Dear Pedro, Happy New Year to you too. Thank you very much for this interesting reference. Fascinating how many fields converge nowadays!
Based on your mail and without having read the book yet, I have one thought. You say: "3. Thereafter, the coordination dynamics deals with "informational quantities" that transcend the medium through which the parts communicate. The "binding" or coupling is mediated by information and not by conventional forces (or not only)" But isn't that exchange of information carrier the way physical forces conventionally are - exchange forces? Particles that are exchanged in particle physics are information carriers (or "messages" if one so will). Best regards, Gordana ________________________________________________________________________________________ Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic Associate Professor Mälardalen University Sweden School of Innovation, Design and Engineering http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc -----Original Message----- From: fis-boun...@listas.unizar.es [mailto:fis-boun...@listas.unizar.es] On Behalf Of Pedro C. Marijuan Sent: den 15 januari 2009 14:20 To: fis Subject: [Fis] Emerging Synthesis? Dear FIS colleagues, Notwithstanding the delay, Happy New Year to All! Although the year has not started terrificly (there have been negative news regarding the planned conference in Vienna, and also other organizing initiatives seem to be in stand by), it does not mean that things will go necessarily in the wrongway... Well, having a glance on a relatively recent book (2004) about "Coordination Dynamics" edited by V.K. Jirsa and Scott Kelso, it was a surprise finding a short and dense Preface synthesizing the basic tenets of the proposed new field: most contents were related to information (rather than a "science of coordination" one wonders whether they were attempting a new science of Information). I summarize their eight "main ideas" presented in a dense, three pages text: -------------------------------------- 0. The goal of Coordination Dynamics, the science of coordination, is to describe, explain and predict how patterns of coordination form, adapt, persist and change in natural systems.... ultimately how things come together in space and time, and how they split apart. 1. The basic patterns of coordination relate to self-organization processes. 2. Those self-organization processes can be captured by coordination or collective variables that evolve in time: patterns dynamics capable of generating a rich repertoire of behaviors. 3. Thereafter, the coordination dynamics deals with "informational quantities" that transcend the medium through which the parts communicate. The "binding" or coupling is mediated by information and not by conventional forces (or not only) 4. Coordination Dynamics offers an explanation for the origin of meaningful information, beyond the binary digits (bits), by coordinated states, metastability regimes, and coexisting tendencies. 5. It also provide foundations for explaining the biological origins of agency and consciousness: information once created and "stored" can direct, guide and modify the existing coordination dynamics. 6. Information plays a specific and dual role: it may stabilize coordination states under conditions in which they are unstable and susceptible to global change; and it can also destabilize such states in order to fit the need of the organism or the current demands of the situation. 7. Coordination Dynamics offers a way to connect levels of organizations out from the lawful coupling among components: it advocates a philosophy of "constructive reductionism". 8. Ubiquity of Coordination Dynamics: between genes and proteins, within and between different regions of the brain, between an organism and its environment, socially, etc. It offers the intriguing possibility that what we learn about the Coordination Dynamics in one realm may aid in understanding another. ------------------------------------- One can easily disagree with some points, write them differently, or change the focus; but the emerging synthesis looks brave, and has some merit. At least, the impact it is achieving looks remarkable (previous decades of synergetics and other similar fields help a bit). At FIS we have rarely attempted the discussion of a succinct synthesis, and of course not have appended a whole book with related works... it is not a bad idea to keep in mind, maybe just as a New Year proposal. best wishes Pedro ------------------------------------------------ Pedro C. Marijuán Grupo de Bioinformación Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud Avda. Gómez Laguna, 25, Pl. 11ª 50.009 Zaragoza. España Telf: 34 976 71 3526 (& 6818) Fax: 34 976 71 5554 pcmarijuan.i...@aragon.es ------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ fis mailing list fis@listas.unizar.es https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis _______________________________________________ fis mailing list fis@listas.unizar.es https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis