Complexity is a slippery idea. Things that seem complicated can be astoundingly simple; things that seem simple can be dizzyingly complex. A houseplant may be more intricate than a manufacturing plant. A colony of garden ants may be more complicated than a community of people. Jeffrey Kluger discusses his new book, Simplexity, which explores how the very idea of simplicity and complexity are being redefined and how that new view is being used to improve our lives in fields as diverse as economics, biology, chemistry, psychology, politics, the arts, and more.

Jeffrey Kluger is the science editor of Time magazine and the author or coauthor of five other books, including the bestseller Apollo 13, which served as the basis of the 1995 movie; Splendid Solution, Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio; and Nacky Patcher and the Curse of the Dry-Land Boats, a fantasy novel.

Reading of a Play by Lauren Gunderson
Presented by Break Leg Productions

Panel Discussion and Question Session Following:
Brian Schwartz (moderator),
John Noble Wilford (NY Times science reporter) and
Lauren Gunderson (the playwright).

Play details: In 1948, as a young doctoral student, Ralph Alpher wrote the first mathematical model for the creation of the universe and predicted the discovery of cosmic background radiation that proves the Big Bang theory. He was ahead of his time. Decades later, two radio astronomers tuning their equipment stumbled on proof of Alpher's background radiation. They got the credit ? and the
Nobel Prize.

PRE-REGISTERING holds your seat until 15 minutes before curtain, then seating is first come, first served. Pre-register by phone or email: 212-817-8215 or continuinged@gc.cuny.edu, and refer to registration number #7457.

WHO

Owen Flanagan
Co-Director of Duke's Center for Comparative Philosophy

WHAT

Philosophers call theories that promote or promise
happiness "eudaimonistic." Aristotle and J.S. Mill
are eudaimonistic moral philosophers. Kant who
famously said "it is one thing to be happy another
to be good," is non-eudaimonistic. Is Buddhism
eudaimonistic or not? This will be Flanagan's topic. He shall explore it by making some (hopefully) plausible interpretive points about the general structure of Buddhist ethics as a philosophical theory, especially as this ethic is embodied in the Bodhisattva ideal. He shall also discuss some widely hyped -- and equally overstated -- empirical claims about Buddhism and happiness. His answer to the question about whether Buddhism is eudaimonistic is this: maybe. :)

* All are welcome to attend dinner afterward with the speaker.
Dinner guests are responsible for the cost of their own meals.
If you plan on attending dinner, please send an email RSVP
to Christopher Kelley (cdk2001@columbia.edu).

For directions see columbia.edu/cu/fachouse/directions.html

Presenters:

Paul Steinhardt ? Albert Einstein Professor of Science, departments of physics and astrophysical sciences at Princeton University

Neil Turok ? Chair of mathematical physics, department of applied mathematics and theoretical physics at Cambridge University

Presentation description:

The Big Bang explains the origin of the Universe, how galaxies and stars formed, and why the expansion of the Universe is speeding up today. But what caused the Big Bang in the first place? Could it be that what we think of as the moment of creation was simply part of an infinite cycle of titanic collisions between our Universe and another one?

For advance reservations (recommended) call (212) 769-5200 Monday through Friday 9am to 5pm.

Student and senior discount tickets are $12.

Host: Steven J. Pinker, Harvard University

Speakers: Bruce Lahn, University of Chicago; Rebecca Saxe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In tonight's New Vistas lecture, a leader in the field of cognitive neuroscience moderates a discussion with two researchers who explore how the physiology of the brain gives rise to our experience of mind.