Re: Follow-up to "Evolution of Complexity" Symposium [fwd]

Francis Heylighen (fheyligh@VNET3.VUB.AC.BE)
Mon, 19 Jun 1995 19:49:55 +0100


To: Francis Heylighen <fheyligh@VNET3.vub.ac.be>
From: "Hans-Cees Speel" <HANSS@sepa.tudelft.nl>
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 1995 11:59:21 MET
Subject: Re: Follow-up to "Evolution of Complexity" Symposium
Reply-To: hanss@sepa.tudelft.nl

I send this to the list, and to Francis, if it doesn't reach the list due to
computerproblems, I ask Francis to forward it for me. Hans-Cees

> The "Evolution of Complexity" Symposium, which I chaired (with help
from
> Cliff Joslyn) at the "Einstein meets Magritte" Conference in Brussels,
> ended two weeks ago. However, since I had lots of other things to
do in the
> meantime, I got only now to the point where I can give you some of
my
> impressions. I would appreciate it if other participants would send me
> their impressions (either directly or through PRNCYB-L).

. Most obviously lacking is a general definition of complexity.

> Proceedings with papers by the symposium contributors. The
conference> organizers are presently discussing possibilities with
some international> publishers (Kluwer in the first place).

I think you can call it a succes too. Although it is certain that the
time-limit was severe, and this caused some problems. At least in my
presentation I had a lot of trouble making a point in 20 minutes. I also
had the impression, but I saw that as a general point of the symposium,
that a lot of people underestimated the gap of knowledge between
themselves, and the audience. But that was difficult, because the
audience was very mixed.
I very much enjoyed it though, because there were so many issues
adressed that have my interrest. If there would be a place for papers,
some proceedings of some sort, I would like to participate, if I can find
the time.

Apart from that I feel we adressed second-order cybernetics quit
nicely, and i feel that the question
WHAT IS COMPLEX, OUR UNDERTSANDING, THE SYSTEM, THE MODEL
etc, to formulate it freely, must be more elaborated upon on this list.
I would like to invite Bruce Edmonds to state his very nice
argumentation about this subject he made during the last forum, om this
list so we can discuss it.
Of course I don't know if he is a member of this list, if he would like to
do that, and if his argumentation is already available somewhere in the
pc-project.

Hans-Cees Speel

Theories come and go, the frog stays [F. Jacob]
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