New papers available on World-Wide Web as "brain-like" system

Francis Heylighen (fheyligh@VNET3.VUB.AC.BE)
Thu, 25 Jan 1996 12:21:04 +0100

We here at the Brussels office of Principia Cybernetica have just finished
our two final papers for the Symposium on "Theories and Metaphors of
Cyberspace" (http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/cybspasy.html) at EMCSR'96. Both
papers describe how the World-Wide Web and global networks in general can
be made to behave in a more "neural" or "brain-like" manner. The first
paper is more broad and theoretical, discussing general implications for
the future on the basis of the theory of Metasystem Transitions. The second
paper describes a set of concrete algorithms for learning Webs and the
results of an experiment we performed with those algorithms.

The papers will be published with the following references (I am not
completely sure yet whether the publisher of the Proceedings will still be
World Science, like the previous conferences), and are available on the Web
at the following URLs.

1) Heylighen F. & Bollen J. (1996): "The World-Wide Web as a Super-Brain:
from metaphor to model", in: Cybernetics and Systems '96 R. Trappl (ed.),
(World Science, Singapore).

http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/papers/WWWSuperBrain.html

Abstract: If society is viewed as a super-organism, communication networks
play the role of its brain. This metaphor is developed into a model for the
design of a more intelligent global network. The World-Wide Web, through
its distributed hypermedia architecture, functions as an "associative
memory", which may "learn" by the strengthening of frequently used links.
Software agents, exploring the Web through spreading activation, function
as problem-solving "thoughts". Users are integrated into this "super-brain"
through direct man-machine interfaces and the reciprocal exchange of
knowledge between individual and Web.

2) Bollen J. & Heylighen F. (1996): "Algorithms for the self-organisation
of distributed, multi-user networks. Possible application to the future
World Wide Web", in: Cybernetics and Systems '96 R. Trappl (ed.), (World
Science, Singapore).

http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/papers/SelfOrganWWW.html

Abstract: This paper describes our attempts to devise a number of
algorithms that can make distributed hypertext networks such as the World
Wide Web self-organise according to their users' knowledge. A number of
experiments were conducted in which experimental networks of English nouns
were being browsed via the Internet by several thousands of participants.
These experimental networks evolved into a stable state which represented
the participants shared knowledge structure and associations.

________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Francis Heylighen, Systems Researcher fheyligh@vnet3.vub.ac.be
PESP, Free University of Brussels, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel +32-2-6292525; Fax +32-2-6292489; http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html