Heinz Von Foerster
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
What Is a Complex Adaptive System?
PROJECT GUTS What is a Complex Adaptive System? Introduction During the last three decades a leap has been made from the application of computing to help scientists ‘do’ science to the integration of computer science concepts, tools and theorems into the very fabric of science. The modeling of complex adaptive systems (CAS) is an example of such an integration of computer science into the very fabric of science; models of complex systems are used to understand, predict and prevent the most daunting problems we face today; issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, energy consumption and virulent disease affect us all. The study of complex adaptive systems, has come to be seen as a scientific frontier, and an increasing ability to interact systematically with highly complex systems that transcend separate disciplines will have a profound affect on future science, engineering and industry as well as in the management of our planet’s resources (Emmott et al., 2006). The name itself, “complex adaptive systems” conjures up images of complicated ideas that might be too difficult for a novice to understand. Instead, the study of CAS does exactly the opposite; it creates a unified method of studying disparate systems that elucidates the processes by which they operate. A complex system is simply a system in which many independent elements or agents interact, leading to emergent outcomes that are often difficult (or impossible) to predict simply by looking at the individual interactions. The “complex” part of CAS refers in fact to the vast interconnectedness of these systems. Using the principles of CAS to study these topics as related disciplines that can be better understood through the application of models, rather than a disparate collection of facts can strengthen learners’ understanding of these topics and prepare them to understand other systems by applying similar methods of analysis (Emmott et al., 2006). -
Existing Cybernetics Foundations - B
SYSTEMS SCIENCE AND CYBERNETICS – Vol. III - Existing Cybernetics Foundations - B. M. Vladimirski EXISTING CYBERNETICS FOUNDATIONS B. M. Vladimirski Rostov State University, Russia Keywords: Cybernetics, system, control, black box, entropy, information theory, mathematical modeling, feedback, homeostasis, hierarchy. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Organization 2.1 Systems and Complexity 2.2 Organizability 2.3 Black Box 3. Modeling 4. Information 4.1 Notion of Information 4.2 Generalized Communication System 4.3 Information Theory 4.4 Principle of Necessary Variety 5. Control 5.1 Essence of Control 5.2 Structure and Functions of a Control System 5.3 Feedback and Homeostasis 6. Conclusions Glossary Bibliography Biographical Sketch Summary Cybernetics is a science that studies systems of any nature that are capable of perceiving, storing, and processing information, as well as of using it for control and regulation. UNESCO – EOLSS The second title of the Norbert Wiener’s book “Cybernetics” reads “Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine”. However, it is not recognition of the external similaritySAMPLE between the functions of animalsCHAPTERS and machines that Norbert Wiener is credited with. That had been done well before and can be traced back to La Mettrie and Descartes. Nor is it his contribution that he introduced the notion of feedback; that has been known since the times of the creation of the first irrigation systems in ancient Babylon. His distinctive contribution lies in demonstrating that both animals and machines can be combined into a new, wider class of objects which is characterized by the presence of control systems; furthermore, living organisms, including humans and machines, can be talked about in the same language that is suitable for a description of any teleological (goal-directed) systems. -
Organization, Self-Organization, Autonomy and Emergence: Status and Challenges
Organization, Self-Organization, Autonomy and Emergence: Status and Challenges Sven Brueckner 1 Hans Czap 2 1 New Vectors LLC 3520 Green Court, Suite 250, Ann Arbor, MI 48105-1579, USA Email: [email protected] http://www.altarum.net/~sbrueckner 2 University of Trier, FB IV Business Information Systems I D-54286 Trier, Germany Email: [email protected] http://www.wi.uni-trier.de/ Abstract: Development of IT-systems in application react and adapt autonomously to changing requirements. domains is facing an ever-growing complexity resulting from Therefore, approaches that rely on the fundamental principles a continuous increase in dynamics of processes, applications- of self-organization and autonomy are growing in acceptance. and run-time environments and scaling. The impact of this Following such approaches, software system functionality trend is amplified by the lack of central control structures. As is no longer explicitly designed into its component processes a consequence, controlling this complexity and dynamics is but emerges from lower-level interactions that are one of the most challenging requirements of today’s system purposefully unaware of the system-wide behavior. engineers. Furthermore, organization, the meaningful progression of The lack of a central control instance immediately raises local sensing, processing and action, is achieved by the the need for software systems which can react autonomously system components themselves at runtime and in response to to changing environmental requirements and conditions. the current state of the environment and the problem that is to Therefore, a new paradigm is necessary how to build be solved, rather than being enforced from the “outside” software systems changing radically the way one is used to through design or external control. -
Edgar Morin’S Path of Complexity
FOREWORD EDGAR MORIN’S PATH OF COMPLEXITY ALFONSO MONTUORI Ndlr: A Montuori et l’éditeur de ‘On Complexity’ nous autorisent à reprender ici le texte anglais de la préface de l’ouvrage d’Edgar Morin qu’ils publient « ON COMPLEXITY » The reform in thinking is a key anthropological and historical problem. This implies a mental revolution of considerably greater proportions than the Copernican revolution. Never before in the history of humanity have the responsibilities of thinking weighed so crushingly on us. Does knowing that knowledge cannot be guaranteed by a foundation not mean that we have already acquired a first fundamental knowledge? And should this not lead us to abandon the architectural metaphor, in which the term “foundation” assumes an indispensable meaning, in favor of a musical metaphor of construction in movement that transforms in its very movement the constitutive elements that form it? And might we not also consider the knowledge of knowledge as a construction in movement? We need a kind of thinking that reconnects that which is disjointed and compartmentalized, that respects diversity as it recognizes unity, and that tries to discern interdependencies. We need a radical thinking (which gets to the root of problems), a multidimensional thinking, and an organizational or systemic thinking. History has not reached a stagnant end, nor is it triumphantly marching towards the radiant future. It is being catapulted into an unknown adventure. Edgar Morin: A Biblio-biography Perhaps the best way to provide a contextual introduction to Morin’s work is through an outline of his intellectual trajectory, in the form of a “biblio-biography.” A review of Morin’s journey helps us, I believe, to better understand the man and his mission in the essays that follow. -
Generative Models, Structural Similarity, and Mental Representation
The Mind as a Predictive Modelling Engine: Generative Models, Structural Similarity, and Mental Representation Daniel George Williams Trinity Hall College University of Cambridge This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2018 The Mind as a Predictive Modelling Engine: Generative Models, Structural Similarity, and Mental Representation Daniel Williams Abstract I outline and defend a theory of mental representation based on three ideas that I extract from the work of the mid-twentieth century philosopher, psychologist, and cybernetician Kenneth Craik: first, an account of mental representation in terms of idealised models that capitalize on structural similarity to their targets; second, an appreciation of prediction as the core function of such models; and third, a regulatory understanding of brain function. I clarify and elaborate on each of these ideas, relate them to contemporary advances in neuroscience and machine learning, and favourably contrast a predictive model-based theory of mental representation with other prominent accounts of the nature, importance, and functions of mental representations in cognitive science and philosophy. For Marcella Montagnese Preface Declaration This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my dissertation has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. -
American Society for Cybernetics the Heinz Von Foerster Society
American Society for Cybernetics The Warren McCulloch Award of the American Society for Cybernetics is awarded to The Heinz von Foerster Society for an extensive, prolonged, deep and successful commitment to the furtherance of the work of Heinz von Foerster and other cyberneticians concerned with second-order cybernetics and related approaches and understandings. Beginning with a major interview book with Heinz von Foerster (“Der Anfang von Himmel und Erde hat keinen Namen: Eine Selbsterschaffung in sieben Tagen” about to appear in English translation), members of the Heinz for Foerster Society have promoted second order cybernetics in general, and the work of Heinz von Foerster, Gordon Pask, Ernst von Glasersfeld and Richard Jung in particular, in the conferences and lectures they have funded and promoted over the past 10 years. Emerging from their first conference, the book “An Unfinished Revolution” is a key critical and reference work covering the progress so far of second-order cybernetics. Together with the publishers echoraum, they have also published a series of books on mainly second-order cybernetic topics, with authors including ASC members; and recently began a new series with the book “Trojan Horses,” which emerged from the ASC’s 2010 conference held in Troy, NY. The Heinz von Foerstar Society has been successful in directing new public attention to cybernetics in both the English and the German speaking worlds. Theirs is a major contribution to the furtherance of cybernetics, both in terms of public attention and publicity, and in the continuing development of our subject area. Ranulph Glanville President of the American Society for Cybernetics 2013/08/01. -
1 Emergence of Universal Grammar in Foreign Word Adaptations* Shigeko
1 Emergence of Universal Grammar in foreign word adaptations* Shigeko Shinohara, UPRESA 7018 University of Paris III/CNRS 1. Introduction There has been a renewal of interest in the study of loanword phonology since the recent development of constraint-based theories. Such theories readily express target structures and modifications that foreign inputs are subject to (e.g. Paradis and Lebel 1994, Itô and Mester 1995a,b). Depending on how the foreign sounds are modified, we may be able to make inferences about aspects of the speaker's grammar for which the study of the native vocabulary is either inconclusive or uninformative. At the very least we expect foreign words to be modified in accordance with productive phonological processes and constraints (Silverman 1992, Paradis and Lebel 1994). It therefore comes as some surprise when patterns of systematic modification arise for which the rules and constraints of the native system have nothing to say or even worse contradict. I report a number of such “emergent” patterns that appear in our study of the adaptations of French words by speakers of Japanese (Shinohara 1997a,b, 2000). I claim that they pose a learnability problem. My working hypothesis is that these emergent patterns are reflections of Universal Grammar (UG). This is suggested by the fact that the emergent patterns typically correspond to well-established crosslinguistic markedness preferences that are overtly and robustly attested in the synchronic phonologies of numerous other languages. It is therefore natural to suppose that these emergent patterns follow from the default parameter settings or constraint rankings inherited from the initial stages of language acquisition that remain latent in the mature grammar. -
Understanding Henri Lefebvre
Understanding Henri Lefebvre Theory and the Possible Stuart Elden continuum LONDON • NEW YORK Continuum The Tower Building, 15 East 26th Street 11 York Road New York London SE1 7NX NY 10010 www.continuumbooks.com © Stuart Elden 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 0-8264-7002-5 (HB) 0-8264-7003-3 (PB) Typeset by Refinecatch Ltd, Bungay Suffolk Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall Contents Acknowledgements v Introduction: Henri Lefebvre 1901-91 1 1 Rethinking Marxism 15 A new reading of Marx 15 The 'juvenile presumptions' of existentialism 19 Structuralism as the French ideology 22 Logic and dialectics 27 Applications of the dialectic 36 Alienation 39 Production 43 The Party and beyond 46 2 Engaging with philosophy 65 Beyond Marxism 65 The Philosophies group, Schelling and Hegel 67 Nietzsche against the fascists 73 Heidegger and the metaphysics of the Grand Guignol 76 Metaphilosophy 83 Descartes and literature 85 3 The critique of everyday life 110 A day in the life 111 A critique of the present 115 Festival and revolution 117 4 From the rural to the urban 127 The town and the country 129 A sack of potatoes 135 Reading rural spaces 13 7 The -
Warren Mcculloch and the British Cyberneticians
Warren McCulloch and the British cyberneticians Article (Accepted Version) Husbands, Phil and Holland, Owen (2012) Warren McCulloch and the British cyberneticians. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 37 (3). pp. 237-253. ISSN 0308-0188 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/43089/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher’s version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse: Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University. Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available. Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Warren McCulloch and the British Cyberneticians1 Phil Husbands and Owen Holland Dept. Informatics, University of Sussex Abstract Warren McCulloch was a significant influence on a number of British cyberneticians, as some British pioneers in this area were on him. -
Human Creation, Imagination and Autonomy a Brief Introduction to Castoriadis’ Social and Psychoanalytical Philosophy
HUMAN CREATION, IMAGINATION AND AUTONOMY A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO CASTORIADIS’ SOCIAL AND PSYCHOANALYTICAL PHILOSOPHY Theofanis Tassis University of Crete Introduction Cornelius Castoriadis has been one of the most important and innovative intellectuals of the second half of the 20th century. Philosopher, revolutionary, co-founder of the legendary group and journal Socialisme ou Barbarie, practicing psychoanalyst who revised Freudian theory, political intellectual who inspired workers and students during the May 1968 events in France, professional economist in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, recognized hellenist, distinguished representative of the radical left and supporter of the project of autonomy. As Jürgen Habermas states, Cornelius Castoriadis undertook “…the most original, the most ambitious and the most profound task to view … the liberating interference of history, society, inner and outer nature, as an act”.1 Octavio Paz refers to him as an intellectual “to whom we owe a precious elucidation of politics and philosophy”,2 Edgar Morin names him “a titan of the spirit”,3 and Axel Honneth characterizes him as “the last representative and renovator of the tradition of the European Left and the creator of an influential theory”.4 According to Hans Joas, 1 Jürgen Habermas, Der philosophische Diskurs der Moderne, Suhrkamp, 1985, p. 380. 2 Octavio Paz, “Itinerarum, Kleine politische Autobiographie”, in Frankfurt Allgemeine, 1993, p. 56. 3 Edgar Morin, « Castoriadis: un titan de l’esprit (necrologie) », in Le Monde, 30 December 1997, p. 1. 4 Axel Honneth, “Die Kreativität des Sozialen: Zum Tode von Cornelius Castoriadis”, in Frankfurter Rundschau, 30 December 1997. Philosophica, 37, Lisboa, 2011, pp. 197-213 198 Theofanis Tassis Castoriadis’s theory is “…the most original contemporary attempt to express a political philosophy through the notion of creativity”.5 However, for a long time, his ideas, circulated broadly, and became more famous than his name. -
Neuerscheinungsdienst 2017 ND 08
Neuerscheinungsdienst Jahrgang: 2017 ND 08 Stand: 22. Februar 2017 Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (Leipzig, Frankfurt am Main) 2017 ISSN 1611-0153 urn:nbn:de:101-201612064955 2 Hinweise Der Neuerscheinungsdienst ist das Ergebnis der Ko- blikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; de- operation zwischen der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek und taillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über der MVB Marketing- und Verlagsservice des Buchhandels http://dnb.dnb.de abrufbar. GmbH. Ziel dieser Kooperation ist zum einen die Hebung Bibliographic information published by the Deut- des Qualitätsstandards des Verzeichnisses lieferbarer sche Nationalbibliothek Bücher (VLB) und zum anderen die Verbesserung der The Deutsche Naitonalbibliothek lists this publication in Aktualität und Vollständigkeit der Deutschen Nationalbi- the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic bliografie. In der Titelaufnahme wird der entsprechende data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. Link zu den Verlagsangaben direkt geschaltet; ebenso Information bibliographique de la Deutsche Natio- alle anderen möglichen Links. nalbibliothek Die Verleger melden ihre Titel in einem einzigen Vor- La Deutsche Nationalbibliothek a répertoiré cette publi- gang für das VLB und den Neuerscheinungsdienst der cation dans la Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; les données Deutschen Nationalbibliothek. Dieser zeigt somit alle bibliographiques détaillées peuvent être consultées sur Neumeldungen von Titeln an, die auch in das VLB ein- Internet à l’adresse http://dnb.dnb.de gehen. Die VLB-Redaktion leitet die Meldungen an die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek weiter. Die Titel werden oh- Die Verleger übersenden gemäß den gesetzlichen Vor- ne weitere Änderungen im Neuerscheinungsdienst der schriften zur Pflichtablieferung zwei Pflichtexemplare je Deutschen Nationalbibliothek angezeigt. Die Titelanzei- nach Zuständigkeit an die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek gen selbst sind, wie auf der Sachgruppenübersicht an- nach Frankfurt am Main oder nach Leipzig. -
A Dictionary of Cybernetics
Annenberg School for Communication Departmental Papers (ASC) University of Pennsylvania Year 1986 A Dictionary of Cybernetics Klaus Krippendorff University of Pennsylvania, kkrippendorff@asc.upenn.edu This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/asc papers/224 A DICTIONARY OF CYBERNETICS by Klaus Krippendorff University of Pennsylvania version 2/2/86 A dictionary like the discipline whose terminology it aims to clarify is constantly in flux. It is aided by communal efforts and in turn aids communication within the community of users. Critical comments and suggestions, especially for including new or omitting useless entries, for improving the wording, for references that may need to be added should be directed to: Klaus Krippendorff The Annenberg School of Communications University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia PA 19104 NOTE: This dictionary is not intended to represent the American Society for Cybernetics nor the opinions of any of its members: neither does it replace the current Cybernetics Glossary. Klaus Krippendorff has been kind enough to make his work available to ASC members in order to stimulate discussion on the language of cybernetics. as well as on the idea of a dictionary itself. ABSOLUTE DISCRIMINATION: ->LIMIT OF ABSOLUTE DISCRIMINATION ADAPTATION: STABILITY of success in the face of a changing environment. Two kinds of adaptation are distinguished. (a) Darwinian adaptation after Darwin who observed how organisms change their internal STRUCTURE when their environment makes existing forms no longer viable. E.g., Ashby's HOMEOSTAT searches for a new pattern of behavior as soon as disturbances in its surroundings drive or threaten to drive its essential VARIABLEs outside specified limits.