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Mihai Nadin (Courtesy photo)

Many Monarch butterflies overwinter in Pacific Grove from mid-October to early March, before beginning their southern migration to Mexico. En route, they may travel as far as 2,000 miles, covering a reported 100 miles per day and flying as high as 10,000 feet. Their successful journey is considered a superb victory of anticipatory behavior.

Despite all our computation technology, we dont have a single machine that can perform an evaluation of the future like butterflies can in order to survive. Anticipation is nothing but asking and answering what the future holds for us, said Mihai Nadin, the leading researcher in anticipatory systems, who aims to disrupt science, replacing our reliance on machines with the level of human inquiry necessary to take responsibility for our future.

Computer science endeavors to create machines that processes more and more data faster and faster. Yet the actual data needed to survive, he said, is minimal but significant. Consider the birds that migrate more than 10,000 miles. The entire energy consumed by that bird to get from A to B is just 4.3 watts. But to survive, that little bird will begin his migration based on his anticipation of weather patterns. Heunderstands things.

So does Professor Nadin. The Carmel resident holds advanced degrees in electrical engineering and in computer science, as well as a post-doctoral degree in philosophy, logic and the theory of science, from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. He also holds specializations in computer graphics from Brown University and in neural networks and massive parallel computing from Johns Hopkins University.

And yet, Nadin can sift his erudite explanations of anticipatory systems down to the application of migration patterns of birds and butterflies. His latest book, among more than 30 other texts and at least 200 scientific and philosophical articles, Disrupt Science: The Future Matters (Springer, December 2023) is neither a beach read nor a coffee table book. But it is the stuff of fascination,something one might pick up when of a mind to wonder, not what happened but what might.

I started the study of what is called anticipation theory in the 1960s, already so far back in time, Nadin said. Anticipation is a concept that started crystalizing for me as I was looking at the various aspects of what interested me. I was passionate about the arts but at the same time was passionate about the sciences.

In the 1960s, when computers were not yet on the table, Nadin, already involved in computation, was among the first to ask whether computers could be used to create art.

I was asking this, he said, because I look at art as an expression of anticipation. Art is never made in reaction to something; art is always a question mark. As opposed to the sciences, which offer the laws of nature as an answer to the question, every authentic piece of art is an inquiry.

As he sees it, art does not provide answers; it advances the question. It is the inquiry that makes art interesting, which captivates those who are exposed to art. Whether we are experiencing a painting, sculpture, photography, or music, the beauty of it is we have no idea of a definitive answer to the question, he says, for the end is where the whole experience of art truly starts.

I am not an artist. Im not going to assume an identity I dont have. I was interested in computers, Nadin said, in whether this new machinery we created could be used by artists to produce fine art. I decided an authentic artist can use anything in the world to produce art, a computer, a stone, paint. But the computer will not replace your talent if you have it, you have it. If you dont, dont expect that a computer will make you talented.

There is a good chance Nadin was born curious, wondering, looking forward to what lay ahead. It is an orientation that seems to have escorted the professor throughout eight decades of life and continues to direct his perspective today.

When I was still very young, he said, a variety of writing opportunities helped me explore the concepts of that time. I learned what art is by being exposed to it, by being in contact with creative people. Creation means to make possible something that did not exist before. My parents created me. The beauty of creation is that it is one of the things that explains the significance of anticipation.

Born in Romania in 1938, the year his country reportedly was driven into alliance with Nazi Germany, not by affinity but by fear of the Soviet Union and the conviction that only Germany could keep the Soviets out of Romania, it was not fleeing the strife in his country that sent him to America. He left for love.

I did not decide to come to this country; I decided to marry a woman who was born in this country and was visiting Romania. There is a distinction, he said. As a citizen of Romania, I was allowed to marry Elvira only after applying to the President, who took four and a half years to say yes. Now thats anticipation.

In 2004, Nadin, considered a pioneer in the field of computer graphics and a scholar in computer applications for art and design, as well as human-computer interactions and anticipatory systems, joined the faculty at The University of Texas at Dallas. Seven months ago, Nadin, 85, retired, and the Professor Emerita moved with his wife to Carmel, where he continues to look forward to his life.

My primary purpose, he said, is to maintain my state of being alive. Given this desire, I explore the world in which I live and to which I belong. I ask questions. Anticipation informs us about the choices we make in order to continue to be alive. Any action that will undermine my ability to do so is not a good choice. To a large extent this is what my new book is about.

For more information regarding Nadin, visit: http://www.nadin.ws

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Local books: Author advocates for replacing data analysis with the dynamics of anticipation - Monterey Herald