Collective beings / Gianfranco Minati, Eliano Pessa.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Minati, Gianfranco.

Contributor:

Pessa, Eliano.

Series:

Contemporary systems thinking

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social systems--Mathematical models.

Social systems.

System theory--Mathematical models.

System theory.

Physical Description:

xvi, 461 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Springer Science+Business, [2006]

Summary:

With collective behaviors playing a fundamental role in many scientific and technical disciplines, the book, after an overview on the background to systemics, introduces the concept of Collective Being as a Multiple System established by processes of emergence and self-organization of the same agents simultaneously or dynamically interacting in different ways. The general principles underlying this approach are grounded on the theoretical role of the observer. This extended view allows to model in a more suitable way complex systems, such as in physics, biology and economics. The Dynamical Usage of Models (DYSAM) is the related modelling methodology. This innovating approach is applied to artificial and natural systems equipped with cognitive systems, such as autonomous robots and social systems. The authors discuss in two different chapters both traditional (i.e. based on dynamical systems and dissipative structures) and non-traditional (i.e. based on theory of phase transitions, Synergetics and connectionistic models) models of emergence. An innovative methodology is also introduced for detecting the establishment of processes of emergence based on changes of ergodicity.

After a theoretical introduction of the concepts, the authors discuss the application to social systems and cognitive systems. Applications to social systems deal with issues such as representing and distinguishing growth and development, sustainable development, ethics and its crucial role to induce and maintain emergence of social systems, virtual systems, knowledge management and organizational learning. Applications to cognitive systems deal with approaches going beyond computationalism, theories of consciousness and embodied cognition. Two conclusive appendixes on (1) Some systemic properties and (2) Some questions and answers about Systemics, help the reader to have a synthesized view of the book.

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Background to Systemics 1

1.2 What is Systemics? 3

1.3 A short, introductory history 5

1.4 Fundamental theoretical concepts 15

1.4.1 Set theory 16

1.4.2 Set theory and systems 18

1.4.3 Formalizing systems 22

1.4.4 Formalizing systemics 25

1.5 Sets, structured sets, systems and subsystems 38

1.6 Other approaches 41

Chapter 2 Generalizing Systemics and the Role of the Observer 47

2.1 The contribution of Von Foerster 48

2.2 The role of Observer in scientific theories 50

2.3 Uncertainty principles in Science 55

2.4 The Dynamic Usage of Models (DYSAM) 64

2.4.1 Background to DYSAM 64

2.4.2 Implementing DYSAM 70

2.4.3 A model of DYSAM 75

Chapter 3 Emergence 89

3.1 A short history of the concept 89

3.2 Collective Beings 97

3.2.1 Aggregations, Congregations 97

3.2.2 Collective behavior: an introduction 98

3.2.3 Cognitive system and cognitive models 102

3.2.4 Collective behavior 104

3.2.5 Collective Beings 110

3.2.6 Components contemporarily belonging to many systems 113

3.2.7 Modelling issues of Collective Beings 116

3.2.8 Modelling Collective Beings 123

3.2.9 Kinds of collective behaviors and Collective Beings 128

3.2.10 Affecting the behavior of Collective Beings 132

Chapter 4 How to model emergence: traditional methods 145

4.1 A general classification of models of emergence 145

4.2 Dynamical Systems Theory for modelling emergence: the basic concepts 149

4.3 Dynamical Systems Theory for modelling emergence: bifurcation phenomena 160

4.4 Emergence phenomena in spatio-temporal systems and Dissipative Structures 171

4.5 The intrinsic limitations of traditional methods 188

Chapter 5 How to model emergence: non-traditional methods 195

5.1 Synergetics 195

5.2 The theory of phase transitions 201

Landau theory 212

Ginzburg-Landau theory 217

Scaling hypothesis and Renormalization Group 223

Microscopic models 226

The intrinsic limitations of the theory of phase transitions 229

5.3 Quantum Field Theory 230

5.4 Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking 239

5.5 Non-ideal models of emergence 249

5.5.1 Neural networks 250

5.5.2 Cellular Automata 261

5.5.3 Artificial Life 265

5.6 The role of noise 273

5.7 The relationships between traditional and non-traditional models 279

Chapter 6 The Role of Ergodicity 291

6.1 Some definitions related to ergodicity 293

6.1.1 Ergodic 293

6.1.2 Disciplinary definitions 293

6.2 Ergodicity and stationarity 300

6.3 Ergodicity in Collective Beings 302

6.4 Emergence, Collective Beings, and Ergodicity 306

6.5 Further considerations 309

6.6 Some remarks and possible lines of research 313

Chapter 7 Applications to Social Systems (1): growth, development, sustainable development and ethics 321

7.1 Growth, Development and Sustainable Development 323

7.1.1 Representing Growth 324

7.1.2 Development 326

7.1.3 Managing for development 334

7.2 Ethics 336

7.2.1 Ethics and Quality 340

7.2.2 Effectiveness and advantages of Ethics 342

7.2.3 Ethics for quality and effectiveness 343

7.2.4 Ethics and Globalization 346

Chapter 8 Applications to Social Systems (2): systems archetypes, virtual systems, knowledge management, organizational learning, industrial districts 353

8.1 Systems archetypes and collective beings 353

8.2 Virtual systems 359

8.2.1 Being Virtual: Philosophy, Physics, Computer Science and Economics 362

8.2.2 The Opposite Process: Making Virtual the Current Reality 363

8.2.3 Virtual Corporations 365

8.2.4 Money 369

8.3 Other applications 371

8.3.1 Knowledge management 371

8.3.2 Organizational learning 375

8.3.3 Industrial districts 379

Chapter 9 Applications to Cognitive Systems: Beyond Computationalism 387

9.1 Traditional Cognitive Science 387

9.2 Is Cognition equivalent to Computation? 394

9.3 Theories of Consciousness 397

9.4 Embodied Cognition 400

Appendix 1 Some systemic properties 407

Appendix 2 Some questions and answers about Systemics 441.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780387355412

0387355413

OCLC:

76910555