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Norman Harry Packard (born 1954 in Billings, Montana)^[1] is a chaos theory physicist and one of the founders of the Prediction Company and ProtoLife. He is an alumnus of Reed College and the University of California, Santa Cruz^{[citation needed]}. Packard is known for his contributions to chaos theory, complex systems, and artificial life. He coined the phrase "the edge of chaos".^[2]^[3]

Biography

Between 1976 and 1981, Packard formed the Dynamical Systems Collective at UC Santa Cruz with fellow physics graduate students, Rob Shaw, Doyne Farmer, and James Crutchfield. The collective was best known for its work in probing chaotic systems for signs of order.^[4]

Around the same time, he worked with Doyne Farmer and other friends in Santa Cruz, California to form the Eudaemons collective, to develop a strategy for beating the roulette wheel using a toe-operated computer. The computer could, in theory, predict in what area a roulette ball would land on a wheel, giving the player a significant statistical advantage over the house. Although the project itself was a success, they ran into practical difficulty employing the technique on-site in Las Vegas casinos. The experiences of Norman, Doyne Farmer, and crew were later chronicled in the book The Eudaemonic Pie (1985) by Thomas Bass. Their experience was also chronicled on the History Channel television series "Breaking Vegas."

In 1982, Packard won a NATO post-doctoral fellowship to study at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in Bures-sur-Yvette, France. One year later, he joined the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. At the IAS, he worked with colleagues Stephen Wolfram and Rob Shaw to explain complex systems and the tendency for matter to organize itself. Subsequently, Packard has made contributions to the field of Artificial Life, including the definition of Evolutionary Activity.^[5]

Professional work

Center for Complex Systems Research

In 1985 Packard moved with Wolfram to the physics department of the University of Illinois, where they founded the Center for Complex Systems Research.

Santa Fe Institute

Packard was involved with the Santa Fe Institute over many years, serving in several capacities including External Professor and member of the chair of the Science Steering Committee.

Prediction Company

In the spring of 1985, Packard and Doyne Farmer realized that their research in fields such as chaos, Genetic Algorithms and cellular automata could help build a system for predicting the stock market. Five years later they founded Prediction Company, a small company in Santa Fe, NM dedicated to making a model for predicting what a market would do during a certain time period. A brief outline of some of the genetic algorithm techniques he used in the early days is presented in chapter 2 of reference 5 below. In 2004, Prediction Company received the "Employer of Choice" award in the small size category for the State of New Mexico.^[6] Prediction Company was eventually acquired by UBS.

European Center for Living Technology

In 2004, Packard was one of the founders of the European Centre for Living Technology (ECLT), hosted by the University of Venice, Ca' Foscari.^[7] The ECLT received its first funding from PACE (Programmable Artificial Cell Evolution), a project coordinated by John S. McCaskill and funded by the European Union.^[8] From its inception in 2004 and for over a decade Packard has served on its science board, and as co-director.

ProtoLife

While in Venice, Packard founded ProtoLife, the first company to capitalize on living technology. The goal of the company is to optimize complex chemical reactions and other complex processes. The company was launched in Venice, Italy, and is currently based in San Francisco having changed name to Daptics^[9] (see below).

Lucky Sort

In 2011 Packard joined Lucky Sort^[10] as Chief Science Officer. At Lucky Sort he guides research to discover and display structure in high volume text data streams. Lucky Sort was eventually acquired by Twitter.

Daptics

In 2018, Packard launched a web-based optimization and discovery tool on the internet (a form of Software as a Service), changing the company name from ProtoLife to Daptics,^[11] to better reflect its new focus. The goal of the company is to optimize complex chemical reactions and other complex processes. The company is currently based in San Francisco.

Books

Artificial Life VII, with Mark A. Bedau, John S. McCaskill, Steen Rasmussen. 2000
Protocells, with Steen Rasmussen, Mark Bedau, Liaohai Chen, David Deamer, David Krakauer, and Peter Stadler
‘’Adaptation Toward the Edge of Chaos’’, Norman H. Packard, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Center for Complex Systems Research, 1988

References

^ Thomas A. Bass, The eudaemonic pie, Houghton Mifflin, 1985, p.26
^ A. Bass, Thomas (1999). The Predictors : How a Band of Maverick Physicists Used Chaos Theory to Trade Their Way to a Fortune on Wall Street. Henry Holt and Company. p. 41. ISBN 9780805057560. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
^ H. Packard, Norman (1988). "Adaptation Toward the Edge of Chaos". University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Center for Complex Systems Research. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
^ Packard, Norman H.; Crutchfield, Jim P.; Farmer, J. Doyne; Shaw, Robert S. (1980). "Geometry from a Time Series". Physical Review Letters. 45 (9): 712. Bibcode:1980PhRvL..45..712P. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.45.712.
^ Bedau, Mark A.; Packard, Norman H. (1992). "Measurement of evolutionary activity, teleology, and life". In Langton, Chris; Taylor, Charles; Farmer, Doyne; Rasmussen, Steen (eds.). Artificial Life II. Addison-Wesley.
^ Prediction Company: Company Profile Archived 2006-09-02 at the Wayback Machine
^ European Center for Living Technology
^ Programmable Artificial Cell Evolution
^ Daptics
^ Lucky Sort Inc. Archived 2013-01-15 at the Wayback Machine
^ Daptics

An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms by Melanie Mitchell, MIT Press, 1998.
Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick.

External links

[1] Thomas A. Bass, The eudaemonic pie, Houghton Mifflin, 1985, p.26

[MP90-T-89-2] A. Bass, Thomas (1999). The Predictors : How a Band of Maverick Physicists Used Chaos Theory to Trade Their Way to a Fortune on Wall Street. Henry Holt and Company. p. 41. ISBN 9780805057560. Retrieved 12 November 2020.

[MP90-T-88-3] H. Packard, Norman (1988). "Adaptation Toward the Edge of Chaos". University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Center for Complex Systems Research. Retrieved 12 November 2020.

[4] Packard, Norman H.; Crutchfield, Jim P.; Farmer, J. Doyne; Shaw, Robert S. (1980). "Geometry from a Time Series". Physical Review Letters. 45 (9): 712. Bibcode:1980PhRvL..45..712P. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.45.712.

[5] Bedau, Mark A.; Packard, Norman H. (1992). "Measurement of evolutionary activity, teleology, and life". In Langton, Chris; Taylor, Charles; Farmer, Doyne; Rasmussen, Steen (eds.). Artificial Life II. Addison-Wesley.

[6] Prediction Company: Company Profile Archived 2006-09-02 at the Wayback Machine

[7] European Center for Living Technology

[8] Programmable Artificial Cell Evolution

[9] Daptics

[10] Lucky Sort Inc. Archived 2013-01-15 at the Wayback Machine

[11] Daptics

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Short description|American chaos theory physicist}}
 [[File:Norman Packard2.jpg|right|thumb|Norman Packard]]
-'''Norman Harry Packard''' (born 1954 in [[Billings, Montana]])<ref>Thomas A. Bass, [http://books.google.gr/books?id=Q9aOedEfOMMC&dq= ''The eudaemonic pie''], Houghton Mifflin, 1985, p.26</ref> is a [[chaos theory]] [[physicist]] and one of the founders of the [[Prediction Company]] and [[ProtoLife]]. He is an alumnus of [[Reed College]] and the [[University of California, Santa Cruz]]{{Citation needed|date=July 2008}}. Packard is known for his contributions to both chaos theory and cellular automata. He also coined the phrase "the edge of chaos".<ref>Packard, Norman, "Adaption Toward the Edge of Chaos", 1988</ref><ref name="p">Bass, Thomas A., ''The Predictors'', 1999, Henry Holt Publishing, p. 138</ref>
+'''Norman Harry Packard''' (born 1954 in [[Billings, Montana]])<ref>Thomas A. Bass, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Q9aOedEfOMMC ''The eudaemonic pie''], Houghton Mifflin, 1985, p.26</ref> is a [[chaos theory]] [[physicist]] and one of the founders of the [[Prediction Company]] and [[ProtoLife]]. He is an alumnus of [[Reed College]] and the [[University of California, Santa Cruz]]{{Citation needed|date=July 2008}}. Packard is known for his contributions to chaos theory, complex systems, and [[artificial life]]. He coined the phrase "the edge of chaos".<ref name=MP90-T-89>{{cite book|last=A. Bass|first=Thomas|title = The Predictors : How a Band of Maverick Physicists Used Chaos Theory to Trade Their Way to a Fortune on Wall Street|url =https://books.google.com/books?id=MQ-xGC7BdS0C&pg=PA138|publisher = Henry Holt and Company |year =1999|isbn =9780805057560 |page =[https://books.google.com/books?id=MQ-xGC7BdS0C&pg=PA138 41] |accessdate=12 November 2020}}</ref><ref name=MP90-T-88>{{cite web|last=H. Packard|first=Norman|title = Adaptation Toward the Edge of Chaos|url =https://books.google.com/books?id=8prgtgAACAAJ|publisher = University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Center for Complex Systems Research |year =1988|accessdate=12 November 2020}}</ref>
 ==Biography==
+Between 1976 and 1981, Packard formed the [[Dynamical Systems Collective]] at [[UC Santa Cruz]] with fellow physics graduate students, [[Robert Shaw (Physicist)|Rob Shaw]], [[J. Doyne Farmer|Doyne Farmer]], and [[James P. Crutchfield|James Crutchfield]]. The collective was best known for its work in probing chaotic systems for signs of order.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Packard |first1=Norman H. |last2=Crutchfield |first2=Jim P. |last3=Farmer |first3=J. Doyne |last4=Shaw |first4=Robert S. |title=Geometry from a Time Series |journal=Physical Review Letters |date=1980 |volume=45 |issue=9 |page=712|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.45.712 |bibcode=1980PhRvL..45..712P }}</ref>
-Between 1976 and 1981, he worked with fellow graduate students in [[Santa Cruz, California]], forming the [[Eudaemons]] collective with [[J. Doyne Farmer]] and [[Robert Shaw (physicist)|Robert Shaw]], to develop a strategy for beating the [[roulette]] wheel using a toe-operated computer. The computer could, in theory, predict in what area a roulette ball would land on a wheel, giving the player a significant statistical advantage over the house. Although the project itself was a success, they ran into great practical difficulty employing the technique on-site in Las Vegas casinos, and many of the members left to pursue other fields of academia. The experiences of Norman, Doyne Farmer, and crew were later chronicled in the book ''[[Eudaemons|The Eudaemonic Pie]]'' (1985) by Thomas Bass.  Their experience was also chronicled on the television series "Breaking Vegas."
+Around the same time, he worked with [[J. Doyne Farmer|Doyne Farmer]] and other friends in [[Santa Cruz, California]] to form the [[Eudaemons]] collective, to develop a strategy for beating the [[roulette]] wheel using a toe-operated computer. The computer could, in theory, predict in what area a roulette ball would land on a wheel, giving the player a significant statistical advantage over the house. Although the project itself was a success, they ran into practical difficulty employing the technique on-site in Las Vegas casinos. The experiences of Norman, Doyne Farmer, and crew were later chronicled in the book ''[[Eudaemons|The Eudaemonic Pie]]'' (1985) by Thomas Bass.  Their experience was also chronicled on the History Channel television series "Breaking Vegas."
-Around the same time, he formed the [[Dynamical Systems Collective]] with friends [[Robert Shaw (Physicist)|Rob Shaw]], [[J. Doyne Farmer|Doyne Farmer]], and [[James Crutchfield (Physicist)|James Crutchfield]]. The collective was best known for its work in probing chaotic systems for signs of order.
-In 1982, Packard left Santa Cruz for France to take a post-doctoral fellowship at the [[Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques]] in [[Bures-sur-Yvette]], [[France]]. Disappointed with the lack of technology at the institute, he left after one year and joined the [[Institute for Advanced Study]]. At the IAS, he worked with [[Stephen Wolfram]] and friend [[Robert Shaw (Physicist)|Rob Shaw]] to explain [[cellular automata]] and the tendency for matter to organize itself.
+In 1982, Packard won a NATO post-doctoral fellowship to study at the [[Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques]] in [[Bures-sur-Yvette]], [[France]]. One year later, he joined the Princeton [[Institute for Advanced Study]]. At the IAS, he worked with colleagues [[Stephen Wolfram]] and [[Robert Shaw (Physicist)|Rob Shaw]] to explain [[complex systems]] and the tendency for matter to organize itself.  Subsequently, Packard has made contributions to the field of Artificial Life, including the definition of Evolutionary Activity.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Measurement of evolutionary activity, teleology, and life | last1=Bedau | first1=Mark A. | last2=Packard |first2=Norman H. |editor1-last=Langton |editor1-first=Chris |editor2-last=Taylor |editor2-first=Charles |editor3-last=Farmer |editor3-first=Doyne |editor4-last=Rasmussen |editor4-first=Steen |title=Artificial Life II |date=1992 |publisher=Addison-Wesley}}</ref>
+==Professional work==
+===Center for Complex Systems Research===
+In 1985 Packard moved with Wolfram to the physics department of the [[University of Illinois]], where they founded the Center for Complex Systems Research.
+===Santa Fe Institute===
+Packard was involved with the [[Santa Fe Institute]] over many years, serving in several capacities including External Professor and member of the chair of the Science Steering Committee.
 ===Prediction Company===
-In the spring of 1985, Packard and Doyne Farmer realized that their research in fields such as chaos, Genetic Algorithms and cellular automata could help build a system for predicting the [[stock market]]. Five years later they founded [[Prediction Company]], a small company dedicated to making a model for predicting what a market would do during a certain time period. A brief outline of some of the genetic algorithm techniques he used in the early days is presented in chapter 2 of reference 5 below. In 2004, Prediction Company received the "Employer of Choice" award in the small size category for the State of [[New Mexico]].<ref>[http://www.predict.com/html/company.htm Prediction Company: Company Profile]</ref> The company still exists today as a subsidiary of Swiss bank [[UBS AG]].
+In the spring of 1985, Packard and [[J. Doyne Farmer|Doyne Farmer]] realized that their research in fields such as chaos, Genetic Algorithms and cellular automata could help build a system for predicting the [[stock market]]. Five years later they founded [[Prediction Company]], a small company in [[Santa Fe, NM]] dedicated to making a model for predicting what a market would do during a certain time period. A brief outline of some of the genetic algorithm techniques he used in the early days is presented in chapter 2 of reference 5 below. In 2004, Prediction Company received the "Employer of Choice" award in the small size category for the State of [[New Mexico]].<ref>[http://www.predict.com/html/company.htm Prediction Company: Company Profile] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902191532/http://www.predict.com/html/company.htm |date=2006-09-02 }}</ref> Prediction Company was eventually acquired by [[UBS]].
+===European Center for Living Technology===
+In 2004, Packard was one of the founders of the [[European Centre for Living Technology]] (ECLT), hosted by the University of Venice, Ca' Foscari.<ref>[http://www.ecltech.org European Center for Living Technology]</ref>  The ECLT received its first funding from PACE (Programmable Artificial Cell Evolution), a project coordinated by John S. McCaskill and funded by the European Union.<ref>[http://www.istpace.org Programmable Artificial Cell Evolution]</ref>  From its inception in 2004 and for over a decade Packard has served on its science board, and as co-director.
 ===ProtoLife===
-Packard's latest project is [[ProtoLife]], the first company to capitalize on living technology. The goal of the company is to produce artificial living cells that can perform useful chemical functions. The company is based in [[Venice, Italy]].
+While in Venice, Packard founded [[ProtoLife]], the first company to capitalize on living technology. The goal of the company is to optimize complex chemical reactions and other complex processes.  The company was launched in [[Venice, Italy]], and is currently based in [[San Francisco]] having changed name to Daptics<ref>[http://www.daptics.ai Daptics]</ref> (see below).
+===Lucky Sort===
+In 2011 Packard joined Lucky Sort<ref>[http://www.luckysort.com Lucky Sort Inc.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115210119/http://luckysort.com/ |date=2013-01-15 }}</ref> as Chief Science Officer.  At Lucky Sort he guides research to discover and display structure in high volume text data streams.  Lucky Sort was eventually acquired by Twitter.
+===Daptics===
+In 2018, Packard launched a web-based optimization and discovery tool on the internet (a form of [[Software as a Service]]), changing the company name from [[ProtoLife]] to Daptics,<ref>[http://www.daptics.ai Daptics]</ref> to better reflect its new focus. The goal of the company is to optimize complex chemical reactions and other complex processes.  The company is currently based in [[San Francisco]].
 ==Books==
 * ''Artificial Life VII'', with Mark A. Bedau, John S. McCaskill, Steen Rasmussen. 2000
+* ''Protocells'', with Steen Rasmussen, Mark Bedau, Liaohai Chen, David Deamer, David Krakauer, and Peter Stadler
+* ‘’Adaptation Toward the Edge of Chaos’’, Norman H. Packard, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Center for Complex Systems Research, 1988
 ==See also==
@@ Line 33: / Line 57: @@
 ==External links==
 *[http://www.protolife.net/ ProtoLife]
-*[http://www.predict.com/html/introduction.html Prediction Company]
+*[http://www.predict.com/introduction.html Prediction Company]
+*[http://ecltech.org European Centre for Living Technology]
+{{Authority control}}
-{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
-| NAME              = Packard, Norman
-| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
-| SHORT DESCRIPTION =
-| DATE OF BIRTH     = 1954
-| PLACE OF BIRTH    =
-| DATE OF DEATH     =
-| PLACE OF DEATH    =
-}}
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Packard, Norman}}
-[[Category:American physicists]]
+[[Category:21st-century American physicists]]
 [[Category:Cellular automatists]]
 [[Category:Chaos theorists]]
@@ Line 53: / Line 71: @@
 [[Category:1954 births]]
 [[Category:Living people]]
-[[Category:complex systems scientists]]
+[[Category:Complex systems scientists]]
+[[Category:Santa Fe Institute people]]
-[[de:Norman Packard]]

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