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 m
