At 10:09 +0200 28/6/11, Mixel Kiemen wrote:
Dear people,
Sorry for the inconvenience, but the time and place has changed:
Time: Friday, July 1st 10:30-12:30 p.m
To avoid all possible confusion: this starts at 10:30 am (in the
morning, not the evening!)
Place: This week the seminar will take place in the usual place B0.036
Kind regards,
Mixel
On 28 Jun 2011, at 02:21, Weaver wrote:
Please distribute to others who may be interested...
You are hereby invited to the next weekly seminar in our
interdisciplinary <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108>series on
Evolution, Complexity and Cognition (ECCO).
Time: Friday, July 1st 14:00-16:00 p.m
(note: this year, all seminars take place on Fridays, 14-16 pm,
unless announced otherwise)
Place: This week the seminar will take place in CLEA upper floor
(not in the usual place !)
Address: ECCO, Center Leo Apostel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel,
Krijgskundestraat 33, B-1160 Brussels
Map and directions can be found <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/30>here
Please come on time !
Technological singularity as the emerging embodiment of the global
brain: how losing degrees of freedom allows us to gain degrees of
freedom
<mailto:[email protected]>Mixel Kiemen (ECCO, VUB)
Abstract:
The concept of the global brain has been around for more than
fifteen years and much has changed in that period. The global brain
has been used as a methodical description of how the Internet is
interconnecting people into a higher-order living system. In this
presentation we relate the global brain to the technological
singularity. The singularity is a projection of the acceleration of
technology that seemingly will lead to an asymptotical point around
2045, at which point predictions about technology become
unpredictable. Our hypothesis is that the singularity is a point of
closure for a meta-system transition that will embody the global
brain.
The technological acceleration has a feature of scale. While at
first things could be constructed on a smaller scale, we see a
tendency to build things that normally require centuries to evolve.
This is part of a feature we call mobilization. Mobilization is
related to the innovation with-and-about people, organization and
technology. In this process of increased mobilization we are
entwining ourselves with technology so that it becomes impossible
to survive without it.
We shall argue that the closure of the global living system is not
a reduction of our humanity but just an amplification of our
humanity: it is bringing the best out of people. It will be
illustrated by cases and this is why people happily embrace a
reduction of independence, as to become part of the global body.
Another pattern is recognized. What cells are for a multicellular
being seems the same as what cities are becoming for our global
living system. This transformation makes us question whether our
view of the evolution of life may not need an update. In particular
we ask if the current building blocks may have evolved under a
pressure of "more with less". Basically a bootstrapping logic is
needed to understand evolution. By learning more from the current
meta-system transformation - the global living system and its
cities - an understand may emerge that could help us understand
prior major transitions in life.
More info about the ECCO seminar
program:<http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108>
http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108
--
Francis Heylighen
Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group
Free University of Brussels
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
