*Please distribute to others who may be interested...* You are hereby invited to the next weekly seminar in our interdisciplinary series on Evolution, Complexity and Cognition<http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108>(ECCO) and theGlobal Brain Institute<http://www.globalbraininstitute.org/>(GBI).
*Time*:* Friday, May 17th, *14:00-16:00 p.m *Place*: *Room D.1.07 <----- NOTICE THE CHANGE IN ROOM * (building D, level 1), on the VUB Campus Etterbeek (Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels), Free entrance: everybody welcome! ------------------------------ Foundations for a Mathematical Model of the Global Brain *Francis Heylighen* <http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html>* (GBI,VUB)* Abstract: The present talk will report on the on-going research of the* Global Brain Institute* with the aim of developing a mathematically founded computer simulation of the global brain, and summarize the main results up to now. The global brain can be defined as the* distributed intelligence* emerging from the network of all people on this planet connected via the Internet and related technologies. The present talk proposes the foundations for a mathematical model of the self-organization of such a network towards increasing intelligence. The assumption is that the network becomes increasingly efficient in routing the right information to the right people, so that problems and opportunities can be addressed in the most efficient way possible by coordinating the actions of many people. The network develops by the creation and strengthening of useful connections, and the weakening and eventual elimination of counterproductive connections. People are modeled as* agents* that try to maximize their benefit by processing the* challenges* (problems and/or opportunities) they encounter. Challenges* propagate* from agent to agent across a weighted, directed network, which represents the social connections between these agents. Challenges are defined as the difference between a situation vector, representing a phenomenon as presently experienced by the agent, and the agent's need vector, representing the agent's desired situation. Given that an agent has specific, limited abilities and needs, it will not fully extract the potential benefits present in a challenge while processing it. Therefore, these benefits remain available for other agents who receive the propagated the challenge. The simulation is intended to explore how agents connect to others so as to form synergetic assemblies that extract more benefit together than they could do on their own. The first results of the simulation will be described by Evo Busseniers in the subsequent talk in this series. References: Heylighen F. Challenge Propagation<http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/ChallengePropagation.pdf>: a new paradigm for modeling distributed intelligence (GBI Working Paper 2012-01) Heylighen F., E. Busseniers, V. Veitas, C. Vidal & D. R. Weinbaum. Foundations for a Mathematical Model of the Global Brain<http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/TowardsGB-model.pdf>: architecture, components, and specifications (GBI Working Paper 2012-05) ------------------------------ * Forthcoming ECCO/GBI seminars* *Summer 2013* * May 24 *Evo Busseniers (GBI VUB) Simulating the Global Brain with MATLAB * May 27 (Monday) *Clement Vidal <http://clement.vidal.philosophons.com>(GBI,VUB) TBD * May 31 *Marko Rodriguez <http://markorodriguez.com/> Faunus: Cluster-Oriented Graph Analytics * June 7 *David Garcia Collective Emotions in the Internet Society * June 14 *Pierpaolo Andriani Modular Exaptation - Research policy <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/203> * June 21 *Wolfgang Hofkirchner Global consciousness – the global brain in the perspective of a global sustainable information society * June 28 *Clement Vidal <http://clement.vidal.philosophons.com>(GBI,VUB) Distributing Cognition: from Local Brains to the Global Brain * July 5 * *NO SEMINAR * *July 12 *Marie-Lise Schläppy <[email protected]> (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne) Are all gifted people also highly sensitive? <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/204> More info about the ECCO seminar program: http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108 -- David R. Weinbaum (Weaver) ECCO/GBI Seminar Coordinator Email: [email protected] http://clea.academia.edu/DavidWeinbaum
