On Cormac's adventures in Santa Fe
'There was no question that a lot of extremely impressive scientific research had come out of the Institute, in domains ranging from particle physics to ecology and immunology. But despite an enormous amount of intellectual and financial effort, it didn’t appear to me that SFI had made much progress on its ostensible raison d’être: elucidating the fundamental principles of complexity in nature and society. And I was troubled by the number of SFI donors and trustees who were not merely wealthy—as donors and trustees often are—but vocally libertarian in their outlook. Two years before I arrived, SFI received a multimillion-dollar grant from the John Templeton Foundation, an important bankroller of free-market and religious-conservative causes, for research in pursuit of a “general theory of complexity.” That set off some alarm bells.'
