Design for a brain : the origin of adaptive behaviour / William Ross Ashby.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ashby, William Ross, author.

Series:

Science paperbacks.

Science paperbacks

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Self-organizing systems.

Brain.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 286 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

second edition.

Place of Publication:

London : Chapman & Hall, 1960.

Summary:

"This book is not a treatise on all cerebral mechanisms but a proposed solution of a specific problem: the origin of the nervous system's unique ability to produce adaptive behaviour. The work has as basis the fact that the nervous system behaves adaptively and the hypothesis that it is essentially mechanistic; it proceeds on the assumption that these two data are not irreconcilable. It attempts to deduce from the observed facts what sort of a mechanism it must be that behaves so differently from any machine made so far. Other proposed solutions have usually left open the question whether some different theory might not fit the facts equally well: I have attempted to deduce what is necessary, what properties the nervous system must have if it is to behave at once mechanistically and adaptively. The concepts of organisation, behaviour, change of behaviour, part, whole, dynamic system, co-ordination, etc.--notoriously elusive but essential--were successfully given rigorous definition and welded into a coherent whole. But the rigour and coherence depended on the mathematical form, which is not read with ease by everybody. As the basic thesis, however, rests on essentially commonsense reasoning, I have been able to divide the account into two parts. The main account (Chapters 1-18) is non-mathematical and is complete in itself. The Appendix (Chapters 19-22) contains the mathematical matter"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).

Contents:

1 The Problem.

2 Dynamic Systems.

3 The Organism as Machine.

4 Stability.

5 Adaptation as Stability.

6 Parameters.

7 The Ultrastable System.

8 The Homeostat.

9 Ultrastability in the Organism.

10 The Recurrent Situation.

11 The Fully-joined System.

12 Temporary Independence.

13 The System with Local Stabilities.

14 Repetitive Stimuli and Habituation.

15 Adaptation in Iterated and Serial Systems.

16 Adaptation in the Multistable System.

17 Ancillary Regulations.

18 Amplifying Adaptation.

19 The State-determined System.

20 Stability.

21 Parameters.

22 The Effects of Constancy.

References.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.