Complexes

Some ideas just came up, after a talk I had with Klaas , who is making a PhD on memetics... In cultural transmission of fads and so on, I've heard that there are models in which the majority imitates an elite, and the elite tries to go away from the crowd, and that gives you the dynamics... The idea is that maybe another way of looking at this phenomenon is to take the analogy of flocking: birds try to keep together (safety, direction, whatever reason), but also keep average distance to their neighbours (not to crash). If we take this mechanism into the memetic space, people will imitate many aspects surrounding them, just because of mirron neurons and the evolutionary advantage of imitation. But the separation is also important, for people assert their individuality with it... This could be seen as taking the inverse of a meme... starting to sounds like dialectics... (who would have thought that Hegel and starlings had lots in common...) Of course in the social context there are m...

Well, apart from the fact that Microsoft software sucks... why.openoffice.org/

"Complexity and Philosophy" Francis Heylighen , Paul Cilliers , and Carlos Gershenson To be published in "Complexity, Science, and Society" (tentative title), edited by Robert Geyer and Jan Bogg, published by Radcliffe press. Abstract : The science of complexity is based on a new way of thinking that stands in sharp contrast to the philosophy underlying Newtonian science, which is based on reductionism, determinism, and objective knowledge. This paper reviews the historical development of this new world view, focusing on its philosophical foundations. Determinism was challenged by quantum mechanics and chaos theory. Systems theory replaced reductionism by a scientifically based holism. Cybernetics and postmodern social science showed that knowledge is intrinsically subjective. These developments are being integrated under the header of "complexity science". Its central paradigm is the multi-agent system. Agents are intrinsically subjective and uncertain ab...

“There is nothing completely new because everything is related to something else. But there is always novelty in anything, since contexts change constantly” “Life is a game complex enough not to be able to always win” “ Life is not meant to be perfect ” “The problem of being unaware is that you are unaware of being unaware” “ Tendencies tend to change ” You can find many more at http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~cgershen/jlagunez/aforismos.html (since 1997)

Just finished the first version of a paper (still needs refining, so any feedback is more than welcome) : Gershenson, C. (2006). Towards Self-organizing Bureaucracies . (ECCO working paper 2006-03) Abstract: This paper proposes self-organization as a method to improve the efficiency and adaptability of bureaucracies and similar social systems. Bureaucracies are described as networks of agents, where the main design principle is to reduce local "friction" to increase local and global "satisfaction". Following this principle, solutions are proposed for improving communication within bureaucracies, sensing public satisfaction, dynamic modification of hierarchies, and contextualization of procedures. Each of these reduces friction between agents (internal or external), increasing the efficiency of bureaucracies. Download pdf

Mixel asked me to make a list of the plugins I use for Firefox to surf the web, so here it goes... First, I'll repeat some advantages it has over other web browsers: It's multiplatform, which is good for a person like me using MacOS, Linux, and Windogs machines... It's open source, meaning not only free, but that enthusiasts can check the code, and easily add their own improvements. Features include: tabbed browsing, search engine box (where you can add searches from hundreds of search tools. I use, among others, Google Scholar, Amazon.com, Yandex.ru, Webster's Dictionary, and Wikipedia... so I can make searches in no time in these sites), and themes (I use iFox , which integrates it nicely with MacOS look and feel) Now, all these are similar to other nice browsers, such as Safari, Galeon, Konqueror, or Netscape. (Notice how IE is not in the list of "nice browsers...." it doesn't even have tabbed browsing!!!). But, what takes Firefox a level above all b...