Complexes

My first philosophical text in years, comments welcome. Information theory has been developed for seventy years with technological applications that have transformed our societies. The increasing ability to store, transmit, and process information is having a revolutionary impact in most disciplines. The goal of this work is to compare the formal approach to information with Buddhist philosophy. Considering both approaches as compatible and complementary, I argue that information theory can improve our understanding of Buddhist philosophy and vice versa. The resulting synthesis leads to a worldview based on information that overcomes limitations of the currently dominating physics-based worldview. Gershenson, Carlos, Information in Science and Buddhist Philosophy: Towards a non-Materialistic Worldview (October 4, 2018). https://ssrn.com/abstract=3261381

With the recent refugee wave from countries with a Muslim majority, we have been flooded by a wave of fear-fueled propaganda against them. Muslims treat their women badly. Muslims are violent. Muslims are this, Muslims are that. The Koran says this, the Koran says that. Europe is not what it used to be, it is getting full of Muslims. After living four years in Brussels and dealing with plenty of Moroccans and Turks, these clichés never matched my experience. I teach that science has flourished and been repressed in Muslim and Christian countries at different epochs, so the obstacle has been not so much the religion but how the institutions use a religion. Just like Jihadists use Islam to promote their agenda, you can interpret other texts for your own ends, and then you have Nazism and the KKK. Humanism and reason should be beyond religions. But the Koran says kill all the infidels. And the Bible says kill all the blasphemous. It is true that terrorists groups are using Islam to brai...

I was just in Berlin for the first time, for the Award Ceremony of the Audi Urban Future Award 2014 (which we won ! But that will be the topic of another post ). The organizers had the great idea to make the ceremony coincide with the Falling Walls Conference and the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Incidentally, just before I was in Ensenada for another conference , and on the way to Tijuana airport our hosts took us to the border wall by the sea. That is another city marked by a wall, which although permeable, it separates and divides people. So many touching stories you can hear, I've been reflecting these days how states decisions can affect so much the life of individuals. On the other hand, the fall of the wall is an example of how individuals can change states. The #wall is not an obstacle if you can fly. A photo posted by Carlos Gershenson (@cgershen) on Nov 11, 2014 at 2:08pm PST I met some Germans for the first time fifteen years ago, f...

Ashby's law of requisite variety states that a controller must have at least as much variety (complexity) as the controlled. Maturana and Varela proposed autopoiesis (self-production) to define living systems. Living systems also require to fulfill the law of requisite variety. A measure of autopoiesis has been proposed as the ratio between the complexity of a system and the complexity of its environment. Self-organization can be used as a concept to guide the design of systems towards higher values of autopoiesis, with the potential of making technology more "living", i.e. adaptive and robust. Requisite Variety, Autopoiesis, and Self-organization Carlos Gershenson Invited keynote at WOSC 2014 http://arxiv.org/abs/1409.7475

//Please forward to whom may be interested.

 The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has an open call for postdoctoral fellowships to start in March, 2015. 

Candidates should have obtained a PhD degree within the last three years and be under 36 years, both to the date of the beginning of the fellowship.

 The area of interests of candidates should fall within complex systems, artificial life, information, evolution, cognition, robotics, and/or philosophy.

 Interested candidates should send CV and a tentative project (1 paragraph) to cgg-at-unam.mx by Monday, June 30th (if starting in September 2014, otherwise in the coming months). Full application package should be ready by Friday, July 4th at noon, Mexico City time.
 Projects can be inspired from:  http://turing.iimas.unam.mx/~cgg/projects.html

  ,  http://froese.wordpress.com/research/  and/or  http://jmsiqueiros.org Postdoctoral fellowships are between one and two years (after...

Aphorisms collection at  http://turing.iimas.unam.mx/~cgg/aforismos.html “Reality: always one step ahead of my most imaginative sarcasms” “The more I travel, the more borders become artificial” *“In science, there are no finished problems, only narrow-minded scientists” “The fact that it has always been that way does not mean that it cannot change” “Since I am finite, I tend to be biased towards speaking only about those things which I have experience with.” “If I say: "I might be wrong", I cannot be wrong” *“If you do not have the right perspective to see the rainbow, it does not imply that the rainbow is not there.” *“One can warmonger interpreting a religious or a scientific text.  One can peacemonger interpreting a religious or a scientific text.  What is more important: the text or the purpose of the interpretation?” “It is difficult to gain new knowledge without first questioning current knowledge” “Remember that you are always setting an example. Do things as yo...

Upshot : The limitations of materialism for studying cognition have motivated alternative epistemologies based on information and computation. I argue that these alternatives are also inherently limited and that these limits can only be overcome by considering materialism, info-computationalism, and cognition at the same time. Open peer commentary on the article “ Info-computational Constructivism and Cognition ” by Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic. Gershenson C. (2014) Info-computationalism or Materialism? Neither and Both. Constructivist Foundations 9(2) : 241–242. Available at  http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/journal/9/2/241.gershenson

In recent years, we have heard more and more about complexity. However, it seems that given the increasing discourse divergence on this topic, instead of generating knowledge we are generating confusion. This paper offers a perspective to speak clearly about complexity from an epistemological point of view. En años recientes hemos escuchado hablar más y más sobre complejidad. Pero pareciera que al haber una diversidad creciente de discursos sobre el tema, en lugar de generar conocimiento estamos generando confusión. En este artículo se ofrece una perspectiva para hablar claramente sobre la complejidad desde un punto de vista epistemológico. En els últims anys s'ha sentit parlar cada cop més de complexitat. Tot i això, com que hi ha una diversitat creixent de discursos sobre aquest tema, en lloc de generar coneixement, estem generant confusió. En aquest article s'ofereix una perspectiva per parlar clarament sobre complexitat des d'un punt de vista epistemològic. Gershe...

This chapter reviews the purpose and use of models from the field of complex systems and, in particular, the implications of trying to use models to understand or make decisions within complex situations, such as policy makers usually face. A discussion of the different dimensions one can formalise situations, the different purposes for models and the different kinds of relationship they can have with the policy making process, is followed by an examination of the compromises forced by the complexity of the target issues. Several modelling approaches from complexity science are briefly described, with notes as to their abilities and limitations. These approaches include system dynamics, network theory, information theory, cellular automata, and agent-based modelling. Some examples of policy models are presented and discussed in the context of the previous analysis. Finally we conclude by outlining some of the major pitfalls facing those wishing to use such models for policy evaluation....

Last week Coursera , the leading MOOC (massive open online course) initiative, announced 29 new partners, including UNAM , which will start the partnership giving  three courses in Spanish . I have the privilege to teach one of these, on Scientific Thinking . You can already sign up , course begins on May 6th. In less than a week, almost 2500 students have enrolled.

Gershenson, C. (2013). Facing complexity: Predition vs. adaptation . In A. Massip and A. Bastardas (eds),  Complexity Perspectives on Language, Communication and Society . One of the presuppositions of science since the times of Galileo, Newton, Laplace, and Descartes has been the predictability of the world. This idea has strongly influenced scientific and technological models. However, in recent decades, chaos and complexity have shown that not every phenomenon is predictable, even if it is deterministic. If a problem space is predictable, in theory we can find a solution via optimization. Nevertheless, if a problem space is not predictable, or it changes too fast, very probably optimization will offer obsolete solutions. This occurs often when the immediate solution affects the problem itself. An alternative is found in adaptation. An adaptive system will be able to find by itself new solutions for unforeseen situations.

From today's seminar [in Spanish] Your browser does not support iframes. http://bambuser.com/v/3140519 Based on: Gershenson, C. (In Press) The Implications of Interactions for Science and Philosophy. Foundations of Science. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10699-012-9305-8

Reductionism has dominated science and philosophy for centuries. Complexity has recently shown that interactions—which reductionism neglects—are relevant for understanding phenomena. When interactions are considered, reductionism becomes limited in several aspects. In this paper, I argue that interactions imply nonreductionism, non-materialism, non-predictability, non-Platonism, and non-Nihilism. As alternatives to each of these, holism, informism, adaptation, contextuality, and meaningfulness are put forward, respectively. A worldview that includes interactions not only describes better our world, but can help to solve many open scientific, philosophical, and social problems caused by implications of reductionism. The Implications of Interactions for Science and Philosophy Carlos Gershenson FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE 2012,  DOI:   10.1007/s10699-012-9305-8 Update 2013-12-09 Finally got its volume number: Foundations of Science November 2013, Volume 18, Issue 4, p...

Butterflies have four wings. Can they fly with only two? This question arose this week. My wife and daughter had picked up a butterfly cocoon to see how the butterfly emerged and later free her. But our naughty/lovely cat bit on the cocoon. So when the butterfly came out, her right wings were damaged. She couldn't fly. Still, to answer the question of this post, if the hind wings are missing, butterflies can fly, their flight is amazingly robust. This is a nice example of how reductionism fails to see the function of systems by ignoring their interactions. You can have two out of four wings, but a butterfly will fly or not, live or die, depending on how the remaining wings interact . Looking only at individual wings will not tell you much about the capabilities of the insect.

This essay explores the limits of Turing machines concerning the modeling of minds and suggests alternatives to go beyond those limits. Gershenson, C. (2011). Are Minds Computable? C3 Tech. Report 2011.08.  http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.3002

1. Law of  Information Transformation . I nformation will potentially be transformed by interacting with other information. 2.  Law of Information Propagation .  Information propagates as fast as possible.  3.  Law of Requisite Complexity . M ore complex information will require more complex agents to perceive, act on, and propagate it. 4.  Law of Information Criticality .  Transforming and propagating information will tend to a critical balance be- tween its stability and its variability. 5.  Law of Information Organization .  Information produces constraints that regulate information production.  6.  Law of Information Self-organization .  Information tends to its preferred, most probable state.  7.  Law of Information Potentiality .  An agent can give different potential meanings to information.  8.  Law of Information Perception .  The meaning of information is unique for an agent percei...

//Please forward to whom may be interested. The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has an open call for postdoctoral fellowships. Candidates should have obtained a PhD degree within the last three years and be under 36 years, both to the date of the beginning of the fellowship. In previous years, there has been a 50% acceptance rate. Candidates are evaluated mainly by their number of papers published in ISI-indexed journals. The area of interests of candidates should fall within complex systems, artificial life, information, evolution, cognition, robotics, and/or philosophy. Interested candidates should send CV and a tentative project (1 paragraph) to cgg-at-unam.mx Projects can be inspired from: http://turing.iimas.unam.mx/~cgg/projects.html Postdoctoral fellowships are between one and three years (renewing each year). Spanish is not a requisite. Accepted candidates would be working at the Computer Science Department of the IIMAS ( http://turing.iimas.unam.mx...

Gershenson, C. (2011). The Implications of Interactions for Science and Philosophy . C3 Report 2011.04. Abstract : Reductionism has dominated science and philosophy for centuries. Complexity has recently shown that interactions---which reductionism neglects---are relevant for understanding phenomena. When interactions are considered, reductionism becomes limited in several aspects. In this paper, I argue that interactions imply non-reductionism, non-materialism, non-predictability, non-Platonism, and non-nihilism. As alternatives to each of these, holism, informism, adaptation, contextuality, and meaningfulness are put forward, respectively. A worldview that includes interactions not only describes better our world, but can help to solve many open scientific, philosophical, and social problems caused by implications of reductionism. Full text : http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.2827

The proceedings of ICCS2007 will be published soon, I believe that as a volume in the Springer "Understanding Complex Systems" series. With this excuse, I updated this paper with three more laws of information, two new classifications, and further discussions. Any feedback is more than welcome. Gershenson, C. (In Press). The World as Evolving Information. To be published in Proceedings of ICCS 2007. Abstract : This paper discusses the benefits of describing the world as information, especially in the study of the evolution of life and cognition. Traditional studies encounter problems because it is difficult to describe life and cognition in terms of matter and energy, since their laws are valid only at the physical scale. However, if matter and energy, as well as life and cognition, are described in terms of information, evolution can be described consistently as information becoming more complex. The paper presents eight tentative laws of information, valid at multiple ...

Today Lama Jampa visited our sangha , giving several teachings. He mentioned (or at least Eduardo translated it that way from Tibetan) that when one is in the state of the Buddha, things are perceived as they really are. Since I had learned from Eduardo that in Buddhism things are composed by object, subject, and action, I did not understand the meaning of Lama Jampa's words, so I asked. My translated summary of what I understood of the translation of Lama Jampa's summary is the following: You cannot really see things (they are in between being, not being, being and being, and not {being and not being}). The phrase "things as they really are" means that one realizes causality and relationships between all things, i.e. that no thing is isolated. I find this very interesting, because this is precisely what the scientific study of complex systems does, as opposed to traditional reductionistic science (since Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Laplace). We study the relevance of...