathematicians including Hugo Steinhaus, Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Ulam, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński, Mark Kac, John von Neumann, and many others. As such, it was the birthplace of core mathematical constructs, including functions of real variables, function spaces, the concept of measure, and the foundations of probability theory. Cellular automata (CA), invented by Ulam and von Neumann a decade or so after the forced dispersal of their colleagues and themselves, belong to this lineage as well.
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