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Probabilistic Extension of Dynamics and Complexity
Ioannis Antoniou
International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry
CP 231- ULB - Campus Plaine
Boulevard du Triomphe, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
The keynotes of Complex Systems and Self-Organisation are instability and irreversibility. The conventional formulation of Unstable Systems has essential limitations which restrict the possibilities for prediction and control. The Brussels-Austin groups led by Professor Prigogine have recently shown that unstable systems admit probabilistic extensions which allow us to transform the essential limitations due to instabilities into probabilistic estimations. These extended formulations are in addition intrinsically irreversible and provide a new language and new possibilities for the management of complexity. We shall show that the new theory is also based on a new logic which is not the conventional Boolean Logic of Classical Systems or the Orthocomplemented Lattice of Quantum Systems.
Underdetermination of theories and intersubjectivity
Henri Atlan
HOPITAL DE L'HOTEL-DIEU
1, place du Parvis Notre-Dame,
75181 PARIS Cedex 04
Fax: (33-1) 42 34 83 13
Underdetermination of theories by facts seems to be the most conspicuous feature of complex systems where modeling is the only possible way to account for and predict their structure and function. Automata network computing provides a handy way to quantitate the degree of underdetermination and discuss the conditions under which it can be reduced to ideal, but seldom situations, where all the models except one can be falsified by existing observations.
However, the same analysis shows that this difficulty in theorization of natural complex systems results from the usual robustness or structural stability of their dynamics. When applied to actual neural networks constituting our brains, this property of underdetermination may be viewed as a foundation for the possibility of intersubjectivity in the form of mutual understanding and agreement on identical conclusions, without necessarily agreeing on the ways to reach them.
Since the basic problem in self-organization theories is the creation of new meanings from old ones or from non-meaningful partially random structures, underdetermination of the theories is also relevant to the logic of self-organization. A basic feature of self-organizing systems was recognized long ago as their ability to utilize indetermination and randomness. (Ideas of order from noise, complexity from noise and order from fluctuations as possible mechanisms for self-organization were developed respectively by von Foerster, Atlan, and Prigogine). In this context, underdetermination of the global behaviour by the local constraints in self-organizing complex dynamical systems exemplifies how identical meaningful functions can be produced by many different local mechanisms which determine different ways converging to the same attractor.
Controlling Chaos. An Application of Probabilistic Causality
Vasilios Basios
International Solvay Institute for Physics and Chemistry, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Fax: (32-2) 650 50 28. Tel: (32-2) 650 57 89
E-mail: vbasios@solvayins.ulb.ac.be
It is well known that the control problem based on geometrical or topological techniques faces significant difficulties when encountered with non-linearities and instabilities.
Based on the ideas of the Brussels - Austin groups we have recently proposed a new probabilistic method for the control of chaotic systems. We demonstrate this method by characteristic cases of chaotic maps. Inspired by the probabilistic approach to dynamical systems we utilize the intrinsic and irreducible probabilistic nature of unstable, chaotic systems to control the evolution of probability densities. In the proposed method the controller and the chaotic process are coupled probabilistically.
The merits of such an approach are further illustrated by a simple example of a more realistic system, that of "Swarms of Agents". A subject that Prigogine and his co-workers have been putting forth since the seventies. Motivated by the early works of Von Neumann and Burks, we are investigating the implementation of our method utilizing Probabillistic Automata in the study of Multispecies Agent Groups. As a first step we consider the communication between the two species governed by a probabilistic rather than a deterministic process. Here as controller one can consider the population of agents following a special pattern, and as the unstable system the population which tends to cover or available space in an ergodic-like fashion. For simplicity we consider two-species, one represented by a single agent and the other by a small group of agents (50 - 100). The patterns of collective behaviour without a centralized hierachical "top-down" control is another interesting manifestation of probabilistic causality.
New Approaches to the Urban Process and the Management of City Policies
Guy Burgel
Professor University PARIS 10,
Chairman of Department of Urban Geography,
200, Avenue de la Republique, 92 001 Nanterre Cedex, France
Fax: (33-1) 30 43 22 66
In the world, today, the small advances in urban policies show in what direction it will be necessary to proceed in order to innovate and conceive those urban constructs and especially those modes of social functioning likely to produce more harmonious cities. Without abandoning traditional routes (reclaiming abandoned spaces on all scales, economic and cultural support of disadvantaged populations) which should be pursued persistently and continuously, is it not because elimination of these symptomatic measures - though insufficient by themselves - would aggravate urban crises, that we must break new trails in thinking and doing? They will be aimed at three types of serious problems which have appeared over the last few decades: employment, mobility, environmental protection.
Thus, possible new paths of action are being formed. Cities, in the material expression of their structured forms, are turning out to be actual experiments of the stage of societies with their continuities, options, distractions, and turnarounds. Could we artificially, voluntarily, accelerate this course to avoid the extremes of history, also known as the misfortune of man, the crises of the city, the death of civilization? In a world which is becoming completely urbanized, this is the true challenge which urbanism faces. The issue is "urban experimentation". The difficulties seem to be considerable. Contrary to the pure substances manipulated by the chemist in the laboratory, who can repeat as many physical reactions as he likes to discover and predict laws, human collectives are neither regular nor transparent, but are in fact constructed in a barely legible manner, and we need patience to decode them, and courage to act. In the contemporary city, this experimentation will require three things: imagination, for our overly rigid societies, which talk about long-term perspective while eyeing acquired rights and inherited usage and while confusing architectural heritage to be preserved with mental structures to be demolished; an aptitude for talking risks in urban choices; and thus acceptance of error, at the possible price of destruction, which after all is not a failure for the city, but its rule for survival. Utopia? If we do not aspire to a utopia and content ourselves simply with expression of beauty or rationality, the city will surely be lost for us.
Open Identitites
Assen Dimitrov
Institute for Philosophical Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences,
6 Patriarch Evtimii Blvd., 1000, Sofia, Bulgaria
Fax: (359-2) 885 349
The basic task of the paper will be to explicate, extend and discuss the meaning of the "open identities". It is possible to formulate here only a few preliminary theses concerning them:
* By "identities" are meant social communities constituted on the basis of identical features such as ethnicity, culture, religion, language, etc.
** "Open identities" not merely acknowledge social difference and change. Indeed, this fact turns out to be the adequate key to the understanding of their essential structure.
As long as the paper will have a more or less systematic character
I. It will be taken for granted that
1. This way or the other social macrocommunities have been formed differing in their ethnicity, culture, religion, language, etc., as well as different stage of development.
2. The world as a whole has overcome the stage of confrontation and has entered into the Age of Tolerance which establishes the mutual dialogue, the social cohesion and the cultural enrichment.
II. On the coevolution of identities being at different stage of development
Identities have been formed as opposed to their neighbouring differences. "Virgin" identities are however an exception. Social interaction was rather fostered than suspended by the appearance of communities based on identity. A complex evolution of the interaction of identities being at different stage of development could be traced:
1. Colonialism
In this case the more developed community enforces its social order, culture, etc. on the "inferior" one.
2. Paternalism
Then a specific "marginal culture" is formed, an eclectic mixture of indigenous and universal, and a surrogate of the authentic civilized achievements.
3. Isolationism
Then the indigenous culture is preserved, but it exists as a curious endemic species.
4. Barbarization
When the indigenous gains power over the universal. Such development is not by far impossible or non-existing nowadays.
5. The dialogue
is a modern form of interaction between open social communities. It is possible when the identities, despite their historical development, are capable of accepting the difference.
III. What could be expected from the indigenous identity, or how a dialogue on equal basis with it is possible
1. Indigenous norms, values, knowledge.
2. Inestimable experiences and studies in the mechanisms of social isolation.
3. Identification of the causes of the incompatibility of identities.
4. Establishing of strategies and models of behaviour potentially valid for the interaction of such macroidentities as races and civilizations.
5. The reunification of culture, that is, the connection between contemporaneity and history. The dialogue with the indigenous identity means a dialogue with the civilization's own past and thus - the possibility to regain the lost unity, face, identity of world culture.
IV. Identity and social order
1. Indefiniteness as constituting principle of open identities
"Closed identities" are hierarchies based on the inculcation of a definite social fact: norm, tradition, value, or simply - a personality.
In the open identity, on the contrary, reigns the indefiniteness that is, reign negative "popperian" instructions rather than , say, Marxist or fundamentalist directions. - "Do not steal"; "Do not lie"; "Do not kill", i.e. "Be tolerant". Such prescripts determine what should not be done, and, by no means, what ought to be. - By no means, "Learn", or "Work", or "Be a patriot", etc. Open institutions, correspondingly, defend the rule of law, public morality, and only catalyze and canalyze the constructive social changes.
It is precisely the extended share of indefiniteness in the complex chaotic and diverse social systems, their openness, that gives way to the spontaneous initiative organizing them.
2. How to recognize the manifestations of spontaneous self-organization in the open social identities?
It is absolutely counter-indicative to introduce any models of behaviour into the open identities. Self-organizing chaos is a purely uncontrollable entity. But it is also an entity with a fractal, that is, iterative structure. The spontaneously generated forms of creative social interaction demonstrate a steady tendency towards iteration. Such forms should be carefully studied and cultivated.
3. The mechanism of emergence of order in the open identities.
The indefiniteness dominates over the concrete content of the open identities. The idea that indefiniteness destroys social entropy and thus engenders steady and organized structure will be further explored. Besides the aspects of the open identity, a possible outcome of the study are ways for overcoming of the incompatibility of identities as well as the marginality and barbarization of culture.
The Structure of Life Being Space
Alexander Filyukov, Daniel Brewer
Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 125047
IIT, Chicago, Illinois 60616, USA
The systematics of living organisms and species is developed. Its physical backgrounds are originating in the very depths of the thermodynamics of irreversible processes of the steady-state systems - initiating branches of synergetics. The real genomic texts of organisms' DNA represent experimental material of this investigation. The alphabet of genomic language contains four characters - A, U, G, C. Only 16 doublets - 4 symmetric and 12 asymmetric may exist in genomic messages. It may be shown analytically that text information content is associated with asymmetry features of the genomes or with the 6 possible deviations from equipartitioning between inverse couples of the characters and the relevant characters themselves. This means that AU amount should not be equal to UA and the content of A should not be equal to U content in the regions that contain information for protein coding. These inequalities define the so called two information coding principles of the genomic language. Thus, meaningful text should be asymmetric in reverse couples and should not be equally partitioned in characters themselves. This means, any genomic message (RNA, DNA or their parts) can be characterized in the sense of its asymmetry properties or "informational capacity" by a single point in a 6-dimensional space with the coordinates indicating precise asymmetry properties or reverse preferences:
[AU]= AU - UA; [AG] = AG - GA; etc. It is easy to demonstrate that only three of these differences are independent, while the remaining three are calculable.
The important property was established in computer classifications of genomes: distinct groups of organisms posses similar asymmetry properties: they are of the same type for all the representatives of the distinct group of organisms. The mathematical formulation of this property is strait - taxonomy classification of any organism can be provided by an indication of the 3-dimensional subspace, specific to that distinct group it belongs. Thus all Bacteria have the same qualitative asymmetry properties defined by their specific independent asymmetries: [GC], [TC], [GA]; while all Vertebrates are characterized by another specific asymmetry subspace with independent coordinates [AT], [CT], [AG] demonstrating; another preference independent differences. Different choices of 3-dimensional subspaces of the 6-dimensional LIVING BEINGS WORLD reveal 24 subGroups which exhaust the variability of this Life World. They can be combined in 6 major Groups of 3 Attraction Levels. The existing organisms' representatives were identified for each Group. The organisms of different subGroups produce different kinds of proteins. Some subGroups are identical with the common taxonomy biological concept of the Kingdom.
The "mirror" asymmetry properties were established between several genomes. This property corresponds to the reverse directions of genomic texts reading. They have the similar asymmetry features but only in the case of backward reading of one of them. One such type "antiorganism" relative to our specificy was identified with the Bacteriophage MS2. The topology relations exist between the subGroups. For each subGroup the three adjacent subGroups can be indicated. The classification transition due to mutagenesis process is possible only to these neighboring subGroups. This constraint defines the whole topology structure of the Life World that may be demonstrated as a crystal like structure with hexagonal and square surfaces.
The classification parameters of the HIV and SIV genomes were analyzed. Their mutual relative "distances" were established. The genealogical history of these viral families was described. The present tendency of the viral evolution due to hypermutational process, they demonstrate, can be analyzed and the evolution vector was identified in the classification space. The HIV quasispecies are evolving now in the direction to the Antibacteria subGroup. This means they display the tendency to have asymmetry properties opposite to Bacteria features. This conclusion was obtained through the experimental data of Wain-Hobson(1991) and later confirmed by the calculations data of Finkel (1995).
Taming of the Human Immunodeficiency Viruses
David L. Finkel
2722 W. Farragut, Chicago, IL 60625
Self-organization of the society of the human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) type 1 is investigated. Ergodicity and entropy related informational variables - divergence from the n-tuple equiprobability and divergence from the n-tuple independence or redundancy for genomic texts of these viruses' ensemble was examined.
The parent matrices of 12 HIV type 1 are partitioned. Both the parent probability matrices and the partitioned subspaces demonstrate a positive correlation between their respective Informational Densities and the redundancy constrains governing these states. Furthermore, the thermodynamic character of the selected subspaces is shown to be under the control of the Filyukov Paradigm.
Gatlin's early observation (1972) that genomic sequence-space could emit an ergodic signal as a composite of multiple ergodic sources leads to the expectation that a detailed analysis of transition probability matrices might reveal informationally rich subsequences or subpopulations of n-tuples.
Following Reichert and Wong (1971) each partitioned subspace would be required to project asymptotic limits for the total range of Markov functions satisfying the Second Law of thermodynamic integrity, when all the entropy measures of independent n-tuple events surpass the same for conditional events. Only those subpopulations of n-tuples exhibiting this behavior and thermodynamic stability are identified over an entire ensemble of familiar HIV strings as elements of the Genome Classification Systematics (GCS or Filyukov Paradigm, 1992).
The global order introduced by these expansion sequences poses a formidable argument for genomic control at a level above that previously proposed for any other sequence set. Finally, those subspaces informationally rich and thermokinetically stable are argued to define global constraints at the level of quasi-speciation.
The strategy of taming HIV type 1 consists in the possibility to predict future generations of these fast evolving quasispecies, to obtain their patterns experimentally and to produce specific vaccines by common immunological methods betimes.
Interestingly, the proposed approach demonstrates main features of how the complex life situations can be treated by the general methods of the information theory, the special part of synergetics - the applicability of which is global.
Towards a EU-Policy for Sustainable Development
Angelica P. Kallia-Antoniou
European Parliament MAE 822, Rue Belliard 97-113, 1047 Brussels
Sustainable Development is a strategy for planetary evolution which combines the ecological problematics which emerged in the 70's, with the trend for growth.
The European Union emerged as a policy making sui generis International organisation with legislative power. The response of the European Union to the internationally acknowledged need for sustainable development is expressed by the 5th Framework Programme on Environment (1992-2000) and by the integration of sustainable development into several common policies like the Cohesion Fund, the Structural Funds, the Agricultural Policy, the Transport Policy, Tourism, Environmental Policy.
Synergetic Challenge to Culture
Helena Knyazeva
Institute of Philosophy of the RAS,
Volkhonka St. 14, Moscow 119842, Russia
Fax: (095) 200 32 50
Owing to recent developments in the field of the self-organization theory (or synergetics) and interdisciplinary character of the knowledge, a new synergetic worldview is in the process of formation. It means a radical shift of paradigm, a transition from stability to sustainability, from images of order to chaos generating new ordered evolving structures, from view of self-maintaining systems to evolutionary holistic view of the world.
Some paradoxical notions are under development now. These are as follows: future states of complex systems are open in form of spectra of predetermined possibilities; the future influences the present; patterns are before processes; the evolutionary structures-attractors look like memory of future, remembrance of future activity; weak, but topologically rightly organized influences upon the complex system are of the great efficiency etc.
Synergetics seems to became a constructive way of the evolving complex systems understanding. It has an intention to be a kind of heuristics in humanitarian and social fields of research. Synergetics turns to be very fruitful in comprehension of the phenomenon of human being, the individual and social psychology, human cognitive and creative processes, in unriddling the mysteries of human history and culture, in constructing the images of future and possible paths of humankind development. Synergetics challenges the culture.
It leads to a profound question. How the synergetic intentions on universality could be justified? How synergetics as a new worldview, as a new way of transdisciplinary and cross-professional communication is possible? Because the theory which explains all explains nothing. Wolfgang Pauli ones set a rule: if theoretician says "universal" it just means pure nonsense. It could be argued however that synergetics is something more than a kind of intellectual yoga, a kind of sophisticated exercises on the mental field.
Foundations of Transdisciplinary Unified Theory
Ervin Laszlo
Villa Franatoni, 56040 Montescudaio, Pisa, Italy
Fax: (39-586) 650 395
Conveying an understanding of the world around us that is rigorous and detailed, as well as complete and consistent, is a perennial ambition of both science and philosophy. In the past, satisfying this ideal required considerable leaps of imagination, binding together the observed facts with rationalistic metaphysics, if not with myths and mysticism. In recent years the prospects for progress have improved. The empirical sciences now research ever more domains of the observable or observationally inferable world, and they do so with increasing rigor. Even more significantly, the increasingly rigorous probings of nature come up with significant similarities: basically analogous processes are discovered in independently pursued programs and fields of investigation. Not many years ago these were still thought to be mainly superficial - suggestive analogies without necessarily deeper meaning. Today, however, theories that unify entire domains of research are actively sought in most fields, first and foremost in the physical and the biological sciences. Grand unified theories are a legitimate, and often even a dominant, program in physics, while the elaboration of the synthetic theory fulfills a parallel function in biology.
The separation between the physical and the life sciences has not been satisfactorily bridged, however. Scepticism regarding the adequacy of laws of physics for explaining the laws and regularities of life persists, and the postulation of quasi-biological laws in the physical realm is viewed with distrust. Though in the light of past experiences such attitudes are clearly justified, there are methods of unification available today that can do significantly better. General laws and regularities are discovered in field after field, and they neither inflate physical processes into biology, nor reduce biological processes to physics. Attempts to bridge disciplinary gaps are now approaching a new threshold of validity and cogency.
The next step in creating rigorous as well as reasonably complete and consistent transdisciplinary theories calls for explicating the basic process whereby the universe evolves in an unbroken (though not necessarily linear) sweep from basic physical entities to the complex open systems that are physicochemical, biophysical, biochemical, biological, ecological, and even psychological in nature. The theory that describes these developmental processes is unified theory of the transdisciplinary variety. Unlike unified theories in the life sciences and grand-unified theories in physics, it does not remain limited to the one or the other disciplinary field but encompasses physics and biology, and ultimately the human and the social sciences, as special elements within a general scheme. Such a scheme, to be scientifically acceptable, must do better than the insightful but speculative attempts of traditional philosophers. Its conceptual framework must be optimally rigorous and consistent, yet simple and parsimonious, and its empirical implications need to be consistent with findings in both the physical and the life sciences. The view put forward here is that the theory that satisfies these requirements is transdisciplinary united theory.
Unless we assume that physical and living nature are inseparably disjoined in reality, we have to acknowledge that there is no genuine unification in science or philosophy that is not transdisciplinary in scope. Indeed, there is no genuine 'grand' unified theory that is not a transdisciplinary unified theory - a genuine GUT is always a TUT.
Fully elaborated TUTs are as yet in the future; the quantitative analysis that a mature theory presupposes is yet to be developed. It is not likely to be developed, however, in the absence of the clarification of the fundamental notions on which that theory would rest. These basic conceptual elements can be already outlined - doing so is the aim of this study.
Complexity and Self-Organization: Emeging New Science and Civilization at the Turn of the Century
Klaus Mainzer
Lehrstuhl fьr Philosophie und Wissenschaftstheorie,
Universitaet Augsburg, Universitaetsstrasse 10,
86 135 Augsburg, Deutschland
Telefax: (49-821) 598 55 68
The theory of nonlinear complex systems has become a successful problem solving approach in the natural sciences - from laser and solid state physics, chemistry, and meteorology to models of biological and ecological growth. In these cases, self-organization means well-defined phase transitions in, near to or far from thermal equilibrium. On the other hand, the social and economic sciences, politics and humanities are recognizing that the main problems of mankind are global, complex, and nonlinear, too. Linear thinking only works well under restricted conditions. In the past, it sometimes has provoked misleading and dangerous concepts in science, economy, politics, and culture.
But applications of self-organization to socio-economic processes do not mean any kind of 'social physics' or slippery analogies between social and physical sciences. Obviously, there are essential differences (intentionality, self-referentiality, etc.). Thus, applications of self-organization aim at mathematical models with nonlinear dynamics and well-defined socio-economic parameters to help solving complex problems of management, forecasting, and decision. These methods are sometimes said to foreshadow the new sciences of complexity characterizing the scientific development of the 21st century. New standards of ethical behaviour are demanded by the complex problems of science and civilization.
La necessitй d'une reforme de pensee
Edgar Morin
Centre d'Etudes Transdisciplinaires
Sociologie, Anthropologie, Histoire CETSAH,
14, rue Corvisart, 75013 Paris, France
Fax: 33.1. 45 35 15 33
Nous demandons lйgitimement а la pensйe qu'elle dissipe les brouillards et les obscuritйs, qu'elle mette de l'ordre et de la clartй dans le rйel, qu'e11e rйvиle les lois qui le gouvernent. Le mot de complexitй, lui, ne peut que'exprimer notre embarras, notre confusion, notre incapacitй de dйfinir de faзon simple, de nommer de faзon claire, de mettre de l'ordre dans nos idйes.
Aussi la connaissance scientifique fut longtemps et demeure encore souvent conзue comme ayant pour mission de dissiper l'apparente complexitй des phйnomиnes afin de rйvйler l'ordre simple auquel ils obйissent.
Mais s'il apparaоt que les modes simplificateurs de connaissance mutilent plus qu'ils n'expriment les rйalitйs ou les phйnomиnes dont ils rendent compte, s'il devient йvident qu'ils produisent plus d'aveuglement que d'йlucidation, alors surgit le problиme : comment envisager la complexitй de faзon non-simplifiante? Ce problиme toutefois ne peut immйdiatement s'imposer. Il doit prouver sa lйgitimitй, car le mot de complexitй n'a pas derriиre lui un noble hйritage philosophique, scientifique, ou йpistйmologique.
Il subit au contraire une lourde tare sйmantique, puisqu'il porte en son sein confusion, incertitude, dйsordre. Sa dйfinition premiиre ne peut fournir aucune йlucidation: est complexe ce qui ne peut se rйsumer en un maоtre mot, ce qui ne peut se ramener а une loi, ce qui ne peut se rйduire а une idйe simple. Autrement dit, le complexe ne peut se rйsumer dans le mot de complexitй, se ramener а une loi de complexitй, se rйduire а l idйe de complexitй. La complexitй ne saurait кtre quelque chose qui se dйfinirait de faзon simple et prendrait la place de la simplicitй. La complexitй est un mot problиme et non un mot solution.
Chaotic Dynamics of Linguistic Processes and Pattern Formation in the Human Behavior.
A New Paradigm of Selective Information Transaction
John S. Nicolis
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Patras,
Patras, Greece
Mail address: 35 Omirou str., Athens 10672, Greece
Collective parameters such as the Zipf's law-like statistics, the Transinformation, the Block Entropy and the Markovian character are compared for natural, musical and artificially generated long texts from generating partitions (alphabets), the homogeneous as well as on multifractal chaotic maps. It appears that the requirements for a language at the syntactical level such as memory, selectivity keywords and broken symmetry in one dimension (polarity) are more or less dynamically iterating simple maps or flows e.g. very simple chaotic hardware. The selectivity is observed at the semantic level where the aim refers to partitioning of environmental impinging stimuli onto coexisting attractors-categories. The lion's share of the information is stored in this pattern and is persistently scanned by the cognitive processor. A multifractal model can in principle explain this high selectivity, both at the syntactical and semantic levels.
Self-organizing Social Systems: A Biopolitical Approach
A. A. Oleskin
Sector for Biosocial Studies. School of Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow 119899, Russia
Extensive studies have been recently conducted in self-organizing living systems, biological and social. These studies have been initiated by the pioneering works by I. Prigogine, H. Haken, E. Jantsch, and a number of other prominent scholars. They are of considerable political importance for post-Communist countries, since the application of synergetics including the self-organization concept can result in developing self-structuring models of human society. Promoting and propagandizing such models in society can help the people (I) prevent the restoration of totalitarian centrally controlled political systems and (II) avoid the opposite extreme - overcome the social anarchization tendency. Indeed, synergetic social scenarios envisage self-organization of social systems from below (starting from the grass-root level), so that ideally the central power does not need to interfere, or, in a more real-life situation, can confine itself to "delimiting the corridor" within which a society may fluctuate.
Biology can significantly contribute to the development of social synergetic models. Biological and social systems have a number of important characteristics in common, such as chaotic behavior despite of internal organization, historical development and memory, etc. On the biosocial level, formation of supraorganismic structures (bacterial colonies, fungal mycelia, insect families, fish shoals, whale schools, lion prides etc.) can also be considered in terms of self-organization. The mechanisms of social coordination of individual behavior are of particular interest in terms of synergetics. They include: (I) social hierarchy and imitation of the leader's (activator's) behavior by the majority of the individuals; (II) local interactions among neighbors, which stimulate each other's behavior; (III) diffuse stimulatory agents penetrating the social systems (chemical mediators or physical fields). In contrast to mechanism (I), the mechanism (II) and (III) promote the development of non-hierarchical patterns of social organization.
Comparative analysis of different biosocial interactions and systems with the goal of (I) investigating the evolutionary pre-history of human society and politics and (II) elucidating the biosocial implications of human political behavior, constitutes the methodological basis of modern biopolitics.
Pros and Cons of Interdisciplinary Studies: Some Philosophical Thoughts
Saurabh Sanatani
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna
Mail address: Geweygasse 1/4/4, A-1190 Vienna, Austria
Tel.:(431) 37 32 41. Fax:(431) 37 44 36.
In the academic world we often hear of the benefits of interdisciplinary studies. Especially in the natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, medicine etc.) it is often impossible to draw sharp boundaries. The results of interaction among different fields of modern science is there for everybody to see and admire. We will give a few well known examples from physical chemistry, molecular biology and neuroscience to support the view that interdisciplinary studies have greatly advanced our knowledge in the scientific field.
As soon as we examine the relation of philosophy to physical sciences or the role of the former (philosophy) in the advancement of our knowledge, we run into difficulties. This arises mainly from careless philosophising, and unwarranted generalizations by pure scientists. Does philosophy add to our knowledge of the external world or merely clarify the nature of human knowledge? Can we say that epistemology, the theory of knowledge, cannot do without an empirical basis? Is social science really a science? In other words, what is the difference between the hard and soft sciences? Can we say one explains while the other helps us to understand?
Self-organisation has been noticed in synergetic systems in many fields. A self-organising system is often characterized by the following adjectives: complex, redundant, dynamic, non-deterministic, process oriented, interactive, self-referential, autonomous. Is it true that there is no theory yet of a self-organising social systems and the best thing, with regard to social systems, that we now have is an explanatory principle which is qualitative in nature?
The paper will try to address briefly the questions listed above. We will conclude that application of philosophy, as commonly understood in the Western world, to scientific questions can be beneficial only if carried out with great care.
"Zigzag Learning" as a New Method of Concept Formation Basing on the Self-organization of
Memory
Gerhard Schaefer
Institut fьr Didaktik der Mathematik, Naturwissenschaften,
Technik und des Sachunterrichts, Universitдt Hamburg,
Institut 9, Von-Melle-Park 8, 20146 Hamburg, Deutschland
Fax:(49-40) 41 23 21 12
More than 20 years of concept research revealed that the active units of thinking and acting in our brain are tripartite concepts instead of dipartite ones as used and defined in science. They consist of the name (term, designation), the logic core (structure of logical relations between invariant attributes) and the associative framework (personal and sporadic attributes attached to the concept by coincidence in time). This threefold structure of a concept is represented in the "burr model".
The question how such a unit ("burr") originates in the human memory led us to the assumption that the primary structure in the brain is a linear chain of associations which, in a secondary process, is folded up to a concept by affinity relations which form the logic core in the end ("folding model").
The discovery of affinities between events seems to be a basic function of the brain, i.e. a process of genuine self-organization. The association chains and webs are, so to say, the "raw material" of memory which is shaped and modeled to the later, secondary knowledge structure.
Since the associative framework of concepts guarantees their applicability in everyday life (this holds true also for scientific concepts!), it is essential in the teaching process to provide the learners with an abundance and rich spectrum of associations. For this purpose a special learning method has been developed in the University of Hamburg; the "zigzag learning". It comprises a high amount of sporadic (chaotic) elements forming a network of associations in which - subsequently - logic cores of concepts are embedded, integrated, interwoven. 10 years of empirical research have proved that spontaneous association clusters are being formed in these networks by the brain which are entirely personal, subjective and differ from individual to individual. They are some kind of person-specific organization centers of the memory, - "key-stations" of associational thinking. And most important: they normally do not coincide with those key-words of the learning process coming from outside, i.e. from the teacher. They are and remain subject-bound.
The results reconfirm very clearly that the human brain is only partly influenced by "instruction" and that a major part of its activities is concerned with the autonomous construction of networks, clusters, attractors which then secondarily are adapted to the instructional part of the environment, - a procedure which very much resembles the principles of evolution.
It is also pointed out in this paper that the term "self-organization" should be reserved for living systems only (which have "organs" and are "organized" after a pre-given genetic and plasmatic pattern) .
For systems in general, the objects of system theory and synergetics (which mainly focus on non-living forms), the term "self-structuring" is preferred. According to this distinctive terminology, concept formation in the brain is a typical process of self-organization, and concepts can be regarded as "organs of memory".
Schaefer, G., 1990; Zickzack-Lernen als Methode; oder: Kann aus Wirrwarr Ordnung entstehen? In: Oehmig, В. (Hrsg.): Erleben, Beobachten, Untersuchen. Zur Didaktik von Exkursionen. FU Berlin, Zentralinst. f. Fachdidaktiken, 110-131.
Schaefer, G., 1995a: "Zickzack-Lernen" - eine "uralte, neue" Methode des Lernens. In: Kirsch, W. (Hrsg.): Biologie-Unterrichtsmaterialien fur Lehrkrдfte der Sekundarstufe II, 725-007. Stark-Verlag; Freising.
Schaefer, G. , 1995b: A Folding Model of Concept Genesis and its Application to Teaching Biology. In: Fisher, K.M. (ed.): Relations and Biology Learning: The Acquisition and Use of Knowledge Structures in Biology. Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, New York etc. (in print)
Cooperative Phenomena in the Brain and Creative Thinking
Michal Tempczyk
Institute of Philosophy and Sociology PAN,
ul. Nowy Swiat 72,
00-330 Warszawa, Poland
The aim of my presentation is to show how the research concerning the dynamics of human brain has recently led to an integrated picture of science and other forms of culture, such as art. Science is based on rational logical examination of the world and this rationality is the source of its successes, while art is a form of irrational intuitive contact with reality. Therefore both forms of culture were opposed each other. The opposition of logical scientific thinking and creative artistic activity has had a long tradition in philosophy and psychology. On the other hand, it is well known that creativity plays an important role in the process of scientific discovery. Hans Reichenbach distinguished in 1938 the context of discovery and the context of justification. He claimed that scientific discovery should be examined by psychology, while the process of justification ought to be discussed by philosophers with the help of logical tools.
The situation has recently changed due to results obtained by nonlinear dynamics and synergetics. Scientists started to study nonlinear phenomena occuring in human brain. The phenomena have their own rich and complicated dynamics. Researchers formulate models of bigger and bigger neuronal structures, beginning from nonlinear oscilattions of individual neurons to systems containing millions of them.
Such systems reveal characteristic features of nonlinear dynamics, first of all bifurcations and attrartors. Models of cooperative phenomena taking place in the brain are a goad starting point for describing and understanding the richness of human consciousness and activity. Creative thinking belongs to those phenomena, which being incomprehensible in mechanistic neurophysiological models of the brain, are now intensively studied within the synergetic approach to the dynamics of matter on many levels of its structure. Some of recent results will be analyzed and discussed in my presentation from the viewpoint of the nature of creativity.
The Self-organization of Life and the Origin of Significance
Francisco Varela
Directeur of Research-CNRS
Ecole Polytechnique
CREA, 1, rue Descartes, 75005 PARIS, France
Fax: 331. 43 25 29 44.
I will discuss the conceptual and scientific basis of an important debate in the sciences concerning the role played by self-organization in the origin of meaning and significance.
First, I will address the question of the specific nature of the living organization, which is based in its self-constitution (or autopoeisis) creating a reference point for any encounter with the physical world. This is the basis of the origin of significance as rooted in the identity of life itself.
Second, I will address how this process multiplies itself at various levels creating a meshwork of unities which constitute an organism. In particular, I will concentrate on the neuro-cognitive level and the way in which the cognitive identity is always build on transitory links that explicate a cognitive self as distributed emergent property.
Finally, I will draw on the consequences of these views for the understanding of consciousness and human experience in the current tendency to reduce experience into naturalistic terms. My argument will be that such reduction is misguided and unnecessary.
Semio/Cultural Cantata (Installation)
Jennifer Wimborne
21 Veronica Rd., London, SW17 8QL U.K.
Tel./fax: 0181 673 4506
pale, turquoise blue (faience). And gold-painted lions.
worlds. Ether energy, mellow plums and lime green of the heart: hot hillarity. Non-linear interaction. In psyches of everyday. Interaction: cross hatching stories through experience and wish to discover nothing more than interaction
dating from 3rd and 6th dynasties of ancient Egypt c. 2181 BC
Cellulose derivatives used as explosives, moisture proof coatings, thickenings in foods, adhesives.
Rabbits' vermiform appendix can digest cellulose because it has enzymes which transform zynase fructo-isonase into glucose and maltose. Protozoans in the gut of insects digest cellulose.
Lettuce contains metallic salt.
Seat and side pieces; coarse textured. Legs; close, straight grain.
Gr. kolla. Glue. cellulose, colloidal polymeric substances
Polymers: Qartz. Glass. Nucleic acids.
And lignin, which is less regular in distribution than cellulose. resins; polymers with molecular weights of a few 1000 to several 1000,000. Lignin; phenolic residues: phenol - (organic compound) one or more hydroxyl (OH) group attached to a carbon atom.
molecules join by the juxtaposition of electrons of opposite spin
there may be high energy areas of electrons
Throne
The proportions art perfect, even and they do things to deceive, regarding length - adding 7ths to imply 3rds, also to confuse 3rds and 1/2s.
Synergetical And Cooperative Principles As Driving Forces In The Evolution Of Human Social Systems
Franz M. Wuketits
Hauptstrasse 70, A-7111 Parndorf, Austria
Fax: (43-1) 408 88 38
Humans are social beings. From the beginning on - since 4 or 5 million years or so - hominids have lived in groups. Initially, these groups were rather small, "primary groups" (30 - 100 individuals), later, however, human social systems dramatically increased with regard to the number of individuals, and contemporary man is living in "anonymous mass societies" and is thus unique among all primate species. Generally, social evolution is an important aspect in the evolution of humans, and our present state cannot be sufficiently explained unless we pay attention to the basic factors and mechanisms governing the development of sociality.
This paper focuses on synergetical and cooperative principles in human (social) evolution. It is argued that cooperation has been a most important factor in the organization and evolution of (human) social systems and that reciprocal altruism or mutual aid is an integral part of human activities. Synergetics is taken as a valuable methodological and theoretical instrument that helps us explaining and understanding the very nature of (human) social systems. Also, the meaning of cooperation in our dramatically changing world is pointed out in the present paper.
Геополитические прогнозы и модификации стоимости
Ю. А. Абрамов
МГТУ, Москва
Выдающимся русским экономистом Николаем Дмитриевичем Кондратьевым в 1923-1928 гг. были обнаружены колебания общемировой экономической активности с периодом, близким к 40-60 годам. Параметры, по которым наблюдались колебания, таковы: индексы цен, индексы государственных ценных, бумаг, номинальная заработная плата, показатели внешнеторгового оборота, добыча угля, золота, производство чугуна и т.д.. Н. Кондратьев наблюдал три полных цикла за 150 лет и начало четвертого цикла, конец которого он пытался предсказать. Если мы привлечем к анализу четыре модификации стоимости: стоимость 1 - цена труда, стоимость 2 - цена производства, стоимость 3 - монопольная цена, стоимость 4 - экологическая постмонополькая цена, то сразу все становится на свои места. Один цикл Кондратьева - переход к новой модификации стоимости, и один цикл - функционирование этой стоимости.
Но существуют еще геополитические циклы (циклы Яксарта). Подмечено, что мир политики биополярен. По имеющимся данным мировой экономической статистики, можно нащупать в прошлом 5 циклов Н. Кондратьева: 1744 - 1789 (45 лет), 1789 - 1844 (56 лет). 1844 - 1889 (45 лет), 1889 - 1945 (56 лет), 1945 - 1990 (45 лет). В следующем, шестом кондратьевском, цикле максимумы циклов Чижевского приходятся на 2001, 2012, 2023, 2034, 2046 годы.
Циклы Яксарта дают возможность обезличенные событийные годы связать с конкретными странами. В 2012 г. Япония "сокрушит" экономически США, а в 2046 г. вперед выдвинется Китай.
На наш взгляд, циклы Кондратьева и геополитические циклы преходящи, - они закончатся к 2091 г.. Экологическая и ресурсная ситуация на третьей от Солнца планете - Земле - неотвратимо заставит переходить к директивному всеобъемлющему планированию в глобальном разрезе, к ограничению в потреблении, к государственной собственности и кардинальному перераспределению доходов. Этот новый общественный строй будет носить название "социантизм" (как назвал его, по праву первооткрывателя, Ш. Фурье).
Синергетика и системная парадигма XX века
Е. Б. Агошкова
Санкт-Петербургский электротехнический университет
Синергетика как широкое научное движение повторяет по своему размаху системное движение, инициированное Л. фон Берталанфи в 1937 г.. Трактовка синергетики как теории самоорганизующихся систем - естественно ставит вопрос о соотношении синергетики и системных дисциплин, необходимой их преемственности и дополнительности. Однако, обращает на себя внимание тот факт, что работа в области синергетики в целом оторвана от фундамента, созданного за прошедшие 50 дет в области теории систем. Одна из причин этого состоит в том, что до настоящего времени в системном движении фактически нет (И. У. Ачильдиев, 1993) обобщающей концепции типа общей теории систем или системологии (Флейшман Б. С., 1982). Многочисленные школы и направления не объединены в единую системную концепцию. Крайне трудно связать воедино направления Л. фон Берталанфи, Р. Акоффа, А. Раппопорта, В. Н. Садовского, А. Уёмова, Ю. Урманцева, Б. С. Флейшмана, У. Р. Эшби,
Л. Заде, М. Месаровича, Д. Клира и многих других.
В то же время дальнейшие успехи синергетики, возможность избежать тупиковых направлений и дублирования исследований прямо определяются выработкой единой системной концепции. Это особенно касается тенденции перенесения синергетики на социальную плоскость, рассмотрений социальных проекций теории самоорганизации.
В рамках предлагаемого нами подхода к системному движению удается, по нашему мнению, органично объединить достижения системных исследований и сформулировать системную парадигму нашего времени, ее структуру и содержание, Это обобщение плодотворно как для дальнейшего развития системных исследований, так и для единой разработки (Л. Ф. Кузнецова, 1995) в рамках синергетики принципа системности и принципа эволюции.
Формообразующие факторы и когерентность в виртуальных мирах
И. А. Акчурин, С. Н. Коняев
Институт философии РАН, Москва
В центре внимания современной пост-неклассической науки находятся ныне весьма специфические формообразующие факторы как онтологического, так и эпистемологического плана. Простейший пример первых (онтологических) - принципы симметрии, лежащие в основаниях как теоретической физики, так и теоретической биологии наших дней. Менее изучены формообразующие факторы топологической природы, значение которых для более глубокого понимания (и экспликации) таких важных для нас сейчас категорий как Причина и Свобода, подчеркивали еще Флоренский и поздний Хайдеггер.
Когерентность, обобщаемая ныне с объектов чисто количественной природы (в физической оптике) на область объектов существенно неметрической природы - типа формообразующих структур синергетики или логической когерентности (в смысле Н. Решера и
Г. Патти) играет здесь принципиально важную, решающую роль, особенно в ситуациях компьютерного (или иного) построения виртуальных миров - для более глубокого понимания реальности и осмысления ее в плане единства научного знания.
Развитие синергетической методологии позволяет в несколько ином ракурсе осмыслить и само понятие когерентности, которое приобретает статус одного из оснований парадигмы нелинейности. Понятие когерентности оказывается тесно связано с понятием тождественности и, рассматриваемое в обобщенном виде как общность источника, общность происхождения объектов, по-существу, обогащает физическое описание системы принципом историчности, происхождения системы, напоминая весьма фундаментальное в исторической науке понятие традиции.*
* Данный доклад подготовлен в рамках инициативного проекта "Концепция виртуальных миров и научное познание", при финансовой поддержке РГНФ (грант №95-06-17647)
Достоверность и способы математических доказательств
В. И. Аршинов, А. А. Кирильченко
ИФ РАН, Москва ИПМ им. М. В. Келдыша РАН, Москва
1. Скептицизм в математике. Практически нет общепринятых математических доказательства также как и нет общепринятого определения натурального ряда (0 может включаться или не включатьcя в натуральный ряд). Доказательство, данное представителями одной школы, может начисто отвергаться представителями других школ. Математические определения, начиная с некоторого момента углубления в их суть, повисают в воздухе. По образному замечанию И. Лакатоса, математики-прикладники считают истинными доказательствами доказательства "чистых" математиков, те кивают на логиков, которые в свою очередь занимаются своими парадоксами.
Неприемлемость же чисто формальных "логических" доказательств декларируется в настоящее время многими философами и математиками (Ф. Китчер).
2. Характерные черты содержательного математического доказательства: не формулируется явно аксиоматическая база, механизм вывода базируется на "здравом смысле", по возможности используются ссылки на авторитетные результаты в данной тематической области, могут наличествовать пробелы в доказательстве, отчасти прикрываемые выражениями "очевидно, что" и т.п..
3. Основные функции математического доказательства: убеждение, верификация, определение, конкретизация. По всей видимости, структура знания в "открытых" развивающихся прикладных направлениях более соответствует (по Р. Фейнману) вавилонскому, а не греческому подходам.
4. Основные традиции математических доказательств, указанные В. А. Успенским, следующие: авторитет (Древний Египет), дедукция (Древняя Греция), интуиция (Древняя Индия). К ним следует добавить, по мнению авторов, традицию искусного манипулирования объектами вычисления, характерную для Древнего Китая.
5. Дилемма правильность-эффективность. В истории математики немало примеров разрешения указанной дилеммы в пользу эффективности без достаточного обоснования правильности. Уникальность обоснования в математике состоит в том, что аксиомы могут быть до конца не ясны, принципы и методы могут вызывать возражения, но тем не менее результат может оказаться полезным и считаться достоверным. Как отмечал Л. Витгенштейн в дискуссии с А. Тьюрингом, парадоксы и противоречия логики не отражаются на прочности мостов.
Медицина III в контексте становления синергетического познания
В. Аршинов, А. Малый, П. Попов
Москва
Термин "медицина III" был предложен одним из авторов (П. А. Поповым) для обозначения новой, формирующейся прямо на наших глазах парадигмы медицины, ориентированной не на отрицание уже накопленного современной цивилизацией знания и опыта, включая и те случаи, когда это знание и опыт не поддаются устойчивому рационализированному представлению непосредственно с помощью современных научных языков, а на интеграцию этого опыта в более широких рамках, где есть место и для сознания, и для "внутренней жизни" пациента. Констатируя кризисное состояние всех современных фрагментаризированных медицинских (биомедицинских) моделей и практик, медицина III выступает с ясно осознаваемой "синергетически открытой "Да-установкой"". Иными словами, медицина III - это медицина конструктивного, операционально поддержанного диалога, це
4.02.2010
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