This is Part IV of a series in which Gemma explores what happens When Complexity Science Meets Convergence Research. Read Part III here.

This is a timely topic given the big COVID context: working with uncertainty is one of the biggest challenges this pandemic has presented to humanity as a whole, and to each individual according to their unique contexts.

It just so happens that uncertainty is one of the central topics in complexity science. As Ilya Prigogine, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977 for his contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, illustrated in his book The End of Certainty:

We are now able to include probabilities in the formulation of the basic laws of physics. Once this is done, Newtonian determinism fails; the future is no longer determined by the present, and the symmetry between past and future is broken. We need not only laws, but also events that bring an element of radical novelty to the description of nature.

Ilya Prigogine, The End of Certainty

We had a beautiful time together. Surprisingly, instead of anxiety, we walked away with deep appreciation for and high confidence working with uncertainty.

You can read more about our team’s lesson in uncertainty here.