Towards a definition of dynamical hierarchies (original) (raw)
Related papers
2005
In [2], Mark Bedau et al. proposed a set of fourteen open problems in artificial life. The content of this special issue specifically addresses one of those suggested problems: How can we create a formal framework for synthesizing dynamical hierarchies at all scales? The dynamical hierarchy concept refers to a system that consists of multiple levels of organization having dynamics within and between the entities described at each of the different levels.
The Emergence of Natural Hierarchies as an Analog and Digital -Driven Process SEED Vol 3 N2
This paper shows how semiotic agents (SA) capable of selectively recording a partial description of their environment account for the emergence of hierarchical organization. SA reveal an analog/digital duality and convert these two informational codes. The varying weights of each informational source provide an explanation of emergence throughout a developmental trajectory. In this manner, Taborsky's identification of six spatiotemporal codal zones is applied. Two types of emergence will be considered, analog driven and digital driven. The former deals with the exploration of a new shape space and their very basic work-actions, so leading to the emergence of a qualitative new instance by selforganization; the latter deals with the exploration of fine-tuned shapes and work-actions in the previous shape space through expansions in the digital informational space as a result of increasing neutral differentiation within an existing level. The former requires openness and starts as measurement in the Firstness-as-Firstness mode, while the latter profits closure and is a measurement in the Thirdness-as-Secondness mode. However, digital driven emergence can only be recognized as such when systems open up and manifests a new behavior. In consequence, evolving individuals keep their autonomy and evolvability by compromising between external circumstances and inner constraints, so to say by the introduction of a new level as a means to open it up and expand in the new shape space.
The Emergence of Natural Hierarchies as an Analog / Digital Driven Process
2003
This paper shows how semiotic agents (SA) capable of selectively recording a partial description of their environment account for the emergence of hierarchical organization. SA reveal an analog/digital duality and convert these two informational codes. The varying weights of each informational source provide an explanation of emergence throughout a developmental trajectory. In this manner, Taborsky’s identification of six spatiotemporal codal zones is applied. Two types of emergence will be considered, analog driven and digital driven. The former deals with the exploration of a new shape space and their very basic work-actions, so leading to the emergence of a qualitative new instance by selforganization; the latter deals with the exploration of fine-tuned shapes and work-actions in the previous shape space through expansions in the digital informational space as a result of increasing neutral differentiation within an existing level. The former requires openness and starts as measu...
This paper defines living units of development and evolution as agents that selectively record a partial description of their environment. This perspective allows to understand the emergence of hierarchical organization as an information processing that uses simultaneously analog and digital records. The varying weights of each informational source explain the emergence of levels of organization throughout a developmental trajectory. Two types of emergence will be considered, analog driven and digital driven. The former deals with the exploration of a new shape space and the definition of their very basic work-actions, so bringing forth a qualitative new instance by self-organization; the latter deals with the exploration of fine-tuned shapes and derived work-actions in the previous shape space through expansions in the digital informational space as a result of increasing neutral differentiation within an existing level. The former requires openness and starts as an analog-analog recognition, while the latter requires closure. However, digital driven emergence can only be recognized as such when systems open up and manifests a new behavior. In consequence, evolving individuals keep their autonomy and evolvability by compromising between external circumstances (analog informative sources) and inner constraints (digitally recorded information) by the introduction of a new level.
Analysing hierarchy in the organization of biological and physical systems
A structured approach is discussed for analysing hierarchy in the organization of biological and physical systems. The need for a structured approach follows from the observation that many hierarchies in the literature apply conflicting hierarchy rules and include ill-defined systems. As an alternative, we suggest a framework that is based on the following analytical steps: determination of the succession stage of the universe, identification of a specific system as part of the universe, specification of external influences on a system’s creation and analysis of a system’s internal organization. At the end, the paper discusses practical implications of the proposed method for the analysis of system organization and hierarchy in biology, ecology and physics.
Autocreative hierarchy II: dynamics self-organization, emergence and level-changing
2003
Natural systems are characterized more by the way they change than by their appearance at any one moment in time. There is, however, no self-consistent theory capable of ascribing the development of living hierarchical organisms to conventional scientific rationality. We have derived a generic model for the dynamics and evolution of natural hierarchical systems. We present the resultant birational dynamics which may be attributed to a real hierarchy. We describe the nature of self-organization and of emergence in hierarchies, and the rationality which may be employed to move between scalar levels. We propose the use of diffusely-rational recursive Dempster-Shafer-probability to model inter-hierarchical-level complex regions, and consider its implications. The evolution of living from nonliving systems is attributed to a change in the style of emergence which characterizes the appearance of new scalar levels.
Levels of Description: A Novel Approach to Dynamical Hierarchies
Artificial Life, 2005
We present a novel formal interpretation of "dynamical hierarchies" based on information theory, in which each level is a near state-determined system, and where levels are related to one another in a partial ordering. This re-formulation moves away from previous definitions which have considered unique hierarchies of structures or objects arranged in aggregates. Instead, we consider hierarchies of dynamical systems: these are more suited to describing living systems, which are not mere aggregates, but organisations. Transformations from lower to higher levels in a hierarchy are re-descriptions that lose information.
Autocreative Hierarchy I: Structure Ecosystemic Dependence and Autonomy
The natural sciences experience great difficulty in addressing the nature of life. Most particularly, self-consistent theories of observable scalar differences across biological systems are lacking. We have developed a rational scheme for modeling the natural emergence of multi-level hierarchies, and for the characterization of hierarchical entities and systems. This paper describes the resultant birational structure which may be attributed to a real hierarchy. The emergence of new levels is related to the cross-scale transport of both order and novelty, and hierarchical development is attributed to inter-level negotiation of dependence and autonomy. Hyperscalar precursors of understanding and learning, and of complementary logical and emotional operations appear naturally in hierarchies as a consequence of their global stabilization.
Self-Organization In Hierarchical Systems
Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, 1995
Currently there are two movements emerging within systems theory in connection with biology: self-organization and hierarchy theory. They are treated together here because they represent polar oppositional perspectives. Self-organization is concerned with change viewed as from within a changing system; whereas hierarchy theory, in the form familiar to most systems workers, is an external& descriptive framework for dealing with constraints bearing on a system from multiple scalar levels. Hierarchy theory also deals externally, in another form (the specification hierarchy), with integrative levels as developmental stages within an ontogenetic trajectory. In this article we conclude that, although self-organization and hierarchies are incommensurable discourses, they could be taken to be complementary, each supplying what the other lacks in understanding systems.