Please distribute to others who may be interested...
You are hereby invited to a seminar in our twelfth interdisciplinary series
on Evolution, Complexity and Cognition <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108>
(ECCO 2016-2017)
<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marjoriikka_Ylisiurua>
Time: Friday April 14, 14h-16h
Place: *room * *D.1.07*, building D, VUB
------------------------------
Deploying CAS within the Urban Fabric: Conceptualizing how partitioning,
stigmergic signaling, and mutability support emergent unfolding
Sharon Wohl
*TU Delft*
Abstract:
Given the growing pervasiveness of digital signals, information regarding
'fit' configurations can now easily be transmitted amongst human and
non-human 'smart' entities. These entities might well include physical
urban elements, ones that could be designed and conceptualized so as to
benefit from the 'wisdom of crowds', feedback, and bottom-up processes.
This work considers how urban elements or features might be designed in
such a way so that they might be activated as Complex Systems. Arguably,
to do so one would need to:
- Design urban features as *agents* ('smart' urban elements that have
the capacity to be mobile and mutable);
- Identify and monitor the resources or *energy* driving the system
(pertaining to how an element is used or activated such that its capacities
'feed' or meet particular urban requirements);
- Consider the nature of links or *information* flows amongst agents,
that steer their behaviour/configuration in space (through sensors/apps and
stigmergic signals).
The author will present a series of projects that demonstrate how, using
these principles, non-linear interactions amongst agents could, in real
time, and in accordance with *feedback* regarding each urban element's
level of activation (and thereby its *fitness*), steer urban configurations
such that fit patterns *emerge*. The projects are predicated upon a
rethinking of how urban infrastructures might be conceived in ways that
permits these to behave more similarly to autonomous agents - conceptions
that involve both a partitioning of large systems into independent
sub-elements (decomposability), as well as incorporating mutability or
mobility within the design of these sub-elements such that new kinds of
behaviours or configurations are enabled. Finally, each sub-element needs
to have the capacity to process information, having the capacity to both
relay and respond to stigmergic signals through 'smart' features.
While not all urban elements are easily conceptualized into such
decomposable and 'agent-like' populations, together the speculative
projects show a range of circumstances whereby such conceptualizations are
feasible and would enable novel, emergent outcomes. The projects build
upon the capacities made possible by pervasive data for *real-time* *and
responsive *decision-making, where user inputs generate immediate signals
regarding element configurations, and these configurations in turn shape
new user patterns/inputs, iteratively generating new data. Here, both the
users of the system and the urban elements comprising the system are
considered as co-evolving agents.
The projects provide provocative illustrations of how 'fit' urban
configurations might viably manifest in the absence of top-down control.
The projects also identify the principles of CAS dynamics requires for such
systems to unfold, principles that can enable these ideas to move from
speculation to implementation. These consider urban elements not to be
passive artifacts, but rather to be physically situated computational
devices that process information regarding user priorities and are able to
both aggregate into meaningful emergent patterns - or partition to provide
variable niches - ultimately responding to a plurality of needs in ways
that remain resilient to evolving circumstances.
------------------------------
Upcoming Seminars
*April 21st*
Tjorven Harmsen
Acceptance and Commitment Theory
*April 28th*
Marta Lenartowicz
United Humanity Ledger as a UN-laid bedrock for the fair, sustainable, and
creative future: A case for a global existential opportunity investment
*May 5th*
Orion Maxted
THE MACHINE (pt. 2)
See also the ECCO/GBI calendar
<https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=azMyN252aWluM2JoMnU3MXY5OGt2ZzliOGdAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ>
.
You can add this calendar to your calendar application through here
<https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/k327nviin3bh2u71v98kvg9b8g%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics>
More info about the ECCO seminar program: http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108
<http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108>
--
Cadell
ECCO Group (VUB) <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/1>
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://cadelllast.com
