The following abstracts were submitted for presentation at the Global Brain Workshop in Brussels:
From an evolutionary perspective the brain is an organ whose purpose is to help implement adaptive behaviour useful to the organism. It presumably arose because it conferred selective advantage to the individuals who had it - individuals who were subject to an evolutionary process as a whole. It seems likely that some of the benefit of the adaptivity that the brain provides is that it allows sophisticated social coordination which may allow the instigation of a new evolutionary process - that of memes. It also seems almost certain that the adaptive behaviour is implemented in the brain using evolutionary mechanisms - e.g. Edelman's neuronal Darwinism (1991) or Dennett's multiple drafts (1992). For an evolutionary process to occur you need units that are: replicated, selected and varied in response to an environment. In the case of humans they evolved a brain to survive and perpetuate themselves in their environment. In the case of memes they evolve as units as those that will be socially perpetuated in the (human) social environment. In the case of neural structures they are copied, reinforced and selected in response to the environment driven by perceptions. Other kinds of units can only evolve adaptive behaviour if they can replicate, vary and be selected out.
A culture can not itself evolve by internal evolutionary or computational process - however sophisticated these processes are but a culture could evolve as part of a population of cultures which replicate and propagate etc. One of the differences in the outcomes is that a community of interacting and evolving (as separate units) individuals can become socially embedded and improve their own fitness/computational load so that the fitness of the whole system marginally drops (Edmonds 1999), whereas if the whole system is being evolved as a unit the fitness of the individuals is (at least somewhat) sacrificed to improve the fitness of the whole. Being a part of a brain is a different experience from being part of an interacting community of individually evolving actors.
Thus the internet as a whole can not become a Global Brain, however sophisticated the interactions, but parts of the internet could. This requires that parts of the internet become distinct units capable of reliable replication etc. The engine of their evolution would probably be our informational needs as users of the internet. These units would probably have to evolve to become quite complex entities - well entrenched using their own replicatory processes - before it would be worth the "cost" of supporting brains of their own. Efforts to design processes inside the internet to make the whole intelligent will probably fail - what you will get is a computer (Edmonds 2000). If a brain is characterised by intelligence rather than computation then this will require the abandonment of a detailed design stance and the adoption of a more evolutionary approach.
References:
Dennett D. (1991). Consciousness explained. Penguin Books.
Edmonds, B. (1999). Capturing Social Embeddedness: a Constructivist Approach. Adaptive Behavior, 7:323-348.
Edmonds, B. (2000). The Constructability of Artificial Intelligence (as defined by the Turing Test). Journal of Logic Language and Information, 9:419-424.
Edelman G. (1992). Bright air, brilliant fire. On the matter of the mind. Basic Books.
Email address -- gpor@Co-I-L.com (or george.por@insead.fr)
URL of my home page -- http://www.co-i-l.com/coil/who/consultants.shtml#gp
Affiliations -- * Senior Research Fellow, Center for Advanced Learning Technologies, INSEAD
* Founder, Community Intelligence Labs
Address -- 13, rue St. Severin
75005 Paris, France
The dual function of this presentation is to make a contribution that makes a difference in the development of:
The motivation for this dual purpose comes from my assessment that the social dynamics of communities that learn will play a larger and more fundamental role in the evolution of GB than individuals, yet the sociological perspective is lagging behind the technological, epistemological, and the"individual-as-neuron" focus of GB research.
The intent of the suggested presentation is to foster a dialogue on the nervous system of social organisms perceived as networks of conversation, and how their facilitated constellations may promote the evolution of GB. To test the usefulness of the ideas presented in that context, it will be proposed that we design next year's event as an opportunity to not only talk about GB but to trigger and optimize a community dynamics supportive to its evolution.
This presentation will be comprised of three sections as follow.
1. Overview and "lessons learned" commentary on current trends in R&D pertinent to Dynamic Knowledge Repositories, including the work of:
2. Exploration of "Real-Time/Delayed Time" (RT/DT) synergy and the learning breakthroughs that become possible when we combine the best "features" of these two primary modes of collective cognition.
3. The implications of the key points developed in the first two sections, for the organizing patterns of GB 2002.
Keywords: bootstrapping, collaborative ontologies, collective intelligence, knowledge ecology, knowledge ecosystem, nervous system in social organisms, network of conversations, transformative conferencing.
References
Articles
* Nurturing Systemic Wisdom Through Knowledge Ecology, by George Pór, in collaboration with Janice Molloy, in "Systems Thinker", http://coil.caucus.com/~coil/LIB/tami_co_i_l/gpor/00310041/KE.pdf
* Knowledge -> Intelligence -> Wisdom: Essential Value Chain of the New Economy
Keynote address delivered by George Pór at the "Consultation Meeting on the Future of Organisations and Knowledge Management" of the European Commission's Directorate-General Information Society Technologies, Brussels, http://www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/kd/kiwkeynotes.shtml
* The Value of Emergent Value Creation Models in the Knowledge Economy
Position paper by George Pór, presented in the "Future of Organisations" session of the "Consultation Meeting on the Future of Organisations and Knowledge Management" held by the European Commission's Directorate-General Information Society Technologies, Brussels, http://www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/kd/vcmodels.shtml
* Source Document for Knowledge Ecology
http://www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/kd/sourcedoc.shtml
Websites
grossman@coin.org
3 Lemmon Drive
Columbia MO 65201
http://users.trib.net/~prossman
I wish to ask some questions for discussion at Brussels or afterwards, related to only one small part of the global brain agenda. I welcome Rayward's criticisms of the world brain concept of H.G. Wells. But Wells raises some useful questions which can be separated from his political, social and philosophical assumptions.
(1) For example I am intrigued by a suggestion made by Bill Gates that perhaps the entry into the World Wide Web should be an encyclopedia. Could this be a global encyclopedia--perhaps consisting many cross-indexed and linked online encyclopedias scattered all over the world? Could this be a way to help individuals cope with the knowledge explosion without some authoritarian control over the organization of knowledge? Couldn't peer reviewed definitive articles in those encylopedias be linked to many conflicting points of view, thus pointing to areas where most research is needed? As for `control' isn't the Internet a model?
(2) Is the global brain an inevitable product of the evolution of technologies? As Moravec and Kurzweil right that linked supercomputers will ultimately make human minds obsolete and unable to control the technology? Or, on the other hand, isn't the global brain to be a combination of such future technology plus collective human intelligence that may involve millions of human brains? And more?
(3) Will not that collective intelligence be centered in linked universities and linked research libraries (whatever their virtual shape may be), which will continue to assume responsibility for peer review and indexing. . .on the Internet, Web and whatever follows them? Would they divide responsibilies and collaborate on one massive index? Or will something like many cross-linked search engines--some commercial, some university library centered, continue to organize and link various kinds of index systems?
1) ben@goertzel.org , http://goertzel.org/ben/resume.html , Webmind, Inc., 50 Broadway, New York, NY 10004, USA. 2) macklakov@mail.ru , Webmind, Inc. 3) redko@keldysh.ru , http://www.keldysh.ru/BioCyber/ , Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics, Russian Academy of Science, 4 Miusskaya sq., Moscow, 125047, Russia
The model of evolution of Artificial Life agents in Internet environment has been designed. The model is based on the following assumptions:
The computer program that implements the model has been created; the first simulations have been performed. The results of simulations demonstrate that evolution is able to find simplest possible solutions. Though we included some intelligent options into the control system of agents (three types of communications, neural network learning, informational exchange between friends), agents donât use such "fine structureä of intelligence. Agents find "very goodä solution (mating for 80% of time and solving tasks to find food for 20% of time) at large amount of food income or a combination of random search with "very goodä solution at small amount of food income.
A possible direction of development of the model that might ensure effective operation of a "fine structureä of intelligence of agents is discussed.
The detailed description of the model and results of experiments is given at the site: http://www.keldysh.ru/BioCyber/webagents/webagents.htm
Email address: hibbard@facstaff.wisc.edu
URL of home page: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/vis.html
Affiliation: University of Wisconsin
Address: SSEC, 1225 W. Dayton St., Madison, WI 53706 USA
The global network of humans and machines is evolving into a global brain. We can try to understand its nature by analogy with human and animal brains, which are our only current examples of intelligent, conscious brains.
Studies of mammal brains reveal that the number of connections per neuron increases with the number of neurons according to a mathematical relation that is consistent over four orders of magnitude of brain volume (from mice to whales) [2]. The relation between these values is tuned so that the diameter of the neuron network remains constant at about 2.6, where network diameter is defined as the average distance between pairs of neurons. There is some evidence that a small diameter is important for the efficiency of learning. If the average number of connections per neuron remains constant, then network diameter increases without limit as the number of neurons increases.
The number of connections that humans can support as nodes in the global brain is limited (e.g., people can understand only 1 or 2 simultaneous conversations and can know only about 200 other people well [1]). In order for the size of the global brain to increase without limit, and to maintain a limited diameter as mammal brains do, then it must include components whose average connectivity increases without limit. Thus machines rather than humans must ultimately be the largest nodes of the global brain.
Learning and the emotional values that define positive and negative reinforcement for learning are essential to intelligence and consciousness [3]. The values of human and animal brains promote the interests of self and of others who share their genes, although some human emotions (e.g., guilt and gratitude) and abilities (e.g., language and lie detecting) exist to enable social cooperation [6]. However, there are strong limits to human cooperation [4] including xenophobia that may be the accidental result of the choice of ape species that humans evolved from [1].
But the values of the global brain can be influenced through the values of the intelligent machines that will be its largest nodes, and their values can be designed rather than accepted as the result of evolution. We can design intelligent machines with values to promote human happiness and without values to promote their own interests [5]. There will certainly be motives for corporations and governments to design intelligent machines with selfish values. This will be very dangerous to humanity and must be resisted by an effort to educate the public.
References:
1. Bownds, M. D. 1999. Biology of Mind. Bethesda. Fitzgerald Science Press, Inc. Available at http://mind.bocklabs.wisc.edu/.
2. Clark, D. Constant parameters in the anatomy and wiring of the mammalian brain. Available at http://pupgg.princeton.edu/www/jh/clark_spring00.pdf.
3. Edelman, G. M. and Tononi, G. 2000. A Universe of Consciousness. New York. Perseus Books Group.
4. Heylighen, F. & Campbell, D.T. (1995) Selection of organization at the social level: obstacles and facilitators of metasystem transitions. World Futures: the Journal of General Evolution 45, 181-212. 1995. Available at ftp://ftp.vub.ac.be/pub/projects/Principia_Cybernetica/WF-issue/Social_MST.txt.
5. Hibbard, W. Super-intelligent machines. Computer Graphics 35(1), 11-13. 2001. Available at http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/visfiles.html.
6. Pinker, S. 1997. How the Mind Works. New York and London. W. W. Norton and Co.
EMAIL: ckaplan@iqco.com
URLS: http://www.iqco.com, http://www.predictwallstreet.com
AFFILIATIONS: CEO of iQ Company,
Lecturer at University of California Santa Cruz,
Sigma Xi, ACM, ASQ, APA
ADDRESS: iQ Company, 1840 41st Avenue, #102-171
Capitola, CA 95010 USA
Heylighen (1999) defines collective intelligence as the ability of a group to solve more problems than its individual members. Expanding the scope of this definition allows inclusion of other types of cognition besides problem-solving. For example, in this paper, a group that makes better decisions than its individual members is considered to exhibit collective ntelligence. In the future it might be desirable to expand the scope of collective intelligence to include not only problem-solving and decision making but also other cognitive functions studied by cognitive scientists (Simon & Kaplan 1989).
While it is theoretically possible to implement a general problem solving system that exhibits collective intelligence (Kaplan 2001), problem representation (Heylighen 1988 & 1990, Kaplan & Simon 1990) and problem decomposition (Newell & Simon 1972) remain tough practical challenges. An easier first step is to build a simple decision making system that exhibits collective intelligence.
This paper describes the design and testing of a prototype system that makes stock trading decisions based on collective intelligence. During an eleven trading-day test period, the system out-performed the NASDAQ, S&P 500, and DJIA stock indices by margins of 12.40%, 5.68%, and 2.25% respectively.
Statistical analysis showed that it was highly unlikely that a random sample of NASDAQ stock picks would have performed as well as our system (p<.02). We also found that the system performed better when more people participated, suggesting that the system's good performance was due to collective intelligence.
Further testing is needed to see if these results will hold up over a longer period of time and with more participants. Implications of this research for general decision-making and problem-solving systems based on collective intelligence are discussed.
References:
Heylighen F. (1988): "Formulating the Problem of Problem-Formation", in: Cybernetics and Systems '88, Trappl R. (ed.), (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht), p. 949-957.
Heylighen F. (1990): Representation and Change. A Metarepresentational Framework for the Foundations of Physical and Cognitive Science, (Communication & Cognition, Gent), 200p.
Heylighen F. (1999): "Collective Intelligence and its Implications on the Web: algorithms to develop a collective mental map", Computational and Mathematical Theory of Organizations 5(3), 253-280.
Kaplan C.A. & Simon H.A. (1990). In Search of Insight. Cognitive Psychology, 22, 374-419.
Kaplan, C.A. (2001) Online Distributed Problem Solving (ODPS) System. Patent Pending USPTO.
Newell A. & Simon H.A. (1972) Human Problem Solving. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
Simon H. A., & Kaplan C. A. (1989). Foundations of cognitive science. In M. Posner (Ed.), Foundations of Cognitive Science. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press
The prototype described in the paper can be found at: http://www.predictwallstreet.com
Graduate School of Management
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
C/-PO Box 266,Woollahra, Sydney, NSW, 1350
Ph: +612 9328 7466, Fax: +612 9327 1497, Mobile +0418 222 378
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~sturnbull/index.html
The design criteria for connecting humans on the planet through their five senses needs to recognise that their capacity to receive, store, organise and transmit information is subject to physiological and neurological limits. These limits can be determined in bytes/second (Turnbull, 2000a: Table 4) to provide a basis to identify the maximum rates that data, information, knowledge and wisdom can be shared. Transaction Byte Analysis developed by Turnbull (2000a,b,c) provides a basis for grounding organisational analysis and a theory of social construction in the natural sciences to design a global brain.
Other criteria for designing a global brain is that the human neo-cortex is limited to making around 200 calculations per second (Kurzweil 1999: 103) with the architecture of its neural nets being best suited to solve complex problems through pattern recognition (Kurzweil 1999: 79). However, the "chunks of knowledge that a human expert in a particular field" can master is between 50,000 to 100,000 (Kurzweil 1999: 119). Dunbar (1993: 685) reports that size of the neo-cortex also limits the number of people a person can trust to around 150 to provide a limit on the number of people a person can communicate with most efficiently.
A contributing problem in establishing reliable communications is that the operating characteristics of humans can be subject to change, inconsistency, errors and contrary behaviour (Wearing 1975). However, Turnbull (2000b) points out that these variations can be minimised as much as desired by using cybernetic criteria in designing the architecture by which people are connected like synapses. Increased reliability being obtained by providing requisite variety in decision making, communications, and control by using the principles identified respectively by von Neuman (1947), Shannon (1949), and Ashby (1968). Utilisation of the contrary characteristics of people to create checks and balances has been identified by Turnbull (2000c) as the most efficient way of establishing the strongest self-organising social structures with the minimum transaction of bytes. This design principle of using materials with contrary characteristics is described as "tensegrity" (Ingbar 1998) and is found throughout nature to provide the greatest strength for the least weight.
Additional design criteria to minimise information overload and "bounded rationality" (Williamson 1975: 4—7) is provided by the Principle of Subsidiary Function (Pius XI 1931:40; Schumacher 1975: 203). Also by using architecture based on "holons" and "holarchies" (Koestler 1967) described by Simon (1962) as "sub-assemblies" and Beer (1985: 117) as a "viable system". Mathews (1996s: 30) states that "The reduction in data transmission, and in data complexity, achieved by the holonic architecture, is prodigious" and identifies three levels of learning in holarchies (Mathews 1996b: 119). All these design features are illustrated in the structure of the stakeholder cooperatives established around the town of Mondragon in Spain (Turnbull 2000c).
The ways in which all these design criteria are used in designing a global brain depends upon defining the functional role for a global brain. The role of establishing World government to sustain life on earth provides one self-motivating interest for the mind of "Gaia "(Lovelock, 1988).
References:
Ashby, W.R. 1968, An introduction to cybernetics, University Paperback, London.
Beer, S. 1985, Diagnosing the system for organizations, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, England.
Ingber, D.E. 1998, ‘The architecture of life’, Scientific American, 30—39, January.
Koestler, C.O. 1967, The ghost in the machine, Hutchinson, London.
Kurzweil, R. 1999, The age of spiritual machines: When computers exceed human intelligence, Viking, New York.
Lovelock, J., 1988, The Ages of Gaia. W. W. Norton & Co., New York
Schumacher, E.F. 1975, Small is beautiful: A study of economics if people mattered, Abacus, London.
Mathews, J. 1996a, 'Holonic organisational architectures', Human Systems Management, 15, 27—54.
Mathews, J. 1996b, 'Organizational foundations of economic learning', Human Systems Management, 15, 113—24
Pius XI, 1931, Enclyclical letter on social reconstruction, St Paul Editions, Boston, MA.
Neumann, J. von, 1947, Theory of games and economic behaviour, Yale University Press, Conneticut.
Shannon, C.E. 1949, The mathematical theory of communications, The University of Illinois Press: Urbana, 1—94
Simon, H.A. 1962, 'The architecture of complexity,' Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 106, December, 467—82.
Turnbull, S. 2000a Gouvernement d'entreprise:Théories, Enjeux et paradigmes (Corporate Governance: Theories, challenges and paradigms), Gouvernance: Revenue internationale, 1:1, 11-43, Montréal, 2000. English text only at http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=221350
Turnbull, S. 2000b ‘The competitive advantages of stakeholder mutuals’, presented to the 12th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-economics, London School of Economics, July 9th, 2000. http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=242779 Abridged version forthcoming 2001 in The New Mutualism, ed. J. Birchall Chapter 9, Routledge, 2001, London.
Turnbull, S. 2000c ‘Why unitary boards are not best practice: A case for compound boards’, presented to the First European Conference on Corporate Governance, Belgian Directors’ Institute, November 16th, Belgium's National Bank Brussels. http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=253803
Wearing, A.J. 1973, ‘Economic growth: Magnificent obsession’, Paper presented to 44th Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science Congress, August, Perth, Australia.
Williamson, O.E. 1975, Markets and hierarchies: Analysis and anti—trust implications, Free Press, NY.
Union of International Associations - UIA (http://www.uia.org/)
Anthony Judge
Director, Communications and Research
Union of International Associations
Rue Washington 40
B-1050 Brussels, BELGIUM
Tel:(32 2) 640.18.08 Fax:(32 2) 643 61 99
E-mail: judge@uia.be
The paper reports briefly on the ongoing process of systematic information collection and web presentation by the UIA of networks of some 20,000 international organizations, 45,000 perceived world problems, 30,000 advocated action strategies, and some 3,000 values -- resulting in a total of 500,000 hyperlinks. These different entities are understood to constitute an interesting focal sub-system of whatever is to be understood by an emerging global brain ˆ for which the "problems" might be understood as "neuroses", if not "tumours". This is followed by a description of implemented features to improve the way in which organizations can use this facility to articulate the collaborative networks within which they collectively develop strategic responses to subsets of the network of problems (perceived in the light of networks of partially shared values). The concrete challenge is the manner in which this network of features can become self-aware via its web representation, at least to a degree that is less dysfunctional in partially coordinating world system responses. Steps taken towards facilitating cognitive coherence include dynamic self-organizing visualizations (and sound equivalents) of these network features. The approach is being designed to maximize the degree to which providers of information become users of the resulting knowledge patterns with which they can interact, notably as a means of evoking richer patterning of the complexity reflected in "synaptic" hyperlinks. The conceptual challenge of developing improved hyperlink editing tools and supportive knowledge management methods is addressed, as well as associated tools through which coalitions of users can derive more coherent patterns of meaning from what they access in the light of often significantly incompatible perspectives. The more fundamental concern of the paper is to highlight the conceptual difficulties of providing information in a form that needs to be variously ordered according to user "bias" whilst providing a non-intrusive, facilitative cognitive framework that can maintain some degree of coherence, or allow for its emergence. A particular concern is the dynamic between the necessary diversity of (often strongly held) preferences for meaningful knowledge representation and the need for (often overly simplistic) coherence within coalitions whose consensus is fundamental to any concrete global response. These challenges raise questions about integrating intelligent sub-systems into a global brain, ezpecially if some of the networks might be understood as sub- intelligent from a global perspective. The paper also reports on steps to shift the level of analysis, and representation, from isolated entities to the multitude of feedback loops buried within such patterns of information.
URLs:
Relevant interlinked knowledgebases: http://www.uia.org/data.htm
Relevant papers on knowledge organization:http://www.uia.org/uiadocs/aadocnd4.htm
Project introduction page: http://www.uia.org/homeency.htm with links to commentaries
Center for Study of Social Change
New School for Social Research
5Th Av
New York, NY USA
Emai laddress Susanthag@hotmail.com
The use of the concept ‘information’ as pragmatic information, that is, a set of instructions of how to interact with its environment, allows for an overarching theoretical scheme in dealing with three sets of information lineages. These lineages respectively encompass genetic information, some machine-based information (as in neural networks and genetic algorithms and artificial life) as well as human cultural information. Each of these lineages can be shown to have common evolutionary characteristics..
These common characteristics are memory preservation, creation of novelty, speciation, self-construction, subjectivity to the external world and an evolutionary epistemology. The two non-cultural information systems are now being acted upon by the cultural through biotechnology and information technology. The three lineages interact with each other merging directly or indirectly their information streams, merging the information content as well as their modes of interacting with their environments. This results in changes in all three streams, the genetic, the artefactual and the cultural. These processes profoundly change in describable ways, the long term evolutionary and other characteristics of all three lineages, giving rise to fundamental changes.
This process will redefine what constitutes "social" and what constitutes "community." A community’s members communicate with their "significant others" and change their internal information states (and their internal and external behaviors). Under conditions of merging, information exchanges occur across all the three lineages. In this sense, the concept of significant other, that is a communicating entity, is now spread from human communities to encompass also the biological and the artefactual. A seamless merging between the three realms now occurs.
The resulting image of interactions that now arises is of multiple oceans of communities, operating at different levels, the genetic, the cultural and the artefactual. There are exchanges across the different levels, up and down and sideways, as information is translated from one realm to the other. These exchanges arise from internally generated signals due to the internal dynamics of each community as well as from those generated through dynamics between lineages. These dynamics result in changes in the evolutionary characteristics of each lineage and sub-lineage, including the internal perceptions from within a lineage, namely in the language of evolutionary epistemology, its " meaning" and "hypotheses" on the world. Thermodynamically this is an open system with a constant increase of organization within the system, upward and onward accompanied necessarily by changes in inflows and outflows to and from the system. The study of social phenomena in the new millennium must necessarily take into account these factors. A future sociology must incorporate dynamics of all three realms.
REFERENCES
Susantha Goonatilake:Evolution of Information: Lineages in Genes, Culture and Artefact (Pinter Publishers, London 1992),
Susantha Goonatilake:Merged Evolution: the Long Term Implications of Information Technology and Biotechnology (Gordon and Breach, New York 1998)
Susantha Goonatilake:"Towards a "meta-ethic" derived from evolutionary lineages" in Evolutionary Systems - Biological and Epistemological Perspectives on Selection and Self-Organization by Gertrudis Van De Vijver (Editor), et al (1998) Kluwer Academic Dordecht/Boston/London
Susantha Goonatilake:"The Structure of "Communities" and Communications in the New Millennium" in The Quest for a Unified Theory of Information Wolfgang Hofkirchner (Editor) (Gordon and Breach, New York 1998)
Computing Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Vavilov st. 40, 117967 Moscow GSP-1, Russia
Prof. Alexander A. Zenkin,
Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences,
Leading Research Scientist of the Computing Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Member of the AI-Association and the Philosophical Society of the Russia,
Full-Member of the International Federation of Artists and of the Creative Union of the Russia Artists.
e-mail: alexzen@com2com.ru
WEB-Site http://www.com2com.ru/alexzen/
1. The main (say, teleological or cybernetic) aim of the evolution was a creation, a self-preservation, and a perfection of the human-being mind. The mind distributed among imdividual brains was an optimal form for its self-preservation and perfection during millenniums. Today we have a radical new situation: in the conditions when an only, not most clever "human-being" can predetermine a fate of all other people (say, by means of a "red button", chemical and bacteriological weapon, etc. ) together with their individual bearer (brains) of the mind, only a collective, joint mind is able to solve the problem of the preservation of the mind and the humankind as a whole.
The modern internet is a natural material, technological basis to create a collective, joint mind. I believe that the united simbiotic cyber-system "internet + human-beings" is a natural next level of the homo sapiens evolution.
2. The main "function" of a brain is the mind. The main destination of the mind is a GENERATION of a fundamentally NEW (conceptual) KNOWLEDGE based, of course, on perception, storage, treatment, transmition, etc., of information. Any control (including cybernetic one) based on a new knowledge has more degrees of freedom, more choice possibilities, and thus is more effective than the control based on an "old" knowledge.
3. Up to now, all knowledge of such the kind was and is created by means of the intuitive, visual, creative thinking (including deep subconscious processes) realized in the right-hemisphere of a human-being brain. We don't know well a nature of all these processes, but we can make them much more effective. From this point of view, I would like to distinguish the two main unique feature of the internet:
a) the power dymanic 3D-graphic technology to visualize information, and
b) (as a concequence) the power technique to compensate an annoying defect of the human-being evolution: indeed, in order to exchange a sound information the evolution gave us a generator (our vocal tract - mouth and tongue in it) and a receiver (our ears), but for a visual information we have only a receiver (our eyes which give us about 90% of all information about the world), but hitherto we didn't have a generator to produce a visual information (except for a little amount of artists, of course). The dymanic 3D-graphic technology of the modern (and much more - in future) internet fills up that evolution gap in human-being's cognitive, mental, intellectual faculties and, I am sure, will become one of the main interactive languahes in the frame of the "Global brain".
4. There exists a world of high scientific mathematical abstractions that can't be seen or felt in principle, and therefore it is most difficult for study, comprehension, and usage. In order to investigate all these problems, we worked out a multi-media system of Cognitive Reality based on the Cognitive Computer Graphics (CCG) conception which allows a human being to be plunged into the color-musical world of mathematical abstractions (of a high level) in order to see, to look at, to touch, and to manipulate them by semantical, visual, musical, aesthetic, and even ethic channels. And all that - with very practical and concrete aim: to cognize mathematical properties of such "materialized" scientific abstractions, to generate really an essentially new scientific knowledge, and to study intuitive, logical, and psychological mechanisms of a human-being critical and creative thinking. Today - in most abstract science (mathematics, logic, set theory, etc.), to-morrow - in area of a social and political life, I am definitely sure (since we have a certain start in the last areas).
So, Cognitive Reality is not only a technique for a new knowledge generation. It is also a new technique for CCG-investigations of right-hemispherical, intuitive meta-procedures of a human-being thinking in its most active states. Then these meta-procedures will hand over to a computer (internet). It will be a way to both-hemispherical computers.
5. By means of the CCG-visualiztion, we really obtained a lot of unique scientific reasults in classical number theory, in calssical logic, set theory, philosophy of infinity, psychology of cognition, education, etc.
The results are published in a lot of scientific papers and monographies.
The list of main publications is presented at: http://www.com2com.ru/alexzen/papers.html
6. I think that an ivestigation of the connection between logic and intuition is one of important broblem for the "Global brain" project. A quite full description of the main logic result obtained by means of the CCG-technology is presented at:
A.A.Zenkin, Super-Induction Method: Logical Acupuncture of Mathematical Infinity. - Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, in Boston, Massachusetts, 1998. Section "Logic and Philosophy of Logic". The Paideia Project On-Line.
WEB-Site address: http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Logi/LogiZenk.htm
A presentation of Cognitive Reality as a whole is given in our home-page and at:
http://www.com2com.ru/alexzen/Cognitive_Reality/Cognitive_Reality.html
7. In a not far future, a direct interaction between a brain of an individual human-being and the GB will be realized. It can be waited, that the emotional sphere of human-beings will be also in a direct contact with the GB. Therefore, I think, aesthetic problems also will play an important role for human-beings within the frame of the "Global brain" medium. In this connexion, some aesthetic aspecs of scientific cognition in Cognitive Reality world are presented at:
Alexander A.Zenkin, Anton A.Zenkin, Presentation "The Unity of the Left-Hemispheric, Rational, Abstract Thinking and the Right-Hemispheric, Intuitive, Visual One. Intellectual Aesthetics of Mathematicial Cognition". - 5th International Congress & Exhibition of the International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry. Sydney, 8-14 July, 2001. Intersections of Art and Science.
http://www.isis-s.unsw.edu.au/interact/gallery/image_files/zenkin/a_zenkin.html
Scientific Degrees: Doctor of Philosophy, professor
Position: Head of the Theoretical Center
Head-office: Informological Institute AG (Switzerland)
E-mail: ininin@ininin.org
Web-site: http://www.ininin.org
Location: Moscow Representative Office of
Informological Institute AG
Address: 12 Trubnaya str., 103045 Moscow, Russia
Projects like "Global Brain" contribute to a larger endeavor to address a radically new problem our society faces, with new organizational forms. This should be welcomed. Nobody doubts that disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches ought to be employed for the gripping with separate components of this problem. Nevertheless hazards for the society from the impact of "the self-organized system of the Global Brain" should not be neglected.
To analyze the risk of the likely impact of the complex multi-factor and multi-component systems on humans and society is an evident transdisciplinary problem in our case. Thereby an adequate variant of the transdisciplinary approach has to be applied for its solution. To our minds, an informological variant of the transdisciplinary approach (worked out by Informological Institute) can profess to take this role. An advantage of this approach is that it was molded as an independent general scientific discipline for the first time. It yielded in the possibility to legalize its language, universal patterns, a method of information analysis. All this allows to carry out a transdisciplinary analysis of the "Global Brain" from the uniform conceptual stance and focus experts on those peculiarities of its further development that hide potential danger for the society. Our thoughts on this subject are expressed in this abstract.
A planet can be represented as a certain informological space (an organized environment). The general condition of space represents an order of the potency realization (hidden force) that stipulates co-evolutionary harmonic development of all its fragments. All the objects, processes, interactions and any complex organized environments of the planetary space perform as fragments. Deviation of a general condition from the norm brings about a change into the order of the potency realization. Informology considers that in this situation a real condition of the space represents two potencies - a potency of the real process and a potency of the margin. Order of realization of the potency of the entire space is the law for realization of all its spatial fragments. Therefore, if the real condition of space does not coincide with the norm, a potency of all its fragments will be subtracted for the margin value.
Let's project this theoretical discourse on the substantiation of transdisciplinary safety of the project:
It should become obvious that the extent of deviation of the general condition of the planetary space from a norm indicates the extent of the deviation (or of a predisposition to such a deviation) of the general condition of people and any complex organized environments to which "Global Brain" also belongs, from a norm. This is an unconditional rule. The emerging margin in this case diminishes the magnitude of the constructive potency of "the space of Global Brain". So the first dangerous feature of the "Global Brain" for the society is an objective curb on the degree of the complexity of tasks that can be solved with its aid under the actual general state of the planetary space.
The second perilous and latent peculiarity of the "Global Brain" for the society is a realization of the margin's potency, which value demonstrates stable growth every year. The value of the margin's potency predetermines an emergence of several negative situations at once:
First, it may exemplify "a value of illusions" that will be inevitably generated, when "Global Brain" tries to solve complex multi-factor tasks exceeding its actually existing potential.
Second, it may embody "a value of estrangement" from the offered reliable solutions of complex multi-factor tasks due to the excessive level of perception of a potential of scientific concepts by the "Global Brain".
The third potentially dangerous and concealed from the society peculiarity of the "Global Brain" is the absence of "Global Ethics for the Global Brain". In this case it is the matter of absence of a concept of the common worldview of the humankind. This worldview is to establish obvious and indisputable principles of the relationship inside such a complex combined system as "Global Brain". Otherwise the "Global Brain" is capable to become a hindrance to the harmonious development of each man and the community on the whole.
Provided a transdisciplinary technology is applied, disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches will be enforced by it, and thus a forestalled solution of these potentially dangerous for humans and the society peculiarities of the "Global Brain" can be provided. The subsequent elaboration of a concept of the current and strategic risk-analysis of the "Global Brain" will make its activities an important and safe element of the development of the Human Race.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Margaret A. Somerville & David J. Rapport (editors): Transdisciplinarity: reCreating Integrated Knowledge, EOLSS Publishers Co. Ltd, 2000.
2. Vladimir Mokiy, Anna Zhamborova and Olga Shegai: Brief introduction to Informology, Noviy Tsentr, Moscow, 1998.
3. Alexandr Nikiforov, Mikhail Mokiy and Vladimir Mokiy: System and informological approach to cognition and practical work, Noviy Tsentr, Moscow, 1999.
4. Vladimir Mokiy, Anna Zhamborova and Olga Shegai: Method of informological analysis, Noviy Tsentr, Moscow, 1999.
5. Anatoliy Putintsev, Valentina Artiukhova and Galina Lebedeva: 'Phenomenal condition of biological and ecological systems in the organized space' in the materials of the International scientific - practical conference Analysis of systems on a threshold of the 21st century: a theory and a practice, Moscow, Vol. 2, p. 414; February, 1996.
6. Valdimir Mokiy, Natalia Fedorenko: 'About an opportunity of the current and long-term forecasting of adverse (extreme) situations for the concrete man' in Military medicine at the down of the 21st century: realities and prospects (dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the State research probe institute of military medicine). The theses of reports at the all-Russia scientific - practical conference, Moscow. pp. 64-65; November 28, 2000.
Bishop's University
Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada
J1M 1Z7
email: taborsky@primus.ca
39 Jarvis St. #318
Toronto, Ontario M5E 1Z5
(416) 361.0898
My submission is founded on an assumption that our cosmos operates as a dynamic and evolving process for the transformation of energy/matter, by cognitive measurement or codification, into 'informed mass'. 'Mind' is understood as a property of the entire cosmos; it transforms energy into this 'informed mass' within an increasing complexity of logical codification moving from the physico-chemical, through the biological and finally, to the socioconceptual realm (Taborsky 1999a). Philosophical and scientific debates of mind-matter ontologies argue either their symmetry or distinction. This paper assumes an increasingly asymmetrical relation between the two, it assumes that mind and matter move from a monadic homogeneity to a complex dialogue. The three realms of energy-to-informed mass share similar properties (measurement within asymmetry, emergence and dissipation of information, establishment of metareferential networks, etc) and yet, each has an operative limit on its information processing abilities. I maintain that when this limit is reached, a 'jump' is made to enable a more complex processing of energy. This jump assumes an increased ontological separation of mind and matter - and a concomitant increase in complexity of their epistemological interactions (Taborsky 1999a, 2001a). The central topic addressed in this paper is the emergence of the socioconceptual realm as the most asymmetrical dyad with the greatest flexibility of mind to encode matter.
To examine the dynamics of this cosmic mind, I describe basic concepts of semiosis (measurement by codification) within the three realms. Measurement first sets up an external and internal ontological zone of experiences. Exosemiosis and endosemiosis operate within two very different processes of measurement, within respectively, classical mechanics and quantum mechanics. I examine the two zones, in the first realm, as behaving in an almost homogenous manner, and then, increasingly differentiated in their manner of encoding matter. In the socioconceptual realm, this asymmetrical separation reaches a limit, and we then develop a mediate far-from-equilibrium zone of potent dialogical interaction. Within both the exogamous and endogamous zones there is a further differentiation of codification into a long term cohesive collective memory, in digital code, and short-term local contextual 'instantiations' or expressions, in analog code. I examine the increasing complexity of this cohesive memory and its short-term articulations within the expanding asymmetry of mind and matter (Taborsky 1997, 1998, 1999a, b, 2000, 2001b, 2002)
What we see as we move through the physico-chemical and the biological to the socioconceptual, is an increased asymmetry within the basic organizational domains: of mind and matter, of external and internal zones of operation, and of memory and instantiation codification. The most complex realm, the socioconceptual, using the symbol rather than icon or index, operates with the most separation between these dyads, and as a result, sets up a system with the greatest access to free energy and the greatest freedom to encode this energy. In the socioconceptual ontological system, matter/information moves rapidly between the external and internal zones. In its interpretive processes, codification moves imaginatively between memory and instant; and with its reliance on the symbolic system, the relations between mind and matter are emergent and generative and highly creative. All of this suggests that the socioconceptual realm provides us with an infrastructure that enables the global brain to operate within a progressively complex, imaginative and generative mind-matter relationship.
[added later:]
I took a look at your web site- and acknowledge your focus on the technological and particularly the global computer netwwork as a vital component of the Global Brain. When I refer to the socioconceptual realm, I include this global knowledge system. I don't think I explained that fully in the abstract I sent - which was already over your 500 word limit!
But, I examine what is going on within this transformation of energy-to-informed mass by the insertion of the technological - and particularly, a global technology. For example, the distinction between the external/internal zones becomes increasingly amorphous and indeed, 'flips' from one to the other. [This is where you find the debates over privacy, copyright, the loss of individual rights, etc.] Then, the digital distributed communal memory and the analog undistributed local expression become iconic. [This is where you find, not merely mass marketing, but a global requirement for similarity of information processing - whether it be within a global language, standard consumer practices, standardization of money, etc, etc.] These two forms of codification then, act to increase rather than decrease the symmetry between mind and matter. This enhances the spread of a universal codification across the globe. .very similar to a simple bacterium spread across a vast territory. However, in reaction, [and to prevent the dangers of entropic homogenization] the symbolic or 'unfettered' interpretation' reacts to the increasing symmetry by an asymmetrical surge of activity. The symbolic codification 'explodes' , using the artificial, with a divergent and inventive processing of energy, focusing on rapid innovation, constant 'new' materializations and a heightened awareness of new links and relations.
References:
Taborsky, E. 2002 [forthcoming] Functional and Dysfunctional Societies: an examination of societies as semiosic organisms.
Taborsky, E. 2001a The Emergence of Societies'. In: Proceedings: ECHOIV Conference. Odense, Denmark. 2000. Forthcoming.
Taborsky, E. 2001b. 'The Internal and the External Semiosic Processes of Reality': In: SEED On-line Journal. Vol 1, 1. http://www.library.utoronto.ca/see
Taborsky, E. 2000 'The Complex Information Process'. In: Entropy. On-line journal. Vol 2. http://www.mdpi.org/entropy.
Taborsky, E. 1999a 'Evolution of Consciousness'. In: BioSystems. 51. 153-168.
Taborsky, E. 1999b 'On the Nature of Evolution'. In: Proceedings. 43rd Meeting of ISSS.
Taborsky, E. 1999c. 'Biosemiotics of the Social Text'. In. C. Emmeche & J. Hoffmeyer, eds. Special Issue of Semiotica. Indiana UP. 599-612.
Taborsky, E. 1998 Architectonics of Semiosis. New York: St. Martin's Press
Taborsky, E. 1997 Society as Text. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
zjlila@hotmail.com
http://strshpconstco.iwarp.com
2635 Mapleton Ave #75
Boulder CO 80304 USA
If the Global Brain is metaphor for an emerging collectively intelligent network, how do we distinguish between brain and mind? between brain and body? From the long term view of humanity's evolution, can we continue the conventional view of societal structure as something we live within, like a building, rather than something we live as, like an organism, and still meet the evolutionary requirements of the Global Body that must of necessity come with the Global Brain.
The long enduring idea of society as a multi-cellular organism, with individuals in the role of cells, is in recognition of the similarity between the functions of the body and of society. But while society may move towards a super-organism, it is not a super-organism. When such analogies are taken up, it is soon recognized that the level of organism isn't up to that of an anthill, let alone our own bodies. Comparisons to the social ordering of slime molds and sponges seem more realistic.
Recognizing humans are much less integrated than the cells of a multi-cellular organism, we may question whether they are a good analogy to a cell. The human individual is more accurately likened to a societal atom. We do not have even a societal molecule, let alone the complex living structure that would constitute a living societal cell.
If the individual is to be likened to a cell then it must be as a prokaryote, not a eukaryote. Two billion years of life on this planet, and prokaryotes never become multi-cellular. Another billion before only a few eukaryotes have, and which in the last half billion led to the vast diversity of organisms on earth. Cells do not just aggregate to form a multi-cellular organism, they are each already a complex living unit. It is no coincidence that we didn't get multi-cellular division of function until that distinction had already happened within the eukaryote cell. The multi-cellular organism becomes a replication, an appreciation of the specialization of function within the living cell.
My offering to the conference is a plan for a simple/complex societal cell with a eukaryotic flavor aimed towards super-organism.
It provides a cellular nucleus of thirty (5 groups of 6), sets up a strong complexity of dynamics, a level of societal organelle, as well as a 'memeticDNA' packet from what seems a simple set of six.
The triad is the simplest societal molecule, the smallest cooperative unifying group individual. Moving dualistic polarity from the corporeal individual to the societal, we set our primary dyading between triadic individuals thus giving a basic societal unit of six: a yin and a yang triad (three female and three male). The full unit of six would actually be a complex of 64 individualities; 20 triadic, 15 each dyadic and tetradic, the original 6 monads and their 6 matching pentads, the full sextad and the zero point that sums all to 64.
It's not just that the Global Brain has moved so much faster, but the Global Body so much slower. This is a project aimed at balancing and meeting.
References
Banathy, Bela H. Evolution guided by design: a systems perspective. Systems Research and Behavioral Science v. 15 no3 (May/June '98) p.161-72
Boulding, Kenneth Ewart, Ecodynamics : a new theory of societal evolution Beverly Hills : Sage Publications, c1978 368 p
Guenther, Herbert V From reductionism to creativity : rDzogs-chen and the new sciences of mind Boston : Shambhala, 1989 306 p.
Hershock, Peter D Liberating intimacy : enlightenment and social virtuosity in Ch'an Buddhism Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, 1996 236 p.
Hershock, Peter D Reinventing the wheel : a Buddhist response to the information age Albany, N.Y. : State University of New York Press, c1999 309 p.
Hubbard, Barbara Marx, Conscious Evolution : awakening the power of our social potential Novato, Calif. :New World Library, c1998 280 p.
Olson, Carl Zen and the art of postmodern philosophy : two paths of liberation from the representational mode of thinking New York : State University of New York Press, c2000 309 p
Ronfeldt, David. ; Arquilla, John. From cyberspace to the noosphere: emergence of the global mind. New Perspectives Quarterly v. 17 no1 (Winter 2000)
" <pchopra@peesh.com>
Prashant Chopra
Peesh, Incorporated
"McLuhan had pointed out that by inventing electric technology, we had externalized our central nervous systems; that is, our minds. Cage went further to say that we now had to presume that 'there's only one mind, the one we all share.' Cage pointed out that we had to go beyond private and personal mind-sets and understand how radically things had changed. Mind had become socialized. "'We can't change our minds without changing the world,' he said. Mind as a man-made extension became our environment, which he characterized as 'the collective consciousness,' which we could tap into by creating 'a global utilities network'.
Ideas of the human superorganism and global brain first appeared in modern form in Herbert Spencer's The Principles of Sociology (1876-96). The superorganism idea gained scientific support from the work of the notable Russian biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky. He performed groundbreaking studies of the large scale biochemical processes of the earth, and was the first to think of the Earth and all living things as a single biosphere. While the biosphere concept deals with the Earth as a whole, Vernadsky also coined the term, noosphere, which more specifically denotes "the network of thoughts, information and communication that englobes the planet."1 This network could only be a phenomenon attributed to humans, and in 1955, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin published his work, The Phenomenon of Man, in which he popularized the term, noosphere, and the concept of the human superorganism and the global brain. Since then, a wide range of thinkers has taken up these concepts and developed them using today's knowledge of the world and humanity.
Most recently, the technological revolution has produced a "global communication network," which can be seen as a nervous system for this planetary being. As the computer network becomes more intelligent it starts to look more like a global brain or super-brain, with capabilities far surpassing those of individual. This is part of an evolutionary transition to a higher level of complexity. A remaining question is whether this transition will lead to the integration of the whole of humanity, producing a human "super-being", or merely enhance the capabilities of individuals, thus producing a multitude of "meta-beings"."
1)We will explore the convergence of media and telecommunications in the context of a autocatalytic, self-regulating, adaptive, nonlinear, distributed complex system.