We have recently received several inquiries about possibilities to study
for a PhD with Principia Cybernetica people on PCP related themes. For
example, a computer scientist from Israel would like to do research at the
Brussels office of PCP on the idea of a social superorganism/global brain
and its philosophical implications, while an educator from Canada is
interested to study organizational issues in higher education from a
systems theory/evolutionary epistemology perspective. Although it is not
yet clear whether these people will effectively come to work in Brussels,
there are precedents. Liane Gabora from Canada is presently preparing a PhD
on memetics at our Brussels center, while Alex Riegler from Austria is
working here as a PostDoc on constructivist epistemology. Since the same
questions come back in all these inquiries, it is worth summarizing the
possibilities.
There are two main centra for PCP research, the European office, which is
part of the Center "Leo Apostel" (CLEA, see
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CLEA/), at the Free University of Brussels, and
the American office, which is connected to the Distributed Knowledge
Systems Team led by Cliff Joslyn,( http://www.c3.lanl.gov/~joslyn) at Los
Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Since LANL is not a degree granting
institution, it is not officially possible to study there, although there
sometimes are possibilities for short "educational" or "research" stays on
specific projects, such as the "Library without Walls" project, where PCP
assistant editor Johan Bollen is presently working for a 1 year visit.
In Brussels, the situation is more flexible. To get a PhD in Belgium, you
need to fulfill four requirements:
1) have a university degree that is considered equivalent to the Belgian
degree of "licentiate". This will usually mean a Master's, although
sometimes a Bachelor's might be sufficient. If your degree is considered
insufficient, it is possible to get a Master's here. There are some
Master's programs at the VUB in English, e.g. in computer science.
2) find a professor who is willing to be the "promoter" (supervisor) of
your thesis work. For a PhD at the Center "Leo Apostel" (CLEA), this could
be me, Francis Heylighen, or my colleague, Dirk Aerts, the director of the
Center, if we like your proposal. For topics that are not really in our
domain of expertise (e.g. education), it may be possible to find a second,
"co-promoter" in another, more specialised department.
3) pay a (very small) registration fee (about $110) in the year you want to
defend your thesis.
4) when the PhD thesis is written, defend it for a committee of professors
from the VUB, which may include specialists from other institutions. If the
committee accepts the thesis, you get your degree. However, poor PhD work
will probably never make it to the stage where it is defended before a
committee.
There are no other requirements. Making a PhD usually takes between 3 and 6
years. The official language at the VUB is Dutch, but practically everybody
is fluent in English and French, and the whole work can be done in English.
You can take courses during your PhD work, but this is not obligatory. The
emphasis is wholly on the thesis itself.
Grants or scholarships (basically wages for research assistants) for
financial support during the research may or may not be available,
depending on the funding the Center receives for its different research
projects, but this may imply that you have to adapt the topic of your
research to the theme of the project. Particularly bright students from EU
countries can directly apply to the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research
for a 4 year scholarschip, without constraint on the topic. Costs for
living in Brussels are generally low, both for renting apartments and for
food. The university provides extensive medical, social and other services
for its students, for little or no fee.
NEWS IN BRIEF
The present newsletter has finally been officialized! It now has its proper
web page at http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/PCP-NEWS.html. It also has received an
ISSN number: 1374-2876.
Johan Bollen has moved from Brussels to Los Alamos. His new coordinates
are: E-mail: jbollen@lanl.gov, URL: http://ivanhoe.lanl.gov/johan/
The grant money that was being used to pay Johan while he worked in
Brussels will now be used to support Alex Riegler, another PCP assistant
editor, and Didier Durlinger, who supports the computer network at CLEA.
CLEA has now become the main center where the interdisciplinary journal
"Foundations of Science" (http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/FOS/), published by
Kluwer Academic, is prepared. Editor-in-chief is CLEA's director Dirk
Aerts, assistant editors are CLEA members Liane Gabora and Jan Broeckaert.
Although not officially associated with PCP, this journals covers many of
the same fundamental issues, and it is certainly worth your consideration
for publishing papers or special issues on PCP related themes. PCP
assistant editor Alex Riegler has already started to prepare a special
issue on constructivism.
Another, new, journal worth mentioning is "Entropy: An International and
Interdisciplinary Journal of Entropy and Information Studies". PCP editor
Francis Heylighen has joined its editorial board.
The two research proposals mentioned in the previous newsletter:
"Collective Knowledge Development: elaboration of a theoretical model with
applications on the
World-Wide Web" and "Distributed Knowledge Structuring Systems" have been
submitted, respectively to the Belgian National Fund for Scientific
Research and DARPA. The latter proposal is also being adapted to be
submitted to the NSF. If these proposals are accepted, they will create two
or three new positions for researchers at CLEA.
The mirror of PCP-Web at LANL is nearing completion, as is the web edition
of Ashby's "Introduction to Cybernetics" (it always takes much more time
than expected ;-). Some other cybernetics and systems books are being
considered for electronic publication on PCP-Web. Thus, we hope to create a
real Principia Cybernetica "library" on the web!
WHAT'S NEW IN PCP WEB
The following nodes in Principia Cybernetica Web have been newly created or
undergone editing. Note especially a new collection of nodes on
mathematical models of evolution by our Russian contributor Vladimir
Red'ko. All documents are available via http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/RECENT.html
* Feb 19, 1999: The Future of Evolution (updated)
* Feb 19, 1999: Change and Information Overload: negative effects (new!)
* Feb 17, 1999: Changes-Additions 1996-97 (new!)
* Feb 17, 1999: Genetic Algorithms (new!)
* Feb 17, 1999: Applied Evolutionary Modeling (new!)
* Feb 17, 1999: Artificial Life Evolutionary Models (new!)
* Feb 17, 1999: Mathematical Modeling of Evolution (essentially changed)
* Feb 9, 1999: Project Organization (updated)
* Jan 28, 1999: F. Heylighen: Biographical Sketch (updated)
* Jan 28, 1999: Principia Cybernetica News (new!)
* Jan 26, 1999: Links on Future Development (several links added)
* Jan 26, 1999: The problem of suboptimization ("tragedy of the commons"
added)
* Jan 22, 1999: Principia Cybernetica Mailing Lists (updated)
* Jan 4, 1999: Basic References on the Global Brain / Superorganism (Chen's
PhD thesis added)
DISCUSSIONS ON PRNCYB-L
The PRNCYB-L mailing list has been very active in discussing two issues:
the statement about the future of humanity prepared by Francis Heylighen
for the Humanity 3000 symposium, and the definition of a machine according
to Robert Rosen and others.
The following topics were announced or discussed on the mailing list (see
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/mail.html). The full text of all original messages
and replies is available via the PRNCYB-L archive:
http://www.fmb.mmu.ac.uk/~bruce/PRNCYB-L/thread.html
* Re: [HM] Aristotle's "Infinitum Actu Non Datur" Thesis - Alexander Zenkin
* [Fwd: A Question...] - Don Mikulecky
* New web journal on entropy and information studies: Entropy - Bruce Edmonds
* Re: As to Aristotel's "Infinitum Actu Non Datur" Thesis - Alexander Zenkin
* Re: The rock - John J. Kineman
* Re: CONFERENCE - Alexander Zenkin
* Re: Rosen's concept of time and complexity - John J. Kineman
* Progress - Luis Rocha
* Cfp: Special session on Emotions and Intelligent Systems at - Ricardo
Ribeiro Gudwin
* [Fwd: ISSS meeting in June.....Draft of Abstract] - Don Mikulecky
* Rosen's def => A car is not a machine ! - Bruce Edmonds
* Rosen's definition of a machine - Don Mikulecky
* Some ideas apropos George Berkeley and modern science. - Alexander Zenkin
* Can we agree on what a machine is? - Don Mikulecky
* Fw: Maths Problem - really good Vsevolod - V. Shakin
* New forum for interdisciplinary articles [fwd] - Francis Heylighen
* Re: ISSS abstract deadline extended - John J. Kineman
* POSITION OPENING, Director, - Cliff Joslyn
* Re: Humanity 3000 critical factor COSMOLOGY - Gary Boyd
* Comments on my Humanity 3000 statement - Francis Heylighen
* Humanity 3000 Participant Statement - Francis Heylighen
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