Cybernetics and the Theory of Knowledge
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Overview of Contributions
Overview of Contributions he first papers address the epistemological sentationalism”). Evidence for the first comes e.g. status of representation and possible catego- from connectionism which has demonstrated that T rizations. These rather general consider- brain-like structures can function without explicit ations about representation are followed by contri- representations. Arguments for the second are of a butions that focus on computational approaches, philosophic nature denying the possibility of speak- especially on how meaning can be simulated in arti- ing of fixed entities of the world, and, instead, pro- ficial devices, and how meaning can be grounded. posing that the “things” are defined only with Solutions are offered on various levels, among them respect to their user and thus cannot be “mapped” symbol grounding and system-theoretical consider- onto the brain of that user. Matthias Scheutz inves- ations to representation. Various disciplines inde- tigates the ontological status of representations, and pendently arrive at emphasizing the importance of questions whether they are entities on their own; he actions for representations and the necessity to argues that whether something counts as represen- close the sensory–motor loop; examples from the tation of something else is dependent on the level of perspective of computational approaches (“embod- description. By talking about a mental structure rep- iment” into an environment), the neuroscientific resenting something in the world, one implies that perspective (“top-down” processes), the psycholog- these two things exist on two different ontological ical perspective and others are presented. Several levels. This is not true, however, since the mind and papers address the role of social interactions—in the things of the world are both entities within our particular language—as a means of stabilizing sys- cognitive experience. -
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. -
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. -
Toward a New Science of Information
Data Science Journal, Volume 6, Supplement, 7 April 2007 TOWARD A NEW SCIENCE OF INFORMATION D Doucette1*, R Bichler 2, W Hofkirchner2, and C Raffl2 *1 The Science of Information Institute, 1737 Q Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009, USA Email: [email protected] 2 ICT&S Center, University of Salzburg - Center for Advanced Studies and Research in Information and Communication Technologies & Society, Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18, 5020 Salzburg, Austria Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] ABSTRACT The concept of information has become a crucial topic in several emerging scientific disciplines, as well as in organizations, in companies and in everyday life. Hence it is legitimate to speak of the so-called information society; but a scientific understanding of the Information Age has not had time to develop. Following this evolution we face the need of a new transdisciplinary understanding of information, encompassing many academic disciplines and new fields of interest. Therefore a Science of Information is required. The goal of this paper is to discuss the aims, the scope, and the tools of a Science of Information. Furthermore we describe the new Science of Information Institute (SOII), which will be established as an international and transdisciplinary organization that takes into consideration a larger perspective of information. Keywords: Information, Science of Information, Information Society, Transdisciplinarity, Science of Information Institute (SOII), Foundations of Information Science (FIS) 1 INTRODUCTION Information is emerging as a new and large prospective area of study. The notion of information has become a crucial topic in several emerging scientific disciplines such as Philosophy of Information, Quantum Information, Bioinformatics and Biosemiotics, Theory of Mind, Systems Theory, Internet Research, and many more. -
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. -
Second-Order Economics As an Example of Second-Order Cybernetics
Cybernetics and Human Knowing. Vol. 18, nos. 3-4, pp. xx-xx Second-Order Economics as an Example of Second-Order Cybernetics Stuart A. Umpleby1 Heinz von Foerster proposed that the observer should be included in the domain of observation. He suggested that this approach to cybernetics be called second-order cybernetics. Heinz was primarily interested in understanding cognition, based on neurophysiology and mathematics. But there has also been strong interest in cybernetics as a theory of social systems. Using the “second order” idea for existing social science fields would focus attention on the role of the observer and on reflexive phenomena such as the effect of theories on what is being studied. This article considers how the field of economics might adopt the second order idea. A Current Task for Cybernetics In emphasizing the role of the observer and creating the term second-order cybernetics Von Foerster was ahead of his time. One example is the fact that the field of economics may be on the verge of beginning research on second-order economics. But before explaining why that is happening, some background is necessary. Von Foerster was persuaded that the observer needed to be studied as well as the observed. The traditional philosophy of science maintained that scientific observations should be independent of the characteristics of the observer. However, as Humberto Maturana noted, “Anything said is said by an observer” (Maturana, 1970, p. 4). Hence, excluding the observer from consideration is a kind of denial. Von Foerster sustained and advanced the field of cybernetics when many others had returned to their home disciplines. -
The Intellectual Journey of Hua Loo-Keng from China to the Institute for Advanced Study: His Correspondence with Hermann Weyl
ISSN 1923-8444 [Print] Studies in Mathematical Sciences ISSN 1923-8452 [Online] Vol. 6, No. 2, 2013, pp. [71{82] www.cscanada.net DOI: 10.3968/j.sms.1923845220130602.907 www.cscanada.org The Intellectual Journey of Hua Loo-keng from China to the Institute for Advanced Study: His Correspondence with Hermann Weyl Jean W. Richard[a],* and Abdramane Serme[a] [a] Department of Mathematics, The City University of New York (CUNY/BMCC), USA. * Corresponding author. Address: Department of Mathematics, The City University of New York (CUN- Y/BMCC), 199 Chambers Street, N-599, New York, NY 10007-1097, USA; E- Mail: [email protected] Received: February 4, 2013/ Accepted: April 9, 2013/ Published: May 31, 2013 \The scientific knowledge grows by the thinking of the individual solitary scientist and the communication of ideas from man to man Hua has been of great value in this respect to our whole group, especially to the younger members, by the stimulus which he has provided." (Hermann Weyl in a letter about Hua Loo-keng, 1948).y Abstract: This paper explores the intellectual journey of the self-taught Chinese mathematician Hua Loo-keng (1910{1985) from Southwest Associ- ated University (Kunming, Yunnan, China)z to the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. The paper seeks to show how during the Sino C Japanese war, a genuine cross-continental mentorship grew between the prolific Ger- man mathematician Hermann Weyl (1885{1955) and the gifted mathemati- cian Hua Loo-keng. Their correspondence offers a profound understanding of a solidarity-building effort that can exist in the scientific community. -
Prizes and Awards Session
PRIZES AND AWARDS SESSION Wednesday, July 12, 2021 9:00 AM EDT 2021 SIAM Annual Meeting July 19 – 23, 2021 Held in Virtual Format 1 Table of Contents AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecture ................................................................................................... 3 George B. Dantzig Prize ............................................................................................................................. 5 George Pólya Prize for Mathematical Exposition .................................................................................... 7 George Pólya Prize in Applied Combinatorics ......................................................................................... 8 I.E. Block Community Lecture .................................................................................................................. 9 John von Neumann Prize ......................................................................................................................... 11 Lagrange Prize in Continuous Optimization .......................................................................................... 13 Ralph E. Kleinman Prize .......................................................................................................................... 15 SIAM Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession ....................................................................... 17 SIAM Student Paper Prizes .................................................................................................................... -
Blaschke, Osgood, Wiener, Hadamard and the Early Development Of
Blaschke, Osgood, Wiener, Hadamard and the Early Development of Modern Mathematics in China Chuanming Zong Abstract. In ancient times, China made great contributions to world civi- lization and in particular to mathematics. However, modern sciences includ- ing mathematics came to China rather too late. The first Chinese university was founded in 1895. The first mathematics department in China was for- mally opened at the university only in 1913. At the beginning of the twenti- eth century, some Chinese went to Europe, the United States of America and Japan for higher education in modern mathematics and returned to China as the pioneer generation. They created mathematics departments at the Chinese universities and sowed the seeds of modern mathematics in China. In 1930s, when a dozen of Chinese universities already had mathematics departments, several leading mathematicians from Europe and USA visited China, including Wilhelm Blaschke, George D. Birkhoff, William F. Osgood, Norbert Wiener and Jacques Hadamard. Their visits not only had profound impact on the mathematical development in China, but also became social events sometimes. This paper tells the history of their visits. 2020 Mathematics Subject Classification: 01A25, 01A60. 1. Introduction and Background In 1895, Peiyang University was founded in Tianjin as a result of the westernization movement. In 1898, Peking University was founded in Beijing. They are the earliest universities in China. On May 28, 1900, Britain, USA, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Italy and Austria invaded China to suppress the Boxer Rebellion1 which was an organized movement against foreign missionaries and their followers. On August 14, 1900, more than 20,000 soldiers of the allied force occupied the Chinese capital Beijing and the emperor’s family with some high ranking officials and servants escaped to Xi’an. -
The Human Use of Human Beings
THE HUMAN USE OF HUl\IAN BEINGS This is one of the fundamental documents of our time, a period characterized by the concepts of 'information' and 'communica tions'. Norbert Wiener, a child prodigy and a great mathematician, coined the term 'cybernetics' to characterize a very general science of 'control and communication in the animal and machine'. It brought together concepts from engineering, the study of the nervous system and statistical mechanics (e.g. entropy). From these he developed concepts that have become pervasive through science (especially biology and computing) and common parlance: 'in formation', 'message', 'feedback' and 'control'. He wrote, 'the thought of every age is reflected in its technique ... If the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries are the age of clocks, and the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries constitute the age of steam engines, the present time is the age of communication and control.' In this volume Norbert Wiener spells out his theories for the general reader and reflects on the social issues raised by the dramatically increasing role of science and technology in the new age - the age in which we are now deeply and problematically embroiled. His cautionary remarks are as relevant now as they were when the book first appeared in the 1950s. Norbert Wiener (1894-1964), Professor of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1919 onwards, wrote numerous books on mathematics and engineering. Having de veloped methods useful to the military during World War Two, he later refused to do such work during the Cold War, while proposing non-military models of cybernetics. -
Cybernetics, Economics, and Philosophy in the German Democratic Republic
Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University History Theses Department of History Spring 5-7-2011 Red Helmsman: Cybernetics, Economics, and Philosophy in the German Democratic Republic Kevin T. Baker Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_theses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Baker, Kevin T., "Red Helmsman: Cybernetics, Economics, and Philosophy in the German Democratic Republic." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2011. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_theses/47 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RED HELMSMAN: CYBERNETICS, ECONOMICS, AND PHILOSOPHY IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC by KEVIN T. BAKER Under the Direction of Jared Poley ABSTRACT Cybernetics, despite being initially rejected in the Eastern Bloc throughout the 1950s for ideological reasons, rose to a high level of institutional prominence in the 1960s, profoundly influencing state philosophy and economic planning. This thesis is an examination of this transition, charting the development of cybernetics from the object of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands’s (SED) opprobrium to one of the major philosophical currents within the party intelligentsia. INDEX WORDS: East Germany, Marxism, History of science, Economics, Cybernetics, Philosophy, Cold War, Information theory, Georg Klaus, Walter Ulbricht RED HELMSMAN: CYBERNETICS, ECONOMICS, AND PHILOSOPHY IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC by KEVIN T. BAKER A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of the Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2011 Copyright by Kevin T. -
Adventures Beyond Reductionism. the Remarkable Unfolding of Complex Holism: Sustainability Science
Adventures Beyond Reductionism. The Remarkable Unfolding of Complex Holism: Sustainability Science A. Sengupta Institute for Complex Holism, Kolkata, INDIA E-mail: [email protected] Abstract “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down”. Can Darwinian random mutations and selection generate biological complexity and holism? In this paper we argue that the “wonderful but not enough” tools of linear reductionism cannot lead to chaos and hence to complexity and holism, but with ChaNoXity this seems indeed plausible, even likely. Based on the Pump-Engine realism of mutually interacting supply and demand — demand institutes supply that fuels demand — we demonstrate that the “supply” of symmetry breaking Darwinian genetic variation, in direct conflict with the symmetry inducing “demand” of natural selection, defines the antagonistic arrows of the real and negative worlds. Working in this competitively collaborating nonlinear mode, these opposites generate the homeostasy of holistic life. Protein folding, mitosis, meiosis, hydrophobicity and other ingredients have their respective expressions in this paradigm; nucleotide substitution, gene duplication-divergence, HGT, stress-induced mutations, antibiotic resistance, Lamarckism would appear to fit in naturally in this complexity paradigm defined through emergence of novelty and self-organization. With obvious departures from mainstream reductionism, this can have far reaching implications in the Darwinian and nano medicine of genetic diseases and disorders. Our goal is to chart a roadmap of adventure beyond (neo)-Darwinian reductionism. Keywords: Chanoxity; Reductionism; Darwinian Holism; Self-organization and Emergence; Demand, Sup- ply, Logistic. 1 Introduction: Beyond Reductionism Biological systems are complex holistic systems: thermodynamically open and far-from-equilibrium, self organizing, emergent.