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Manhood of Humanity. the Science and Art of Human Engineering
... These critical views include all kinds of maps and design artefacts (Debord, 1958;Greenfield, 2009;Wood, 2003Wood, , 2013 since all of them impact our actions, energies, patterns and flows (Korzybski, 1921;Morris and Voyce, 2015), like roads segregating cityscapes. Critical cartography sees maps as both manufacturing and mimicking reality (Crampton and Krygier, 2006;Pickles, 2004). ...
... It sees map makers as ethically responsible for the effects of their maps (Harley, 1990) and vitally explains the dominance of seemingly neutral scientific maps as being biased and often partisan interventions, serving private and state interests (Pickles, 1991;Lacoste, 1976;Smith, 1992). It urges critical reflection that territory, being the real world, can never be represented by any map (Korzybski, 1921), since all maps contain boundaries of what we include, exclude and entail via our biases (Korzybski, 1921;Greenfield, 2009). In the systemic sciences this is called boundary conditions, applicable to physical and metaphysical boundaries, and raises a range of empathetic implications needed to roll back inequalities. ...
... It sees map makers as ethically responsible for the effects of their maps (Harley, 1990) and vitally explains the dominance of seemingly neutral scientific maps as being biased and often partisan interventions, serving private and state interests (Pickles, 1991;Lacoste, 1976;Smith, 1992). It urges critical reflection that territory, being the real world, can never be represented by any map (Korzybski, 1921), since all maps contain boundaries of what we include, exclude and entail via our biases (Korzybski, 1921;Greenfield, 2009). In the systemic sciences this is called boundary conditions, applicable to physical and metaphysical boundaries, and raises a range of empathetic implications needed to roll back inequalities. ...
The book serves as basic text to an Applied Complexity Science course offered at the University of Cape Town. It provides insights on the systems sciences, how we practice it to a degree, and the reflexivity that compels ongoing improvement
... "(…) las condiciones de la obtención de un medio de vida influyen y dan forma a todos nuestros procesos y actividades mentales, la calidad y la forma de la interrelación humana." (Korzybski, 1921). ...
... Cuando Korzybski se refiere a la ingeniería humana, se refiere a una mejor comprensión de significados relativos, obtener un nuevo conocimiento y saber ejecutar para desempeñarse mejor en asuntos de la vida diaria y con conducta ética, "(…) porque el hombre es un ser natural, la mente del hombre es una agencia natural, y los resultados del pensamiento riguroso, lejos de ser ficciones artificiales, son hechos naturales: revelaciones naturales de la ley natural" (Korzybski, 1921). ...
... El conocimiento es considerado como riqueza, epistemológicamente dinámico y abierto, dirigido por el cerebro humano, partiendo "(…) del trabajo intelectual de la observación, experimentación, imaginación, deducción e invención (…)" (Korzybski, 1921), de acuerdo a la vinculación del tiempo, teniendo en cuenta que cuando no se usa las palabras adecuadas, se pierde la riqueza y cantidad de trabajo mental. ...
Alfred Korzybski, identifica la capacidad de transmisión de conocimiento de unas
generaciones a otras, tuvo influencia en distintos campos de las ciencias. Una de las
concepciones que busca la humanidad, son las formas de representación mediante el
lenguaje, conforma la llamada Ingeniería Humana; es por esta razón que cuando existe
ideas o actividades erróneas produce resultados erróneos o impredecibles desde su
epistemología. Creó la semántica general, cuyo tema fundamental se centró en la
capacidad de abstracción en el ser humano, se puede entrenar con técnicas, que sirve
para la lectura y escritura. Propone la “Teoría espiral” acerca de la energía vinculante en
el tiempo. Es una aplicación en este caso contextual a la lectura y escritura, para producir
transformaciones. Conlleva al desarrollo de la abstracción. Según un informe de
indicadores de lectura de la Cerlalc, Ecuador tiene un 43% de población lectora, frente
al 92% en España o al 77% en Colombia. El promedio de la lectura de los ecuatorianos,
de medio libro por año, se identifica como un indicador de bajo nivel. Si bien es cierto,
los ecuatorianos deberían emprender programas de lectura y escritura en todas las
universidades del país. En cuanto a los diálogos de los docentes de que los estudiantes
no leen, se convierte en una expresión yuxtapuesta, claro está que el nivel bajo de
lectura en Ecuador, implica una cuestión sociocultural e histórica, porque demuestra a
su vez un espejismo de que no todos los docentes tienen un alto nivel de lectura y
escritura en Ecuador.
Alfred Korzybski, identified the ability to transmit knowledge from one generation to
another, influencing in different fields of science. One of the conceptions that humanity
seeks is the forms of representation through language, which forms the so-called Human
Engineering; that is why when there are erroneous ideas or activities it produces
erroneous or unpredictable results from its epistemology; created the general semantics,
whose fundamental theme focused on the ability of abstraction in the human being, you
can train with techniques, which serves for reading and writing. Proposes, the "Spiral
theory" about the binding energy in time, is an application in this case contextual to
reading and writing, to produce transformations. It leads to the development of
abstraction. According to a report of reading indicators of Cerlalc, Ecuador has a 43%
reading population, compared to 92% in Spain or 77% in Colombia. The average of the
reading of the Ecuadorians, of half a book per year, is identified as a low level indicator,
although it is true; Ecuadorians should undertake reading and writing programs in all
the universities of the country. As for the teachers' dialogues that the students do not
read, it becomes a juxtaposed expression, of course the low level of reading in Ecuador
implies a sociocultural and historical question, because it also demonstrates a mirage
that does not all teachers have a high level of reading and writing in Ecuador.
... In order to understand how exponential growth laws apply to systems, such as the AI systems which are the focus of this paper, or societies which we mention only in passing, we remind the reader that technological and knowledge progress at an exponential growth as highlighted in the references (pg. 73 of [Korzybski, 1921], and [Swanson, 2020]). ...
... Korzybski argues that what is currently limiting humanity's advancement is the general lack of understanding of how our own abstracting mechanisms work[Korzybski, 1949]. He considers mankind to currently be in the childhood of humanity and the day, if it should come, that humanity becomes generally aware of the metamodel, is the day humanity enters into the "manhood of humanity"[Korzybski, 1921] ...
This paper introduces a new metamodel-based knowledge representation that significantly improves autonomous learning and adaptation. While interest in hybrid machine learning / symbolic AI systems leveraging, for example, reasoning and knowledge graphs, is gaining popularity, we find there remains a need for both a clear definition of knowledge and a metamodel to guide the creation and manipulation of knowledge. Some of the benefits of the metamodel we introduce in this paper include a solution to the symbol grounding problem, cumulative learning, and federated learning. We have applied the metamodel to problems ranging from time series analysis, computer vision, and natural language understanding and have found that the metamodel enables a wide variety of learning mechanisms ranging from machine learning, to graph network analysis and learning by reasoning engines to interoperate in a highly synergistic way. Our metamodel-based projects have consistently exhibited unprecedented accuracy, performance , and ability to generalize. This paper is inspired by the state-of-the-art approaches to AGI, recent AGI-aspiring work, the granular computing community, as well as Alfred Korzybski's general semantics. One surprising consequence of the metamodel is that it not only enables a new level of autonomous learning and optimal functioning for machine intelligences, but may also shed light on a path to better understanding how to improve human cognition.
... In order to understand how exponential growth laws apply to systems, such as the AI systems which are the focus of this paper, or societies which we mention only in passing, we remind the reader that technological and knowledge progress at an exponential growth as highlighted in the references (pg. 73 of [Korzybski, 1921], and [Swanson, 2020]). ...
... Korzybski argues that what is currently limiting humanity's advancement is the general lack of understanding of how our own abstracting mechanisms work[Korzybski, 1949]. He considers mankind to currently be in the childhood of humanity and the day, if it should come, that humanity becomes generally aware of the metamodel, is the day humanity enters into the "manhood of humanity"[Korzybski, 1921] ...
This paper introduces a new metamodel-based knowledge representation that significantly improves autonomous learning and adaptation. While interest in hybrid machine learning / symbolic AI systems leveraging, for example, reasoning and knowledge graphs, is gaining popularity, we find there remains a need for both a clear definition of knowledge and a metamodel to guide the creation and manipulation of knowledge. Some of the benefits of the metamodel we introduce in this paper include a solution to the symbol grounding problem, cumulative learning, and federated learning. We have applied the metamodel to problems ranging from time series analysis, computer vision, and natural language understanding and have found that the metamodel enables a wide variety of learning mechanisms ranging from machine learning, to graph network analysis and learning by reasoning engines to interoperate in a highly synergistic way. Our metamodel-based projects have consistently exhibited unprecedented accuracy, performance, and ability to generalize. This paper is inspired by the state-of-the-art approaches to AGI, recent AGI-aspiring work, the granular computing community, as well as Alfred Korzybski's general semantics. One surprising consequence of the metamodel is that it not only enables a new level of autonomous learning and optimal functioning for machine intelligences, but may also shed light on a path to better understanding how to improve human cognition.
... A further epistemological comparison that both bridges and distinguishes the three models is the explicit grounding of both LTE and CPT in the theory of general semantics (Korzybski, 1921Korzybski, , 1933 ) and its assumption that human beings live in a neurolinguistic and neuro-semantic environment that clearly does not map onto the " real " world. Interestingly, however, the two approaches draw sharply different practice implications from this insight. ...
... In comparison, LTE typically requires only a record of thoughts and emotions in specific situations with the aim of identifying the main intensional orientation of the client, although linguistic assignments (applying out of session LTE techniques) differentiate somewhat across the course of treatment. This follows from a key assumption of general semantics (Korzybski, 1921), that human beings function as a whole, and accordingly that a fundamental change in linguistic orientation encourages patients to behave in different ways and to resolve previously avoided or difficult situations. Therefore, from the LTE perspective there is no need to involve patients in specific behavioral tasks and role- playing. ...
Cognitive therapy, linguistic therapy of evaluation, and constructivist psychotherapy display prominent points of both convergence and divergence at conceptual and practical levels. This article considers these comparisons and contrasts, focusing on their respective positions regarding their meta-theoretical models of human beings, science, and epistemology, as well as key aspects of their therapeutic stance, style, and strategic preferences. The resulting analysis suggests that these three contemporary approaches to cognitive therapy make distinctive contributions to clinical practice, adding to the richness of the field in different ways.
... System-2 uses conscious attention to request subsymbolic knowledge and sensory data from System-1, to be integrated into the levels of abstraction inspired from Korzybski's work. Korzybski's two major works (Korzybski, 1921(Korzybski, , 1994 emphasize the importance of bottom-up knowledge. The corticothalamic and thalamocortical connections play different but complementary roles. ...
A cognitive architecture aimed at cumulative learning must provide the necessary information and control structures to allow agents to learn incrementally and autonomously from their experience. This involves managing an agent's goals as well as continuously relating sensory information to these in its perception-cognition information processing stack. The more varied the environment of a learning agent is, the more general and flexible must be these mechanisms to handle a wider variety of relevant patterns, tasks, and goal structures. While many researchers agree that information at different levels of abstraction likely differs in its makeup and structure and processing mechanisms, agreement on the particulars of such differences is not generally shared in the research community. A dual processing architecture (often referred to as System-1 and System-2) has been proposed as a model of cognitive processing, and they are often considered as responsible for low- and high-level information, respectively. We posit that cognition is not binary in this way and that knowledge at any level of abstraction involves what we refer to as neurosymbolic information, meaning that data at both high and low levels must contain both symbolic and subsymbolic information. Further, we argue that the main differentiating factor between the processing of high and low levels of data abstraction can be largely attributed to the nature of the involved attention mechanisms. We describe the key arguments behind this view and review relevant evidence from the literature.
... System-2 uses conscious attention to request subsymbolic knowledge and sensory data from System-1, to be integrated into the levels of abstraction inspired from Korzybski's work. Korzybski's two major works (Korzybski, 1921;Korzybski, 1994) emphasize the importance of bottom-up knowledge. The corticothalamic and thalamocortical connections play different but complementary roles. ...
A cognitive architecture aimed at cumulative learning must provide the necessary information and control structures to allow agents to learn incrementally and autonomously from their experience. This involves managing an agent's goals as well as continuously relating sensory information to these in its perception-cognition information stack. The more varied the environment of a learning agent is, the more general and flexible must be these mechanisms to handle a wider variety of relevant patterns, tasks, and goal structures. While many researchers agree that information at different levels of abstraction likely differs in its makeup and structure and processing mechanisms, agreement on the particulars of such differences is not generally shared in the research community. A binary processing architecture (often referred to as System-1 and System-2) has been proposed as a model of cognitive processing for low- and high-level information, respectively. We posit that cognition is not binary in this way and that knowledge at any level of abstraction involves what we refer to as neurosymbolic information, meaning that data at both high and low levels must contain both symbolic and subsymbolic information. Further, we argue that the main differentiating factor between the processing of high and low levels of data abstraction can be largely attributed to the nature of the involved attention mechanisms. We describe the key arguments behind this view and review relevant evidence from the literature.
... In [general semantics] Korzybski argues that what is currently limiting humanity's advancement is the general lack of understanding of how our own abstracting mechanisms work. He considered mankind to currently be in the childhood of humanity and the day, if it should come, that humanity becomes generally aware of the metamodel, is the day humanity enters into the "manhood of humanity"[20] ...
Can artificial intelligence systems exhibit superhuman general intelligence, but in critical ways, lack the "intelligence" (i.e. the ability to adapt to the environment under limited knowledge and resources) of a simple worm, or single-celled organism? The answer is clearly 'yes' for narrow AI systems. Moreover, artificial general intelligence ("AGI") systems designed to address a wide variety of problems can also learn from the simplest living organisms. For example, worms rapidly learn to reliably avoid electrical shocks and to move towards food. Single-celled organisms and even plants also exhibit similar behaviors. It has been shown that all living organisms and some lifeless cytoplasm-like electro-colloidal substances naturally implement a physical metamodel of the world. The DFRE metamodel exhibits some important fundamental knowledge preserving properties such as clear distinctions between symmetric and antisymmetric relations, while differentiating and storing knowledge at different levels of abstraction. In this paper, we introduce the DFRE metamodel, which incorporates these capabilities, and demonstrate how this approach benefits AGI in specific ways such as managing combinatorial explosion, enabling cumulative, distributed and federated learning. We posit that preserving the structure of knowledge is critical for higher intelligences that manage increasingly higher levels of abstraction, be they human or artificial. This is the key lesson learned from applying AGI subsystems to complex real-world problems that require continuous learning and adaptation. This work is inspired by the state-of-the-art approaches to AGI championed by Pei Wang, Kristinn Thorisson, Ben Goertzel, the granular computing community, as well as Alfred Korzybski's general semantics.
... In [general semantics] Korzybski argues that what is currently limiting humanity's advancement is the general lack of understanding of how our own abstracting mechanisms work. He considered mankind to currently be in the childhood of humanity and the day, if it should come, that humanity becomes generally aware of the metamodel, is the day humanity enters into the "manhood of humanity"[20] ...
Can artificial intelligence systems exhibit superhuman performance, but in critical ways, lack the intelligence of even a single-celled organism? The answer is clearly ‘yes’ for narrow AI systems. Animals, plants, and even single-celled organisms learn to reliably avoid danger and move towards food. This is accomplished via a physical knowledgepreserving metamodel that autonomously generates useful models of the world. We posit that preserving the structure of knowledge is critical for higher intelligences that manage increasingly higher levels of abstraction, be they human or artificial. This is the key lesson learned from applying AGI subsystems to complex real-world problems that require continuous learning and adaptation. In this paper, we introduce the Deep Fusion Reasoning Engine (DFRE), which implements a knowledge-preserving metamodel and framework for constructing applied AGI systems. The DFRE metamodel exhibits some important fundamental knowledge preserving properties such as clear distinctions between symmetric and antisymmetric relations, and the ability to create a hierarchical knowledge representation that clearly delineates between levels of abstraction. The DFRE metamodel, which incorporates these capabilities, demonstrates how this approach benefits AGI in specific ways such as managing combinatorial explosion and enabling cumulative, distributed and federated learning. Our experiments show that the proposed framework achieves 94% accuracy on average on unsupervised object detection and recognition. This work is inspired by the state-of-the-art approaches to AGI, recent AGI-aspiring work, the granular computing community, as well as Alfred Korzybski’s general semantics.
... Van Vogt (Konstantinou 2014), and of course Burroughs who, in The Electronic Revolution, discusses Korzybski's (1921) theory of time binding (i.e. through writing, humans can maintain information across time) before postulating that language, and especially the written word, is a virus: ...
This article proposes a biosemiotic reading of William S. Burroughs’ The Wild Boys – A Book of the Dead (1971), showing how literature, by cutting up narrative structures and syntactical units, can fight the language virus’ configuring of human vitality, just like bacteria uses CRISPR-Cas9 to cut-up the DNA code-chains of threatening viruses. We will see that, supported by the shared biosemiosic nature of literary texts and biological forms, this parallel extends beyond the metaphorical to reinsert literature within the realm of living processes.
... Making sense of our leadership challenges and crafting solutions is a linguistic process. Alfred Korzybski, a Polish engineer and philosopher, maintained that our ability to solve complex challenges is limited by the architecture of our brain and the structure of our languages (Korzybski, 2008;Korzybski, 1995;Korzybski, 1990). He wondered why structures built by engineers rarely collapse and, if they do, the underlying defect can be uncovered, whereas social systems (health care systems, economies, governments) not infrequently collapse but the basic defect is often unclear. ...
... The notion that doubting everything, just as accepting everything, are two sides of the same coin that represents ineffective thinking, is highlighted elsewhere (see Korzybski, 2003).Table 3, below, is representative. ...
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The effectiveness of a research methods course on the scientific thinking skills of a group of second year psychology students was recently reported on by Kagee, Allie and Lesch (2010). As part of this study they developed an instrument, The Scientific in Psychology Scale, comprising 11 questions each of which required (a) the endorsement of one of two binary choices and (b) a written explanation detailing the reasons for the choice. However, their findings were based only a statistical analysis of (a) which allowed for a comparison between a control group and an experimental group as a whole. The present study aims to characterize the patterns of thinking at a more detailed level, by analysing the qualitative data for one of the questions. To this end, an alphanumeric scheme was devised to code the data for the two groups mentioned; namely, first year psychology students who comprised the control group, and second year psychology students who comprised the experimental group. The coding was performed at a fine-grained level from which broader categories were constructed. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: 'n Verslag oor die effektiwiteit van ʼn navorsingsmetodiek kursus op die wetenskaplike denkvaardighede van ʼn groep tweedejaar sielkunde studente, was onlangs waargeneem deur Kagee, Allie en Lesch (2010). As deel van hierdie studie het hul ʼn instrument ontwikkel, Die Wetenskaplik Denking in Sielkunde Skaal, wat bestaan uit 11 vrae wat elk ʼn (a) borg van een of twee binêre keuses en (b) ʼn geskrewe verduideliking wat die redes vir die besluit, omskryf. Hul bevindings was egter net gegrond op ʼn statistiese analise van (a) wat toegelaat het vir ʼn vergelyking tussen ʼn kontrole groep en eksperimentele groep as geheel. Hierdie studie beoog om die patrone van denke op ʼn meer gedetaileerde vlak te karakteriseer, deur analise van kwalitatiewe data van een van die vrae. Ten einde dit te bereik, is ʼn alfanumeriese skema geskep om die data van die twee reedsgenoemde groepe te kodeer; naamlik, eerste jaar studente wat deel gevorm het van die kontrole groep, en tweede jaar studente wat deel gevorm het van die eksperimentele groep. Die kodering was uitgevoer op ʼn hoogs gedetaileerde vlak waaruit wyer kategorieë gekonstrueer is. Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.
... Gemäß Alfred Korzybski (1921) unterscheidet sich der Mensch von Pflanzen und Tieren unter anderem durch seine Eigenschaft als "Zeit-Binder". Diese befähigt ihn, Erfahrung durch die Zeit zu transportieren. ...
According to Alfred Korzybski (1921) humans unlike plants and animals have the property to bind time, i.e. they are able to transfer experience through time. Humans are capable to collenct knowledge from the past and communicate their knowledge to the future. This paper investigates the possibilities and limitations to describe this capability by algorithms and implement it in artificial learning systems.
This article takes a critical look at the phenomenon of fast and junk food from the standpoint of its meanings and why it originated in the first place. It envisions fast and junk food as sign systems with inherent meanings that change and adapt to cultural shifts. In fact, the unusual aspect of fast food and, certainly, of junk food is that they are semiotic artifacts dovetailing with the emergence of consumerist societies, not continuations or evolutions of previous food codes; they symbolize such societies, having become their integral parts, as can be seen throughout pop art and, more generally, pop culture representations. Therefore, they tell an important side-story of the formation of modernity, and its break with the traditions of the past. They emerged to fit in, artifactually, with a society in which amusement, quickness, and facility became paramount at the threshold of the twentieth century. Given the world we now live in, where artifactuality is installing itself more and more, the future of food itself is becoming more and more indistinguishable from the future of such a phenomenon.
The hypothalamus and zona incerta of the brown rat ( Rattus norvegicus ), a model organism important for translational neuroscience research, contain diverse neuronal populations essential for survival, but how these populations are structurally organized as systems remains elusive. With the advent of novel gene-editing technologies, there has been a growing need for high-spatial-resolution maps of rat hypothalamic neurochemical cell types to aid in their functional interrogation by virus-directed cell type-specific gene manipulation or to validate their expression in transgenic lines. Here, we present a draft report describing Chemopleth 1.0 , a chemoarchitecture database for the rat hypothalamus (HY) and zona incerta (ZI), which will eventually feature downloadable interactive maps featuring the census distributions of five immunoreactive neurochemical systems: (1) vasopressin (as detected using its gene co-product, copeptin); (2) neuronal nitric oxide synthase (EC 1.14.13.39); (3) hypocretin 1/orexin A; (4) melanin-concentrating hormone; and (5) alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone. These maps are formatted for the widely used Brain Maps 4.0 (BM4.0) open-access rat brain atlas. Importantly, this dataset retains atlas stereotaxic coordinates that facilitate the precise targeting of the cell bodies and/or axonal fibers of these neurochemical systems, thereby potentially serving to streamline delivery of viral vectors for gene-directed manipulations. The maps will be presented together with novel open-access tools to visualize the data, including a new Python programming language-based workflow to quantify cell positions and fiber densities for BM4.0. The workflow produces heat maps of neurochemical distributions from multiple subjects: 1) isopleth maps that represent consensus distributions independent of underlying atlas boundary conditions, and 2) choropleth maps that provide distribution differences based on cytoarchitectonic boundaries. These multi-subject cartographic representations are produced in Python from exported atlas maps first generated in the Adobe® Illustrator® vector graphics environment, which are then reimported and placed directly into the BM4.0 atlas. The soon-to-be-released files can also be opened using the free vector graphics editor, Inkscape. We also introduce a refined grid-based coordinate system for this dataset, register it with previously published spatial data for the HY and ZI, and introduce FMRS (Frequencies Mapped with Reference to Stereotaxy) , as a new adaptation of long-used ephemeris systems for grid-based annotation of experimental observations. This database, which includes all data described in greater detail in Navarro (2020) and Peru (2020), provides critical spatial targeting information for these neurochemical systems unavailable from mRNA-based maps and allows readers to place their own datasets in register with them. It also provides a space for the continued buildout of a community-driven atlas-based spatial model of rat hypothalamic chemoarchitecture, allowing experimental observations from multiple laboratories to be registered to a common spatial framework.
AI-generated paintings now sell at auction houses for significant money alongside human-created art. They have even been receiving broad critical acclaim. All this has sparked heated debates about the role of AI in the art world and on the nature of visual art and creativity itself. This trend has also raised the same type of questions discussed throughout this book: Is an AI painting a work of true art in the usual sense? What meaning is built into it? How would we interpret it historically and hermeneutically? These are the kinds of questions addressed in this chapter. Like the pop art movement that emerged in the late 1940s, AI art challenges us to penetrate the raison d’être of art itself and why it even exists in human life. Walter Benjamin formulated his famous notion of the “aura” in the 1930s to descry the modern world’s penchant for the mechanical reproduction and mindless mimicry of art forms, claiming that this was part of an ever-growing profane democratization of art, leading to the loss of the notions of originality and authenticity. If AI artworks are now being appreciated like human-created ones, with little distinction, where is the aura? Does it even make sense?
The advent of advanced AI technologies has led to reassessments of the meaning of terms such as intelligence and creativity, given that AI systems now seem capable of creating virtually anything that humans can. AI-generated paintings, songs, films, videos, and ads are spreading throughout the realm of human culture, where they are received largely in a favorable way, even winning awards and going viral on social media—all of which suggests that the lines between human and machine creativity are becoming rather blurry. Advances in technology have always spurred on new artistic trends and genres in pop culture since at least the 1920s. However, never before in history has technology itself been able to create the cultural artifacts virtually by itself. This chapter will discuss the main implications of this watershed event, against the theoretical backdrop of semiotics as a science of meaning-making. Given that AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data from which they can create novel music, visual art, and films, the question of meaning and interpretation comes up constantly, as do the concepts of authenticity and authorship. We are clearly at a monumental crossroads, which is impelling us to reconsider our traditional views of creativity, culture, and human uniqueness, as well as what we mean by “popular culture.”
Von einer systematischen Auseinandersetzung mit der Ideengeschichte oder der Entwicklung philosophischer Gedanken, wie sie etwa ein Hochschulstudium vermittelt, kann bei Brinkmann keine Rede sein. Sein Interesse gilt vor allem zwei einflussreichen, wenn auch im akademischen Betrieb nicht kanonisierten Autoren, deren Gemeinsamkeit in ihrer sprachkritischen Haltung liegt: Fritz Mauthner (1849–1923) und Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950).
This article identifies the people Meyer mentions in his article, “Philosophy of Occupation Therapy,” published in Archives of Occupational Therapy (Meyer, 1922c) and critiques the ideas discussed. Because there is no list of references provided within the article itself, the researcher selected the methodology of source criticism to identify the names of individuals appearing in the text—locating each person’s publications and analyzing the publications for influential ideas. Twenty-one names were found and publications were located for 15. Ideas were identified and analyzed. Finally, Meyer’s ideas were compared to current models of practice and a proposed reference list was created.
p>Departing from the biological notion of ecology that pertains to mutual relationships between organisms and their environments, this paper discusses theoretical foundations of research on the nature of human mind in relation to knowledge, cognition and communication conducted in a broader context of social sciences. It exposes the view, explicitly formulated by Gregory Bateson, that the mind is the way in which ideas are created, or just the systemic device for transmitting information in the world of all living species. In consequence, some crucial points of Bateson’s reasoning are accentuated, such as the recognition of the biological unity of organism and environment, the conviction of the necessity to study the ecology in terms of the economics of energy and material and/or the economy of information, the belief that consciousness distorts information coming to the organism from the inside and outside, which is the cause of its functional disadaptation, and the like. The conception of the ecology of an overall mind, as the sets of ideas, notions or thoughts in the whole world, is presented against the background of theoretical and empirical achievements of botany and zoology, anthropology, ethology and psychiatry, sociology and communication studies in connection with the development of cybernetics, systems theory and information theory.</p
In this presentation, I discussed the need for rethinking the role of socio-technical systems in developing resilience cities. With the examples of natural disasters as well as instances of nonlinear changes in ecological systems, I attempt to propose an interdisciplinary outlook for critical infrastructure systems. This presentation was presented at the university of Bristol, and outcome of my PhD research.
Redefining the discourse toward a “better fit” cultural framework of beliefs, thought, language, and action through ultrasociality, a constructivist meme can help nurture an epistemological break (or rupture) from the traditional objectivist paradigm in education.
Media education and training in Thailand is in a progressive stage. Thai education system and education policy are included in order to enable readers to have a better understanding of the current situation of Thai media education and training. Issues and challenges are also discussed. This main goal is to articulate knowledge from my working experience as a media creator and educator in higher education and in Thailand for seventeen years. I was invited to present this paper in Malaysia by the University of Malaysia in Aug 19, 2014.
1. Background This study presupposes a background, such as that set forth in my recent paper, "Can we Trust our Traditional Language?" In that document, I compare and contrast two collections of abstractions so extensive that we have no common word or standard phrase that captures their magnitude. For lack of a better term, I shall call them frames of reference. As the newer contender, I hold up the alternative frame of reference which I have built on the explicit non-aristotelian premises proposed in 1941 by Alfred Korzybski (1879-1950).
The article is an attempt to describe the ontological basics of Gestalt psychotherapy, both known to authors of Gestalt and unknown, to insight into the problem. Gestalt is inspired by the ancient, the modern and the contemporary philosophy. The ontological principles underlying Gestalt are holism, monism, harmony of opposites, process, cyclicality, present time and the paradoxical theory of change.
Traced sufficiently remotely, all people, profanum vulgus, share a common familial and linguistic heritage. Several Occidental and Oriental religiophilosophical traditions and General Systems (neuro-linguistic/neuro-semantic) Theory propound that resolution of personal illness and intra- and inter-generational psychological conflicts among individuals and within society mandates a figurative, if not a literal return, to the source of conflict or contention-to RE-MEMBER with that source-if healing, peace, resolution, concord, solace, sustenance, and wholeness are to be achieved. Words that communicate effectively, linguistic symbols such as water and the cross, and the action of laying-on-of-hands are methodologies that reaffirm a personal commonality among all traditions and facilitate RE-MEMBRANCE. For those who adhere to the Judeo-Christocentric tradition-who are called and chosen to witness and serve through the sacrament of baptism-healing, support, and sustenance are achieved by RE-MEMBRANCE through the Triune God.
Conventional economic growth theory assumes that technological progress is exogenous and that resource consumption is a consequence, not a cause, of growth. This assumption is built into most, if not all, of the large-scale models used for policy guidance by governments. The reality is probably more complex. A ‘growth engine’ is a positive feedback loop involving declining costs and increasing demand. The neoclassical theory was based on population growth and the traditional savings–investment–capital accumulation mechanism. Solow added an exogenous residual called ‘technical progress’. However, based on both qualitative and quantitative evidence, physical resource flows have been, and still remain, a major factor of production. Yet doubts remain because of the small share of direct payments to energy (and other natural resource) suppliers in the national accounts. This paper shows that the apparent inconsistency between (small) factor payments and the high correlation between physical resource (energy) inputs and outputs can be traced to an often forgotten simplification. The standard neoclassical growth model produces final products directly from labor and capital without allowing any role for consumable intermediates. Correcting for the omission of intermediates by introducing a two-sector or multi-sector production process multiplies the impact of primary resource inputs and accounts for the apparent inconsistency.
Over the past few months, I have most carefully avoided doing anything that might cause people to confuse the National Endowment for the Humanities with the National Endowment for the Arts. As I see it, we in the humanities have a sufficient number of our own disputes, without taking on those that our sister agency generates. So I have been very precise lately about which endowment I am not in charge of as well as which one I do run. But even at the risk of causing some confusion, I want to begin today by talking about art, in particular about a native American form of art that has recently emerged from the Pueblo tradition. This art form began in the early 1960s when a potter from the Cochiti pueblo in New Mexico created the figure of a storyteller. This potter, Helen Cordero, thought of her grandfather as she shaped the clay; and remembering him telling stories to his grandchildren, she molded five smaller figures to go with the larger one, five children to nesde around the storyteller as he told his tales. That first storyteller, and the ones Cordero subsequently created, won much acclaim. Other talented Cochiti potters began creating their own storytellers, as did gifted potters from other pueblos. The entire figurative tradition of Pueblo pottery was revitalized, and storyteller figures became sought after by collectors around the world. As is often true of art, the more one learns about the Pueblo storytellers, the more deeply one appreciates them. But even those who know nothing about the history of these figures find them arresting. No background knowledge is required to look into the faces of the storytellers and see something that is at once mysterious and familiar. Their mouths are usually open, often in a stylized "O." Their eyes are shut or gazing fixedly upward as they perform an amazing feat that we all take for granted: creating other worlds in this one; vivifying times that have passed, people that are gone forever, events that are known only through memory. Meanwhile, some of the children gathered around-and often there are dozens of the small pottery figures-gaze off into space themselves, absorbed in the storyteller's story. But others play with baskets and dogs and baby brothers. Others climb on one another and on the storyteller. Others sleep. It is a scene Lynne V. Cheney is chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20506. This article is adapted from a keynote address given at the second national conference of the National Association of Scholars, held in New York City from June 8 through June 10, 1990.
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