Scholar to speak on complex view.

Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

There's a kind of wonder that emanates from Alder Fuller when he talks.

A scholar with degrees in math, biology, ecology and evolution, Fuller can knowledgably chat about science's most intriguing ideas - chaos theory, fractal geometry, self-organizing systems, symbiogenesis - all topics under the broad umbrella of the emerging science of complexity.

But unlike many in the rarefied air of academia, Fuller thinks all of us should be able to talk about this stuff. A former community college science and math instructor, he began devoting all his time to teaching complexity at a learning center he opened several years ago in Eugene.

Beginning Monday, he's offering three free lectures, both as a thank you to area residents for supporting his school and as a preview of the classes he's offering beginning Oct. 2.

His students run the social gamut. Some are University of Oregon students. Others are ordinary folks - waiters, activists, software programmers - who want to broaden their horizons.

"The models of complexity are changing our ideas of how nature and everything in it works in a very fundamental way," Fuller said. "The new view is, in my opinion, very elegant and beautiful."

His first free lecture is a primer on the subject. The two follow-up lectures concern global warming.

There will be math in the first lecture, but there won't be numbers. Fuller will introduce a topic of cellular automata. Graphically displayed by black-and-white images on a screen, it is used to model immensely complex systems - the human brain or solar systems, for example.

"It's exciting because cellular automata is fairly easy to understand for someone who is not particularly mathematically minded," he said. "It's fun to play with."

The global warming lectures, however, aren't quite as much fun. That's because the news about global warming is more pessimistic than many news stories have led people to believe, Fuller said.

The old notion that the climate will change gradually has pretty much fallen by the wayside, he said. The fact is, researchers are finding that global change can happen much more quickly than early models predicted, with shifts from temperate to ice age accomplished in less than a decade.

Fuller will offer an overview of nonlinear dynamics to help people understand how such change happens.

And he'll talk about the various predictions - some more dire than others - describing how global warming might play out.

"This is not my opinion," Fuller said. "I'm reflecting what some of the major climatologists are saying."

It's a dreary perspective, Fuller acknowledges, but humans have a history of adapting to change and overcoming challenges. How to prepare will be part of the discussion, he said.

"My goal is not to scare people, but I prefer to live in a community that is not going to be caught unprepared," he said.

Alder Fuller uses a visual projection of mathematical formulas to talk about the emerging science of complexity.

using everything from visual projections of mathematical formulas to a rock wall, Biologist Alder Fuller has started his own school to teach complexity, a new kind science that tries to make sense of everything from biology to economics. (Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard)

"The new view is, in my opinion, very elegant and beautiful." - ALDER FULLER, SCHOLAR, LECTURER

FREE LECTURES Scholar Alder Fuller will talk on complexity and global warming next week. Monday: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. New Day Bakery/World Cafe, 449 Blair St. Topic: New Views of Life & Earth: A Few Key Ideas from the Sciences of Complexity.

Wednesday: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Maitreya Ecovillage, 1641 West Broadway (straw bale building). Topic: Global Warming and Climate Change: What Al Gore is NOT telling you.

Friday: 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tsunami Books, 2585 Willamette St. Topic: Global Warming and Climate Change: What Al Gore is NOT telling you.

More information: www.prototista.org