Post from Rocha on SOC
Cliff Joslyn (cjoslyn@BINGSUNS.CC.BINGHAMTON.EDU)
Tue, 24 Oct 1995 13:20:22 -0400
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>Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 15:22:08 -0500 (CDT)
>From: Luis Rocha <rocha@ssie.binghamton.edu.>
>To: Principia Cybernetica <prncyb-l@bingvmb.cc.binghamton.edu>
>Subject: 2nd Order Cybernetics
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>I further add that even Gordon Pask, a founding father of the second order
>movement, emphasizes that there is NOT a radical switch from first to
>second order cybernetics. He expresses this view in Pask[1992],
>"Different Kinds of Cybernetics" In: New Perspectives on Cybernetics, Ed.
>Gertrudis Van de Vijver. Kluwer. (Don't remember the pages right now...).
>
>Regarding the incorporation of second order cybernetics ideas in AI and
>Alife models, we would have to seprate between those that do so
>explicitely and those who do it implicitely or without knowing that
>there is such a thing as second order cybernetics. I would agree that
>this first group is indeed a minority, I can only remember a few names
>like Pedro Medina-Martins in Lisbon (working with fuzzy logic and
>situated robots), Peter Cariani with his extension of Pask's ideas in
>Artificial Life (see his paper in the second volume of the Alife series).
>I have to admit that in my own models I tend to not be explicit about my
>second order cybernetics background in order not to confuse people (I am
>working with Contextual Genetic Algorithms in Artificial Life).
>
>Then, there are more people in the systems research movement who follow a
>strict contructivist position without using the name second order
>cybernetics, namely, George Klir.
>
>People like Brooks at MIT and also the Sussex people working with
>situated robotics -- a very important branch of Alife -- follow generally
>ideas dear to second order cybernetics. In aprticular the more
>developmentalist oriented are following Piaget's notions on the
>contruction of intelligent situated robots. I don't know how much they
>know about second order cybernetics, but they are actually doing it, even
>if they don't talk about it.
>
>Cheers,
>Luis
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Luis Mateus Rocha (rocha@binghamton.edu)
>
>Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering
>T.J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science
>State University of New York
>Binghamton, NY 13902
>
>Sao Ilhas afortunadas, (They are fortunate islands
>Sao terras sem ter lugar, Unmappable lands,
>Onde o Rei mora esperando. Where the king dwells, waiting.
>Mas, se vamos despertando, But if we start to awake
>Cala a voz, e ha' so' o mar. The voice is silent, and there is
> only the sea.)
>Fernando Pessoa
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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| Cliff Joslyn, NRC Research Associate, Cybernetician at Large
| Mail Code 522.3, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA
| joslyn@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/joslyn 301-286-5773
V All the world is biscuit-shaped. . .