Edge of Chaos: Exploring Dynamic Symmetry Theory

The Royal Society, London – 15th May 2026

The Oxford Quarterly Journal of Symmetry & Asymmetry (OXQ) and The Schweitzer Institute will co‑host a landmark cross‑disciplinary conference at the Royal Society, Edge of Chaos: Exploring Dynamic Symmetry Theory. The one‑day meeting will bring together leading scientists, scholars, and policy practitioners to investigate how complex systems—from ecosystems and cities to economies, neural networks, and individual lives—achieve stability, resilience, and creativity by operating between strict order and complete disorder. Confirmed speakers include Trish Greenhalgh (Oxford), Denis Noble (Oxford), Gisella Marinuzzi (Schweitzer Institute), Predrag Cicovacki (Holy Cross), and Benedict Rattigan (OXQ).

Dynamic symmetry theory is a contemporary framework proposing that adaptive systems function most effectively within a structured intermediate regime where symmetry and asymmetry, stability and fluctuation, remain in continuous negotiation. The conference will examine how this principle appears across physics, biology, neuroscience, social systems, economics, governance, and infrastructure design, and what it implies for the design of institutions, policies, and technologies in the twenty‑first century.

A central feature of the programme is the Dynamic Symmetry Index (DSI), a quantitative framework for identifying when a system lies in its most adaptive state and for measuring system adaptability over time. Presentations will explore how DSI can function as a diagnostic of resilience, an early‑warning signal of systemic fragility, and a potential design target for networks, infrastructures, ecological systems, and markets.

Participants will include physicists and cosmologists working on symmetry‑breaking and critical phenomena, biologists and medical researchers investigating self‑organisation and resilience in physiological and ecological systems, social scientists examining adaptive networks in markets and cities, and philosophers and cognitive scientists exploring agency and cognition in complex systems. Sessions will move from foundational concepts to empirical and applied work, while remaining accessible to a wider audience interested in complexity, systems thinking, and adaptive design.

The conference is explicitly exploratory and critical in scope. It will ask whether dynamic symmetry theory and DSI genuinely extend—or challenge—existing models of criticality, robustness, and the edge of chaos, and will scrutinise their mathematical, empirical, and ethical foundations. The aim is to test and refine the framework in open dialogue with current research, rather than to promote a predetermined view.

Event details
Edge of Chaos: Exploring Dynamic Symmetry Theory
The Royal Society, London
15 May 2026
Contact: Nathan Jones nathanjones.pr@gmail.com