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Flow of thoughts like I want to organize the concepts related to system theory within myself and Want to Organize Concepts around Basic Informatics in My Mind.
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A sense of connection to the discussion of Subjectivity and Objectivity.
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First, let’s gather the ideas mentioned in Words that Create the Future:
- Engelbart
- Neumann vs Wiener
- This diagram is based on Varela’s argument.
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Varela believed that systems based on quantifiable units of information, like the Von Neumann type, are heteronomous. He thought that meaning, value, and rules are “instructed” and “represented” from the outside, not self-generated. Information is precisely compared, and input and output are distinguished.
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On the other hand, Varela considered systems based on Wiener’s envisioned biological epistemology to be autonomous. Here, information, as seen in the perspective of Bateson, is understood as “differences that create differences,” where meaning and rules emerge rather than being predefined. Emergence in such systems means that a certain order arises as a result of the system’s operation, fundamentally unpredictable. In these systems, information relates through loose consistencies like analogies and similarities, creating a specific context for the system.
- Equilibrium and order emerge only when the system is set in motion.
- Automation and Autonomy
- Self-driving cars are “automated.”
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From an ALife perspective, a truly autonomous car is akin to a wild horse. It has its own motivations for survival and reproduction, freely roaming grasslands, grazing, fleeing from wolf packs, and sometimes being captured by nomads to carry humans or goods in exchange for food. Nomads naturally use horses as their tools, but they try to avoid things that horses dislike and consciously do things that make horses happy.
- Laughed (blu3mo)
- Indeed, an autonomous system like this embodies unpredictability.
- Claude
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Von Neumann devised the “Von Neumann architecture,” which forms the basis of modern computers. This architecture stores programs and data in the same memory, processing them sequentially. In this system, computers mechanically process information according to pre-given instructions (programs). In other words, computers passively process information given from the outside, making them “heteronomous” systems.
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On the other hand, Wiener is known as the founder of cybernetics (control theory). Cybernetics studies systems that achieve goals through feedback control. For instance, organisms adapt to their environment by sensing information from it and adjusting their behavior accordingly. Such systems actively acquire and process information based on their own objectives, making them “autonomous” rather than passively processing external information.
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- Claude
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Shannon and Weaver are researchers who laid the foundation for information theory. In 1949, they published a paper on “The Mathematical Theory of Communication,” demonstrating how to quantify information and evaluate the performance of communication systems.
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In the Shannon-Weaver model, information is viewed as being transmitted unidirectionally from the sender to the receiver. In this model, a message emitted from the information source is converted into signals by the transmitter, transmitted through a communication channel, received by the receiver, and ultimately interpreted at the destination. Throughout this process, the message may be distorted by noise.- The model described here can be said to be highly compatible with the Von Neumann type of computer. This is because both perceive information as something that is transmitted unidirectionally from sender to receiver. In a Von Neumann computer, information (instructions and data) is transmitted unidirectionally from memory to the processing unit and mechanically processed.
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- Claude
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On the other hand, Wiener’s cybernetics view information as circulating through feedback loops. This means that information is not transmitted unidirectionally but exchanged bidirectionally between the system and the environment. This perspective contrasts with the Shannon-Weaver model.
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What Valera emphasizes is that the meaning of information is emergently generated depending on the context. This implies that instead of viewing information as being transmitted unidirectionally between sender and receiver like in the Shannon-Weaver model, it should be seen as dynamically generated within the interaction between the system and the environment.
