One of the privileges of working the the Santa Fe Institute is that one comes into contact with a diversity of great researchers. I decided to make use of this fact to interview a range of people, all on the topic of history. A number of different fields make the analysis of the past, and the influence of the past on the future, a central consideration. In these interviews I ask my guests to explain what it means to be historical about topics spanning the Evolution of Life, the Universe and Everything.
Doug Erwin is a Senior Scientist and Curator of Paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D. C., as well as a part-time Resident Faculty member of SFI.