Wednesday, February 21, 2024
– Live Presentation with Pádraig MacCarron–
Session at 12 Noon Atlanta time
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After this virtual CoM presentation on Zoom, we will meet for an informal social session in a different Zoom space where we can all see each other (see the blue button below). That Zoom meeting will start around 1pm ET.
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Mythematics – Using complex networks to analyse myths, epics & legends.Abstract: One of the key concepts of complex systems is the notion of “emergence”, that new attributes and properties form which are not obvious from the individual components. Storytelling is ubiquitous among human cultures, and therefore can be seen as an emergent property of a culture. However, many (if not most) myths have been lost. Here we construct social networks of interacting characters in different world mythologies and analyse their robustness to the removal connections allowing us to quantify the effect of loss. We also compare the properties of different networks as a quantitative approach to comparative mythology.
Pádraig MacCarron is a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Limerick, Ireland. His obtained his PhD under supervision of Prof. Ralph Kenna in Coventry University in the area of complex networks. He then worked with Prof. Robin Dunbar in Oxford University on human social networks before returning to Ireland. His research interests are in the structure of social networks, identifying polarisation in attitude networks, and mythological and historical networks. He has co-edited a book entitled “Maths Meets Myths: Quantitative Approaches to Ancient Narratives”.