Cybernetics

Ecología, belleza y el camino hacia la gracia de la interrelación

by José Manuel Rodríguez

Rodríguez, J.M. 2011. Ecología, belleza y el camino hacia la gracia de la interrelación. Prensa Libre, jueves 17 de febrero, p. 16 Opinión.

Nietzsche’s Pharaonic Thought: Hieroglyphic Transduction

by Nandita Biswas Mellamphy (UWO)

Forthcoming in Horst Hutter, ed., Becoming Loyal to the Earth: Ecology and Life-Affirmation in Nietzsche’s Vision -- Nietzsche’s Teaching as a Therapy for Political Culture (London: Continuum Books, 2012).

Cybernetics in Art and the Myth of the Cyborg Artist

by Tom Tenney

This paper argues that artists calling themselves “cyborg artists” represent only a small fraction of the ways in... more This paper argues that artists calling themselves “cyborg artists” represent only a small fraction of the ways in which cybernetics has infiltrated art and ideas about art, and that, in fact, their work often isn’t cybernetic at all, if we adhere to Norbert Wiener’s definition. The “artist as cyborg,” can refer not only to the materiality of the forms used to create art (i.e. machines and/or new media technology) but also to an aesthetic which is modeled on the core principles of cybernetics: negative feedback used within a system to achieve a goal. This is a perceptual shift away from thinking of “cyborg art” exclusively as those that utilize new media technology, and towards a more holistic theory that situates art in Wiener’s more inclusive theory of cybernetics

Listening to Cybernetics: Music, Machines, and Nervous Systems, 1950-1980

by Christina Dunbar-Hester

Scholars have explored the influence of the field of cybernetics on scientific thought and disciplines. However, from... more Scholars have explored the influence of the field of cybernetics on scientific thought and disciplines. However, from the inception of the field, ‘‘cyberneticians’’ had explicitly envisioned applications reaching beyond the purview of scientific disciplines; cybernetics was remarkable for its portability and potential application in a wide variety of contexts. This article explores connections between cybernetics and experimental music from 1950-1980, which was a period of experimentation with electronic techniques in recording, composition, and sound production and manipulation. Examples include musicians, engineers, instrument builders, composers, and scientists in collaboration with musicians who invoked cybernetic themes in their work. These uses of cybernetics were more diverse than accounts of cybernetics within the sciences suggest, presenting a major difficulty in addressing cybernetics as a homogeneous or monolithic discourse. In particular, cybernetic discourse in music often exhibited themes of openness and indeterminacy, rather than the ‘‘command and control’’ of the ‘‘closed world.’’

Trois Générations de Théories de la Complexité: Nuances et Ambiguités

by Michel Alhadeff-Jones

Alhadeff-Jones, M. (2008). Trois Générations de Théories de la Complexité: Nuances et Ambiguités. Programme Européen MCX “Modélisation de la Complexité”. Disponible à l’adresse: http://www.mcxapc.org/docs/conseilscient/0805michel.pdf

Le recours contemporain à la notion de "complexité" renvoie fréquemment à des démarches ayant tendance à... more Le recours contemporain à la notion de "complexité" renvoie fréquemment à des démarches ayant tendance à unifier sa définition. En langue anglaise, sa réduction à une forme singulière (complexity theory ou complexity science) s'avère ainsi susceptible de masquer la variété des théories permettant de rendre compte des implications inhérentes au recours à cette notion. Cet article, en prenant en considération à la fois les traditions de recherche latines et anglosaxonnes, associées à la notion de complexité, suggère une approche plus nuancée, évitant la simplification de cette notion à certaines des conceptions dominantes qui y sont associées. Partant d'une approche étymologique, cet article propose d'envisager de façon chronologique l'émergence de trois générations de théories de la complexité; ce faisant, certains de leurs enracinements épistémologiques et socio-culturels sont introduits. D'un point de vue épistémologique, la réflexion proposée met en évidence certaines des interprétations hétérogènes sous-jacentes à la définition de ce qui est perçu comme complexe. Suivant une perspective anthropologique, ce texte évoque également la portée à la fois émancipatrice et asservissante susceptible d'être associée à l'idée de complexité. Sur la base des ambiguitiés mises en évidence, cet article suggère finalement de concevoir les contributions renvoyant aux théories contemporaines de la complexité, au même titre que la remise en question de leur légitimité épistémologique et éthique, à partir des boucles et des dynamiques dont elles sont constitutives. Ce faisant, les chercheurs et les praticiens en Sciences de l'éducation devraient considérer leurs pratiques en tant que processus
d'apprentissage dont la complexité renvoie autant aux transformations qu'ils étudient ou provoquent, qu'aux transformations inhérentes aux systèmes de représentations
auxquels ils ont recours pour les conceptualiser. 

Three Generations of Complexity Theories: Nuances and Ambiguities

by Michel Alhadeff-Jones

Alhadeff-Jones, M. (2008). Three Generations of Complexity Theories: Nuances and Ambiguities. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 40, 1, 66-82.

The contemporary use of the term ‘complexity’ frequently indicates that it is considered a unified concept. This may... more The contemporary use of the term ‘complexity’ frequently indicates that it is considered a unified concept. This may lead to a neglect of the range of different theories that deal with the implications related to the notion of complexity. This paper, integrating both the English and the Latin traditions of research associated with this notion, suggests a more nuanced use of the term, thereby avoiding simplification of the concept to some of its dominant expressions only. The paper further explores the etymology of ‘complexity’ and offers a chronological presentation of three generations of theories that have shaped its uses; the epistemic and socio-cultural roots of these theories are also introduced. From an epistemological point of view, this reflection sheds light on the competing interpretations underlying the definition of what is considered as complex. Also, from an anthropological perspective it considers both the emancipatory as well as the alienating dimensions of complexity. Based on the highlighted ambiguities, the paper suggests in conclusion that contributions grounded in contemporary theories related to complexity, as well as critical appraisals of their epistemological and ethical legitimacy, need to follow the recursive feedback loops and dynamics that they constitute. In doing so, researchers and practitioners in education should consider their own practice as a learning process that does not require the reduction of the antagonisms and the complementarities that shape its own complexity.

From Cybernetics to Second-Order Cybernetics: A Comparative Analysis of Their Central Ideas

by Tom Froese

AN APPLICATION OF THE VIABLE SYSTEM MODEL TO THE STUDY OF PROJECT-ORIENTED ORGANISATIONS

by Panagiotis Panagiotakopoulos

Articulating Collapsible Universes

by Olga Touloumi

Ανάμεσα Σε Φύση Και Πολιτισμό: Συνθέτοντας (σ)το Ηχητικό Τοπίο Στον Αργολικό Κάμπο

by Olga Touloumi

Cybernetic Theory and the Architecture of Performance: Cedric Price's Fun Place (2001)

by Mary Lou Lobsinger

Published in Anxious Modernisms. Experimentation in Postwar Architectural Culture. ed. Sarah W. Goldhagen, Rejean Legault

Souvenirs, Rencontres, Perspectives: Entretien Avec Serge Proulx

by Dominique Trudel

Dans cet entretien, Serge Proulx évoque ses rencontres avec des figures intellectuelles marquantes des sciences... more Dans cet entretien, Serge Proulx évoque ses rencontres avec des figures intellectuelles marquantes des sciences sociales, notamment Marcel Rioux, Edgar Morin et Gregory Bateson. Ces rencontres constituent le prisme à travers lequel se réfléchissent des considérations sur l’histoire, le développement, l’épistémologie et la dimension politique du champ d’étude de la communication.

In this interview, Serge Proulx recalls his encounters with some of social sciences’ influential figures, such as Marcel Rioux, Edgar Morin and Gregory Bateson. These encounters constitute the cornerstone of Proulx’s views on the history, genesis, development as well as epistemological and political dimensions of the communication studies field.

Drug usage, internet and criminal victimization: A socio-legal analysis

by Debarati Halder

Published in the INCDCV 2012, Proceedings of the international Conference on Exploring the Linkages between Drug Usage and Criminal victimization; ed by P. Madhava Soma Sundaram & K. Jaishankar ISBN: 978-81-906687-6-7

Towards a cyber-semiotic foundation of a scientifically adequate Functional Discourse Grammar

by Ole Nedergaard Thomsen

Abstract proposal for a paper within our project on Cybersemiotics and Functional Linguistics (esp., Functional Discourse Grammar and Distributed Language Theory).
Co-authored with Søren Brier, Dec. 2011.
Comments welcome

In this paper we shall try to give a foundation for a scientifically adequate Functional Discourse Grammar. By the... more In this paper we shall try to give a foundation for a scientifically adequate Functional Discourse Grammar. By the term ’scientific adequacy’ Functional Grammar’s original types of adequacy, inherited by Functional Discourse Grammar, have been generalized: typological, psychological, and pragmatic, for we believe that a lot more has to be involved in scientific model building. Firstly, scientific adequacy will involve observational and descriptive adequacy, in addition to Functional Discourse Grammar’s adequacies. The former, observational adequacy, will deal with the problem of observing natural language and language use (e.g., ’the observer’s paradox’ of how to obtain samples of natural, vernacular speech, not distorted by observation), but in the first place we have to determine what counts as a linguistic observation (what is observed?). Then, how many and what kinds of observations do we need, for them to be representative of the whole population? Descriptive adequacy will have to define types of scientific model building – e.g., will a symbolic-diagrammatic description be adequate (e.g., Functional Discourse Grammar’s formulae and flow diagrams)? or should we use a connectionist, neural network model? – clearly the answers depend on (the type or aspect of) the observandum we are interested in, and on which aspects of it we abstract away, or on which level of granularity is needed (e.g., minute real-time factors in some topics of psycholinguistics).

With respect to explanatory (typological, psychological, and pragmatic) adequacy, we propose that Functional Discourse Grammar’s model of verbal language must be given a cyber-semiotic foundation (Brier 2008), and by this we mean, on the one hand, a cognitive (’second-order cybernetics’) and, on the other, a semiotic foundation. Cyber-semiotics implies that linguistic communication, the Natural Language User, and language (observandum) be investigated (trans- and inter-disciplinarily) in four irreducible dimensions (the ‘cybersemiotic star model’), viz., 1. as part of the physical world (perceptibe signs), 2. as part of the biological world (neurological-physiological embodiment), 3. as part of the psychological world (cognitive and phenomenological substrate), and 4. as part of the social world (socio-cultural situatedness). The four explanatory dimensions are not disparate, but complementary and united by a conception of ’absolute naturalism’, that is, that they all are integrated aspects of the natural world.

Cyber-semiotics is an evolutionary theory. Thus, we focus on language and linguistic communication as evolutionary phenomena. This may be self-evident but implies that a model of (a) language and of the Natural Language User (linguistic cyborg) should always ultimately be seen in this perspective, which again means that the model views (verbal) language as an integrated part of ’total integrated evolutionary multimodal communication’, involving, i.a., co-produced gesture.
The evolutionary perspective has the ramification that a Functional Discourse Grammar should be seen (at least) in the temporal perspective of: 1. the evolution of (human) language in the species, 2. the history of the speech tradition of a given speech community, and 3. the development of the language(s) of the individual Natural Language User (i.a. first-language acquisition, second-language acquisition, language loss, language impairment), as well as 4. the on-line incremental development of a given communication.


Keywords: Cybersemiotics, Functional Discourse Grammar, Functional Grammar, Natural Language User, linguistic cyborg, scientific adequacy: observational adequacy, descriptive adequacy, explanatory adequacy: psychological adequacy, pragmatic adequacy, typological adequacy, transdisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, the cybersemiotic star model: physical dimension, biological dimension, psychological dimension, sociological dimension; total integrated evolutionary multimodal communication

Resonances of the Unknown

by Claudia Westermann

Claudia Westermann, (2011) "Resonances of the unknown", Kybernetes, Vol. 40 Iss: 7/8, pp.1189 - 1195

Special Issue: Cybernetics: Art, Design, Mathematics – A Meta Disciplinary Conversation: Papers from the 2010 Conference of the American Society for Cybernetics -- guest edited by Ranulph Glanville and Ben Sweeting

RESONANCES OF THE UNKNOWN

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relevance of second-order... more RESONANCES OF THE UNKNOWN

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relevance of second-order cybernetics for a theory of architectural design and related discourse.

Design/methodology/approach – First, the relation of architectural design to the concept of “poiesis” is clarified. Subsequently, selected findings of Gotthard Günther are revisited and related to an architectural poetics. The last part of the paper consists of revisiting ideas mentioned previously, however, on the level of a discourse that has incorporated the ideas and offers a poetic way of understanding them.

Findings – Gotthard Günther's conception of “You” is specifically valuable in reference to a theory of architectural design in the sense of an architectural poetics.

Originality/value – The research furthers the field of architecture by contributing to it a new theory in the form of an architectural poetics. It addresses questions of design with a procedural framework in which critical engagement is an intrinsic principle, and offers an alternative to existing discourses through a poetry of architectonic order that is open to the future.

COLLECTING DIGITAL EVIDENCE OF CYBER CRIME.

by Historically Digitized

COLLECTING DIGITAL EVIDENCE OF CYBER CRIME.

COLLECTING DIGITAL EVIDENCE OF CYBER CRIME. COLLECTING DIGITAL EVIDENCE OF CYBER CRIME.

Keeney, H. & Keeney, B. (2012). Externalization in narrative therapy: Addressing a modernist reemergence of exorcism. Terapia y Familia (Journal of the Mexican Association of Family Therapy).

by Hillary Stephenson Keeney

H. Keeney & B. Keeney (2012). What is systemic about systemic therapy? Therapy models muddle systemic practice. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 31(1), 22-37.

by Hillary Stephenson Keeney

Snakes all the Way Down: Varela's Calculus for Self-Reference and the Praxis of Paradise

by André Reichel

Abel, D.L., 2011, What utility does order, pattern or complexity prescribe? In The First Gene: The Birth of Programming, Messaging and Formal Control, Abel, D. L., Ed. LongView Press--Academic, Biol. Res. Div.: New York, N.Y., pp 75-116.

by Dr. David L. Abel

How did inanimate physical nature—mass, energy, the four basic forces of physics and their constants—program such non-physical formalisms needed to conceptually organize and compute initial life? What would have been the motive and mechanism for a prebiotic environment’s selection of function over non function?
Can a neural net accomplish sophisticated integrative function with mass (indiscriminate) depolarizations? What selectively steers messages down certain paths of a neural net (or buttons and strings), but not other paths?
What’s the difference between a signal and a message? Do messenger molecules convey meaning? If not, how can meaning be divorced from such exquisite genomic and epigenomic instructions, metabolic integration, structural organization, and biofunction?
Do metabolic pathways manifest any goal or purpose?
Is anything more goal-directed than the holistic metabolism needed to be and stay alive?
Are coin-flips at mere “bifurcation points” synonymous with bona fide “decision nodes,” “logic gates,” and “integrative configurable switch-settings”?
While some might want to sweep these questions under the rug for being too “metaphysical,” they are as foundational to the science of biology as mathematics is to physics. They are the only path to elucidation of gene emergence through natural process. These legitimate queries are the subject matter of the new scientific discipline known as ProtoBioCybernetics—the study of the generation of controls (not mere constraints) and regulation in the very first protocells.


requires programming at bona fide decision nodes.

Abstract: “Order,” “pattern,” “complexity,” “self-organization,” and “emergence” are all terms used extensively in... more Abstract: “Order,” “pattern,” “complexity,” “self-organization,” and “emergence” are all terms used extensively in life-origin literature. Sorely lacking are precise and quantitative definitions of these terms. Vivid imagination of spontaneous creativity ensues from mystical phrases like “the adjacent other” and “emergence at the edge of chaos.” More wish-fulfillment than healthy scientific skepticism prevails when we become enamored with such phrases. Nowhere in peer-reviewed literature is a plausible hypothetical mechanism provided, let alone any repeated empirical observations or prediction fulfillments, of bona fide spontaneous “natural process self-organization.” Supposed examples show only one of two things: 1) spontaneous physicodynamic self-ordering rather than formal organization, or 2) behind-the-scenes investigator involvement in steering experimental results toward the goal of desired results. The very experiments that were supposed to prove spontaneous self-organization only provide more evidence of the need for artificial selection. Patterns are a form of order. Neither order nor combinatorial uncertainty (complexity) demonstrate an ability to compute or produce formal utility. Physical laws describe low-informational physicodynamic self-ordering, not high-informational cybernetic and computational utility.