A Cybernetic Theory of Representation « Matter Thinks

A Cybernetic Theory of Representation « Matter Thinks: "A Cybernetic Theory of Representation December 17, 2009
Posted by mash in Consciousness, Cybernetics.
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When it comes to mental representation, I think the teleosemanticists are largely right, except that they are overfocused on biology and evolution rather than the more general underlying principles that I believe are in play."

Cybernetics-and-Society - home

Cybernetics-and-Society - home: "Walker, your footprints
are the path and nothing else;
walker, there is no path,
the path is made as you walk.
Antonio Machado"

SpringerLink - Journal Article

SpringerLink - Journal Article: "The cybernetic institution: Toward an integration of governance theories
The cybernetic institution: Toward an integration of governance theories
Journal Higher Education
Publisher Springer Netherlands
ISSN 0018-1560 (Print) 1573-174X (Online)
Issue Volume 18, Number 2 / March, 1989
DOI 10.1007/BF00139183
Pages 239-253
Subject Collection Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
SpringerLink Date Saturday, November 06, 2004


The cybernetic institution: Toward an integration of governance theories

Robert Birnbaum1, 2
(1) National Center for Postsecondary Governance and Finance, USA
(2) Teachers College, Columbia University, Columbia, USA

Abstract This paper presents a new conceptual approach to institutional governance, management, and leadership based upon a cybernetic model of organizations. The cybernetic paradigm integrates existing models by suggesting how bureaucratic, collegial, political, and anarchical subsystems function simultaneously in colleges and universities of all kinds to create self-correcting institutions. The cybernetic paradigm posits that organization control systems can be described in terms of sensing mechanisms and negative feedback loops that collectively monitor changes from acceptable leve"

CYBERNETICS OF SOCIETY

CYBERNETICS OF SOCIETY: "Cybernetics and governance are quintessentially teleological.

As ontology (asking, What is?) called forth epistemology (asking, How do we know what is?), so these two coevolved, over time, to call forth the teleological question — ultimately the touchstone of human striving and the greatest philosophical question of any time and all times — So what?

What should I do with my ontology and epistemology this morning? How shall we live our lives? How can humankind best balance liberty and justice, here and now? How can our emergent planetary civilization find and pursue the path of virtue? In short, how can wisdom, sophia, put Logos — knowledge of the naturally found — into best service to the culturally made, the Nomos: knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and know-how focused on ordaining and establishing 'quality' governance that will sustain Regenerative Intelligence Still Evolving (RISE)?

***

The teleological quest for 'good government' was the preoccupation of the ancient Sophists, of whom (despite Plato's protestations) Socrates was the greatest. As cybernetics is quintessentially teleological, so law must advance as a quintessentially cybernetic 'calling' — transcending science as science transcends logic."

Steinbruner, J.D.: The Cybernetic Theory of Decision: New Dimensions of Political Analysis.

Steinbruner, J.D.: The Cybernetic Theory of Decision: New Dimensions of Political Analysis.: "In this classic work, John Steinbruner argues that the time is ripe for exploration of a new theoretical perspective on the decision-making process in government. He suggests that the cybernetic theory of decision as developed in such diverse fields as information theory, mathematical logic, and behavioral psychology generates a systematic but non-rational analysis that seems to explain quite naturally decisions that are puzzling when viewed from the rational perspective. When combined with the basic understanding of human mental operations developed in cognitive psychology, the cybernetic theory of decision presents a striking picture of how decision makers deal with the intense uncertainty and fundamental value conflicts that arise in bureaucratic politics. To illustrate the advantages of using cybernetic theory, Steinbruner analyzes the issue of sharing nuclear weapons among the NATO allies."

Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Evolution of Politics

Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Evolution of Politics: "THE EVOLUTION OF POLITICAL SYSTEMS

How does this theoretical framework relate specifically to the evolution of political systems? We begin with the perennial problem of defining politics. Charles Evans Hughes, a distinguished Chief Justice of the United States, was indiscreet enough in his pre-Supreme Court days to remark that 'The Constitution is what the judges say it is.' In like manner, or so it seems, politics is whatever political scientists, and political anthro­pologists, say it is. And, not surprisingly, there seem to be almost as many definitions of politics as there are theorists. The problem is that any given definition may rule in, or out, certain kinds of phenomena, or perhaps stress only one aspect of a multi-faceted class of phenomena.

Political Scientist Robert Dahl has written that a definition is in effect 'a proposed treaty governing the use of terms.' The treaty I advocate defines politics as isomorphic with social cybernetics: A political system is the cybernetic aspect, or 'sub-system' of any socially organized group or population. Politics in these terms is a social process involving efforts to create, or to acquire control over, a cybernetic sub-system, as well as the process of exercising control.

This definition is not original. The term 'cybernetics' can be traced to the Greek word kybernetes"

Puncturing Equilibrium: Radical Innovation As New Market Emergence | tvass on technology innovation

Puncturing Equilibrium: Radical Innovation As New Market Emergence | tvass on technology innovation: "Market selection in innovation economics is not neutral either, as Kimura suggests it is for genetic selection. Neutral selection works as a metaphor for equilibrium economics, not innovation. A new product in sustaining innovation that actually gets selected by consumers, however, is influenced by the genetic pattern of interaction in the technological procreation of the product.

As Kimura points out, in genetics “proximity,” not size, is what matters. In this case, close counts. “Probably, what determines the pattern of interaction between amino acids in evolution, says Kimura, “is their physical proximity or direct contact within the folded protein.”

Proximity matters both for small adaptive changes, which consumers select, and for the closeness in the one-way information flows in technological innovation that occurs in distinct geographical settings. The more the technological features of the new sustaining innovation look like the old product features, the greater the likelihood of consumer selection.

Technological closeness in sustaining product innovation for regional economics is analogous to closeness in amino acids in the DNA structure of the folded proteins. Sustaining innovation is like nearly neutral evolution because the technological genetics existed in the previous generation of products"

Power curves natural and economic disasters - McKinsey Quarterly - Strategy - Globalization

Power curves natural and economic disasters - McKinsey Quarterly - Strategy - Globalization: "‘Power curves’: What natural and economic disasters have in common
Parallels between the failures of man-made systems, such as the economy, and of similarly complex natural ones offer fascinating food for thought.

JUNE 2009 • Michele Zanini

Source: Strategy Practice
Energy, Resources, Materials, Environment article, Power curves natural and economic disasters
In This Article

This short essay is a Conversation Starter, one in a series of invited opinions on topical issues. Read the original essay, then let us know what you think. The author has also responded to the main themes in the letters, and asked a few follow-up questions below.

Executives, strategists, and economic forecasters, somewhat sheepish after missing the “big one”—last year’s global credit crisis—turned to the lexicon of natural disasters, describing the shock as a tsunami hitting markets and as an earthquake shaking the world economy’s foundations. Shopworn as these metaphors may be, they aptly capture the extreme and unexpected nature of the circumstances. In fact, the parallels between the dynamics and failures of man-made systems, such as the economy or the electricity grid, and similarly complex natural ones are bringing new ideas to economic forecasting, strategic planning, and risk management. This trend may have profound implications for policy makers, economists, and corporate strategists alike.

Scientists, sometimes in cooperation with economists, are taking the lead in a young field that applies complexity theory to economic research, rejecting the traditional view of the economy as a fully transparent, rational system striving toward equilibrium. The geophysics professor and earthquake authority Didier Sornette, for example, leads the Financial Crisis Observatory, in Zurich, which uses concepts and mathematical models that draw on complexity theory and statistical physics to understand financial bubbles and economic crises."

Maturana and Varela « Frames /sing

Maturana and Varela « Frames /sing: "Here is Spinoza’s famous Ethics defintion, and an even more elementary and bold one from his much earlier Short Treatise on God, Man and His Well-Being (KV)

Ethics: When a number of bodies of the same or different magnitude form close contact with one another through the pressure of other bodies upon them, or if they are moving at the same or different rates of speed so as to preserve an unvarying relation of movement among themselves, these bodies are said to be united with one another and all together to form one body or individual thing, which is distinguished from other things through this union of bodies (E2p13a2d)"

Is Spinoza a Cyberneticist, or a Chaocomplexicist? « Frames /sing

Is Spinoza a Cyberneticist, or a Chaocomplexicist? « Frames /sing: "Valueably Bousquet notes that the passage from Cybernetics to Chaoplexic thinking has been characterized as the move from concerns of “control” to those of “coordination”, what has been called the “coordination revolution”. Bousquet cites Arquilla and Ronfelt who put the case in the context of military theorization. No longer is the ultimate thought for the control of all events internal to a network or system, but rather in terms of the loosely configured relatability of elements:

In these and related writings, we see a trend among theorists to equate information with “organization,” “order,” and “structure”—to argue that embedded information is what makes an object have an orderly structure. As this trend has developed, its emphasis has shifted. At first, in the 1940s and 1950s, information theorists emphasized the concept of “entropy”—and were thus concerned with exploiting feedback to improve “control.” Now, the emphasis has shifted to the concept of “complexity”—and this has led to a new concern with the “coordination” of complex systems. Control and coordination are different, sometimes contrary processes; indeed, the exertion of excessive control in order to avoid entropy may inhibit the looser, decentralized types of coordination that often characterize advanced forms of complex systems. What James Beniger called the “control revolution” is now turning into what might be better termed a “coordination revolution.” Entropy and complexity look like opposing sides of the same coin of order. About the worst that can happen to embedded information is that it gives way to entropy, i.e., the tendency to become disorganized. The best is that it enables an object to grow in efficiency, versatility, and adaptability (148)"

Political Feedback Loops and Climate Change (Opinion) : TreeHugger

Political Feedback Loops and Climate Change (Opinion) : TreeHugger: "2. Scarce resources will create instability. If business leaders are right and water is the new oil — we can expect shortages to lead to wars and dislocation. Environmental refugee exoduses will surely cause unrest—Bangladesh alone may have millions of environmental refugees, pouring a mass of impoverished people into an already instable region. In China, the new wave of prosperity, and promise of more to come, constitutes a major portion of the legitimacy of the national government; reductions in economic growth could undercut that legitimacy and lead to political unrest. Facing internal threats, governments may lock down or lash out, leaving little patience for creating or maintaining a global warming compromise."

Entropyman.org Explains Why Pots 'Unbreak' on the Nanoscale (Video)

Entropyman.org Explains Why Pots 'Unbreak' on the Nanoscale (Video): "Entropyman.org Explains Why Pots 'Unbreak' on the Nanoscale (Video)
February 16th, 2009 by Lisa Zyga Entropyman

Enlarge

Edward Feng, a researcher at Sandia Livermore National Laboratory, has created a new Web site called Entropyman.org to explain the Second Law of Thermodynamics

(PhysOrg.com) -- A man lifts his hand in the air, and broken pieces of ceramic lying on the sidewalk spring up into his hand, coming together to form a flower pot. He lifts his hands again, and more broken pieces spring together to make a square ceramic tile."

Physicists investigate how time moves forward

Physicists investigate how time moves forward: "Physicists investigate how time moves forward
September 5th, 2008 By Lisa Zyga

As humans, we have a very intuitive concept of time, and of the differences between the past, present, and future. But, as scientists Edward Feng of the University of California, Berkeley, and Gavin Crooks of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory point out, science does not provide a clear definition of time.

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“In our everyday lives we have the sense that time flows inexorably from the past into the future; water flows downhill; mountains erode; we are born, grow old, and die; we anticipate the future but remember the past,” the scientists write in a recent study in Physical Review Letters. “Yet almost all of the fundamental theories of physics – classical mechanics, electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, general relativity, and so on – are symmetric with respect to time reversal.

“The only fundamental theory that picks out a preferred direction of time is the second law of thermodynamics, which asserts that the entropy of the Universe increases as time flows toward the future. This provides an orientation, or arrow of time, and it is generally believed that all other time asymmetries, such as our sense that future and past are different, are a direct consequence of this thermodynamic arrow.”"

Physicist Proposes Solution to Arrow-of-Time Paradox

Physicist Proposes Solution to Arrow-of-Time Paradox: "Physicist Proposes Solution to Arrow-of-Time Paradox
August 27th, 2009 By Lisa Zyga Physicist Proposes Solution to Arrow-of-Time Paradox

A new theory suggests that we don’t observe phenomena where entropy decreases because all evidence from these processes is erased when correlations are removed from the system. Image credit: cguu.com.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Entropy can decrease, according to a new proposal - but the process would destroy any evidence of its existence, and erase any memory an observer might have of it. It sounds like the plot to a weird sci-fi movie, but the idea has recently been suggested by theoretical physicist Lorenzo Maccone, currently a visiting scientist at MIT, in an attempt to solve a longstanding paradox in physics."

Future of The Web- Will Web 5.0 Take Control?

Future of The Web- Will Web 5.0 Take Control?: "Web 5.0- the Wise Web, is still in shadow play, but it’s definitely coming. It’s signature is written large in research labs across the planet, where everything from human behaviour, emotions, decision-making, network science, brain cognition and automated learning is being funded.

What’s emerging is a more complete understanding of human nature, consciousness and creativity and what it takes to replicate this essence in an alternate system.

Web 5.0 will scoop up all this new knowledge and the intelligence offered by Webs 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 and deliver it in an ethical, self-aware and sentient framework, embedding all biological and artificial life within a global cooperative intelligence.

The Wise Web will mark the beginning of a new threshold in human civilisation- a new form of global consciousness- in which all life will be embedded.

All critical decisions affecting our planet and life, including those relating to global warming, sharing vital resources and the ethical resolution of conflict and human rights, will be guided by this global intelligence.

We desperately need a new paradigm in the 21st century. Our decision-making processes are seriously flawed- so flawed that they threaten our very existence- world wars, multiple genocides, the threat of nuclear weapons, ongoing malnutrition for millions, unstoppable global warming and now the collapse of the global economic system.

This isn’t a good roadmap for survival.

At its best, Web 5.0 promises redemption for the human race.

At its worst it offers a seductive but slippery slope straight to the Borg."

Future Darwinism- A Networked Information Theory

Future Darwinism- A Networked Information Theory: "Future Darwinism- A Networked Information Theory
Written by David Tow
David TowThe latest physical theories place both information and network theory at the heart of evolutionary processes.

At the cosmic and quantum level, theories such as Loop Quantum Gravity- LQG for example, model the evolution of the cosmos by flows of information through channels of spacetime. The core principle incorporated in LQG is that the structure of spacetime is built up from a network of interacting connections or spin networks, constructed from causal relationships, which evolve and grow over time from the past to the future. The topological braiding patterns of network nodes can also encode quantum particles

At the biological level, based on experiments measuring the ability of bacteria to adapt to new food sources, there is proof of an 'information minimum' level required for life’s survival. Natural selection favours organisms that capture more bits of information about their environment and this principle is common to all living systems. There is also a greater understanding that the analysis of cellular networks and the multilayered controls of gene expression can be best understood in terms of networked patterns."

Future Darwinism- Selecting Life for the Universe

Future Darwinism- Selecting Life for the Universe: "David Tow
Future Darwinism- Selecting Life for the Universe
Written by David Tow
David TowDavid Tow- Information scientist and Director of The Future of Life Research Centre in Sydney NSW, predicts life will prove to be ubiquitous within the universe. By combining physicist Lee Smolin’s evolutionary theory of the emergence of a life in the cosmos with the Centre’s Decision-Network Evolutionary Theory- D-Net, David Tow suggests it is likely that the universe, as the ultimate environment, selects life because it is the most efficient form of information processor.

The revolutionary idea that Smolin introduced over a decade ago is that each generational child universe is a mutated form of its parent, with slightly altered physical parameters. If these changes allow for small increases in inflation, this may kick-start larger universes that do not collapse as quickly and which will eventually have the capacity and longevity to create stars, planets, carbon, complex molecules and eventually life.

In other words, universes capable of generating life will be selected in the biological Darwinian sense, according to the rules of mutation, selection and replication."

Part I: A Theory of Engaging Emergence « Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity

Part I: A Theory of Engaging Emergence « Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity: "Professor Jeffrey Goldstein from the School of Business at Adelphi University provides a definition of emergence in the journal, Emergence (Goldstein 1999): “the arising of novel and coherent structures, patterns and properties during the process of self-organization in complex systems”. He articulated these commonly accepted qualities of emergence:

* radical novelty — at each level of complexity entirely new properties appear (e.g., from autocracy- rule by one person with unlimited power to democracy – government in which the people are the primary source of political power)
* coherence – a system of interactions having a sufficiently persistent stable form over time that we name it (e.g., elephant, biosphere, Sally)
* “wholeness” – not just the sum of its parts, but also different and irreducible from its parts (e.g., humans are more than the composition of lots of cells)
* dynamic – always in process, continuing to evolve (e.g., the US constitution and its amendments)
* downward causation – the system organizing and shaping the behavior of the parts (e.g., roads determine where we drive)

Stephen Johnson organized his thinking about emergence around four core principles:

* Neighbor interaction – individual agents taking their cues from their neighbors in a sort of ordered randomness rather than through orders from above (e.g., well-worn trails determine where to pave the roads)
* Pattern matching – agents learning through their connections and forming more orderly structures (e.g., clustering of similar functions in a city: New York’s garment district, diamond district, Little Italy, etc.)
* Feedback – interactions that reinforce consonant patterns and balance dissonant patterns indirectly cause a system to learn and adapt (e.g., real-time feedback via a back channel shapes audience response which affects a tuned-in speaker’s behavior)
* Indirect control – a system’s behavior arises from setting up conditions intended to produce the desired outcomes and giving it a try (e.g., any change initiative)"

Africa Unchained: Influencing Cybernetics

Africa Unchained: Influencing Cybernetics: "Thursday, August 27, 2009
Influencing Cybernetics
Appfrica highlights a paper by Ron Eglash in which he writes:

The use of African material culture as a form of analog representation is particularly vivid in cases of recursive information flow. In African architecture, recursive scaling – that is fractal geometry – can be seen in a variety of forms. In North Africa it is associated with the feedback of he “arabesque” artistic form, particularly in the branches of branches forming city streets. In Central Africa it can be seen in additive rectangular wall formations, and in West Africa we we circular swirls of circular houses and granaries. This is not limited to a visual argument; the fractal structure of African settlement patterns has been confirmed by computational analysis of digitized photos in Eglash and Broadwell (1989).
Recursive scaling in Egyptian temples can be viewed as a formalized version of the fractal architecture found elsewhere in Africa, and is most significant in it’s use of the Fibonacci sequence. The sequence is named for Leonardo Fibonacci (ca. 1175-1250), who is also associated with an unusual example of recursive architecture in Europe. The Fibonacci sequence was one of the first mathematical models for biological growth patterns, and inspired Alan Turing and other important figures in the history of computational morphogenesis. Since Fibonacci was sent to North Africa as a boy and devoted his years there to mathematics education (Gies and Gies 1969), it is possible that seminal example of recursive scaling is of African origin"

A complete view of complexity in science and society in a new authoritative reference work

A complete view of complexity in science and society in a new authoritative reference work: "A complete view of complexity in science and society in a new authoritative reference work
July 10th, 2009

A new unique work published by Springer, the Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science, extends the influence of complexity and system science to a much wider audience than has been possible to date. In eleven volumes, available in print and electronically, it provides an authoritative single source for understanding and applying the concepts of complexity theory together with the tools and measures for analyzing complex systems in all fields of science and engineering."

Gene Network May Lead to Brain Cancer Breakthrough - ABC News

Gene Network May Lead to Brain Cancer Breakthrough - ABC News: "The finding that landscape genes appear to predict survival may also have an implication for treatment of glioblastoma, since attempts to intervene with therapies targeting single genes have not been successful.

The complexity of the landscape model 'helps explain the lack of therapeutic efficacy of strategies targeting single gene products,' the authors said."

Foundations for a New Science of Learning -- Meltzoff et al. 325 (5938): 284 -- Science

Foundations for a New Science of Learning -- Meltzoff et al. 325 (5938): 284 -- Science: "Review
Foundations for a New Science of Learning
Andrew N. Meltzoff,1,2,3,* Patricia K. Kuhl,1,3,4 Javier Movellan,5,6 Terrence J. Sejnowski5,6,7,8

Human learning is distinguished by the range and complexity of skills that can be learned and the degree of abstraction that can be achieved compared with those of other species. Homo sapiens is also the only species that has developed formal ways to enhance learning: teachers, schools, and curricula. Human infants have an intense interest in people and their behavior and possess powerful implicit learning mechanisms that are affected by social interaction. Neuroscientists are beginning to understand the brain mechanisms underlying learning and how shared brain systems for perception and action support social learning. Machine learning algorithms are being developed that allow robots and computers to learn autonomously. New insights from many different fields are converging to create a new science of learning that may transform educational practices."

OpEdNews » Consciousness and Complexity

OpEdNews » Consciousness and Complexity: "In the case of humans, we are above the threshold at which great organized social complexity emerges. Yet, we may be as cognitively limited as our ape cousins. Consider that we know scientifically, that our actions are destroying the planetary ecosystem, altering the weather, and that this global civilization is based upon ever-increasing use of ever-diminishing hydrocarbon energy resources. Our rational response to this would be to immediately take drastic actions to remedy these behavioral errors.

Yet, our material wealth, the position and power of societal elites, the very way that we have been indoctrinated to understand and interact with reality itself, is based upon preservation of the existing patterns of social order. So we as a global society, effectively do nothing. At least we do not take effective actions in a timely manner."

Health care: A need for a systems science look - Ivo P. Janecka, MD, MBA, PhD -- Seeking Alpha

Health care: A need for a systems science look - Ivo P. Janecka, MD, MBA, PhD -- Seeking Alpha: "When the financial meltdown was accelerating, there were public calls for a “look at the whole system.” That insight might have come from the clarity of vision gained through the realization that the “parachute” may not open and the “ground” was rapidly approaching. But, when the parachute did open, the clarity came out of focus; with that, the need for the larger system coherence vanished. In another word, “we have resuscitated the patient’s important organ/the financial system, but without doing any “major surgery” on the part that was seriously ill; resuscitation is only an emergency step, it’s not a corrective one. The consequence of that is that the “organ” is back to processing its toxic metabolites and heads to its eventual “disease” recurrence.

The issue with health care is much more complex because finances are only about numbers but health care is about people, human beings that actually create and maintain the economy through their productive/consumptive relationships. The whole economy is a large system as every individual is also a system in its own right fitting or not fitting into the larger societal system. Hence, the importance of really looking at health care from systems science perspective which offers guiding principle, based on biologic correlates, of function and structure."

Scotland Could be 100 per cent Renewable in only 20 Years

allmediascotland : New Report: Scotland Could be 100 per cent Renewable in only 20 Years

New Report: Scotland Could be 100 per cent Renewable in only 20 Years
WWF Scotland
14/07/2009
Region : All

New report shows a cleaner, greener energy future for Scotland is possible

A new report, published today (Tuesday 14 July) shows for the first time that a truly sustainable energy future is achievable for Scotland, meeting climate change, renewable energy and energy saving targets and creating new economic opportunities while protecting sensitive environments and maintaining security of supply.

The Power of Scotland Renewed report [1], based on research by independent energy analysts Garrad Hassan, and commissioned by Friends of the Earth Scotland, the World Development Movement, WWF Scotland and RSPB Scotland, shows that there is enormous potential to increase generation of electricity from renewable sources during the next two decades, so much so that by 2030 renewable energy can meet between 60% and 143% of Scotland’s projected annual electricity demand.

Collective Intelligence Outsmarts Genius

Collective Intelligence Outsmarts Genius

``Most think that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and Wright Brothers created the airplane. But it took the collaboration of numerous people behind the scenes to come up with such great inventions,'' Hong said.

``Collective intelligence has always outsmarted the sophistication of a handful of geniuses. Corporations need to take advantage of this to make money,'' she said.

As examples of harnessing collective intelligence in business, Hong named open standard research projects such as Connect & Development of P&G and Ideastorm of Dell Computer as well as Haptic.

``Companies need to leverage opinions from outside resources from planning any goods or services to designing and marketing them,'' Hong said.

``Collective intelligence will provide a competitive edge to entities in comparison to those which restrict their approach to only in-house resources,'' she said.

College of Science Lectures Focus on "Next: Science That Transforms"

College of Science Lectures Focus on "Next: Science That Transforms" | UANews.org

Speakers will talk about large-scale science that will dramatically change our views of the universe and ourselves.

By Lori Stiles, University Communications
January 21, 2009

The University of Arizona College of Science will present a lecture series beginning this month that will focus on large-scale science that is poised to reshape our understanding of the universe and ourselves.

The lecture series, "Next: Science That Transforms," will feature six scientists who help lead world-class projects in astronomy, physics, biology, cybernetics and medicine. Each will discuss epic scientific discoveries anticipated from their programs in the near future.

"We want people to learn first-hand about remarkable discoveries soon to come in areas ranging from deep space and particle physics to evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence and the human brain," said Joaquin Ruiz, dean of the UA College of Science.

"Large-scale science projects now underway are about to produce outcomes that will profoundly change what we know about our universe, our world and ourselves," Ruiz added.

All lectures are free and open to the public and will begin at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays beginning Jan. 27. The lectures will be held at Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. on the UA campus. Parking is available on a pay per use basis in the Tyndall Avenue Garage, 880 E. Fourth St.

Découverte d'un gène fondamental au vieillissement du cerveau

Une
equipe canado-americaine de l'Universite de Montreal, de l'Hopital
Maisonneuve-Rosemont et du Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory publie
dans the Journal of Neuroscience : Pourra-t-on
un jour freiner le vieillissement du cerveau et ainsi prévenir des
maladies comme l'Alzheimer et le Parkinson ? Oui, à la condition
d'établir la programmation génétique lié à la dégénérescence des
neurones. Selon une étude publiée dans The Journal of Neuroscience, une
équipe de chercheurs de l'Université de Montréal, de l'Hôpital
Maisonneuve-Rosemont et du Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory a
effectué un pas de géant dans cette direction en identifiant le gène
qui contrôle le vieillissement normal et pathologique des neurones du
système nerveux central.

Un ordinateur cognitif capable de percevoir le monde extérieur puis de forger sa propre expérience

Le centre de recherche d'IBM situé à Almaden, en coopération avec 5
grandes universités américaines, a déclaré qu'il consacrerait une
partie de ses recherches à la conception d'un nouveau type ordinateur,
capable de simuler les capacités du cerveau. Cet ordinateur serait
capable d'apprécier certaines sensations, perceptions, actions, et
interactions du monde extérieur puis de créer sa propre expérience.

Possédant à la fois des limitations dans le système d'exploitation et
l'architecture, les ordinateurs électroniques actuels ont une
efficacité limitée lorsqu'ils sont placés dans un environnement réel
c'est-à-dire soumis à un très grand nombre de variables et de
paramètres. Les algorithmes développés jusqu'à présent, comparés aux
systèmes biologiques, sont un million voire un milliard de fois moins
efficaces.

Dans le but de créer des machines intelligentes
capables de rivaliser avec les systèmes biologiques, IBM et ses
collaborateurs ont reçu dans un premier temps une bourse de 4.9
millions de dollars, financée par la Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA). Ce projet dirigé par Dharmendra Modha, chercheur chez
IBM, a été nommé Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable
Electronics (SyNAPSE). Des scientifiques de Columbia University , de
l'UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health et d'IBM
travailleront sur le "software", alors que les experts en
nanotechnologie et en superordinateurs de Cornell, de Stanford et de
l'University of California-Merced créeront le "hardware".

Complexity at work! Check it out ...

http://tinyurl.com/8r2nkw

Cybernetics - LovelistHatelist.com

Cybernetics - LovelistHatelist.com

Ecology of Being

Ecology of Being

Complexity From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Complexity (disambiguation).

In general usage, complexity tends to be used to characterize something with many parts in intricate arrangement. In science there are at this time a number of approaches to characterizing complexity, many of which are reflected in this article. Seth Lloyd of M.I.T. writes that he once gave a presentation which set out 32 definitions of complexity.^[1]

Definitions are often tied to the concept of a ‘system’ – a set of parts or elements which have relationships among them differentiated from relationships with other elements outside the
relational regime. Many definitions tend to postulate or assume that complexity expresses a condition of numerous elements in a system and numerous forms of relationships among the elements. At the same time, what is complex and what is simple is relative and changes with time.

Some definitions key on the question of the probability of encountering a given condition of a system once characteristics of the system are specified. Warren Weaver has posited that the complexity of a particular system is the degree of difficulty in predicting the properties of the system if the properties of the system’s parts are given. In Weaver's view, complexity comes in two forms: disorganized complexity, and organized complexity. ^[2] Weaver’s paper has influenced contemporary thinking about complexity. ^[3]

The approaches which embody concepts of systems, multiple elements, multiple relational regimes, and state spaces might be summarized as implying that complexity arises from the number of distinguishable relational regimes (and their associated state spaces) in a defined
system.

Some definitions relate to the algorithmic basis for the expression of a complex phenomenon or model or mathematical expression, as is later set out herein.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complexity