Art of Doing Science and

Engineering

Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic
Department of Computer Science and Electronic
Mälardalen University
1
Vetenskapsteori och –metodik KIN171
Litteraturlista

• Marshall, C. & Rossman, G. (2006). Designing

Qualitative Research. ISBN 9781412924894.

• Hansson, S.O. (2003). Konsten att vara

vetenskaplig. Filosofi/KTH.
http://www.infra.kth.se/~soh/downloads.htm

• Sherlock Holmes. I Doyle, A. Sherlock Holmes

Äventyr: En studie i rött. ISBN 91-85267-22-8.
Se även www.wikipedia.com

• Semmelweiss - du söker själv information via

internet, bibliotek, artiklar osv. 9

2
Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes, huvudpersonen i en serie

världsbekanta detektivhistorier av sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, och prototypen för en
skarpsinnig och inga mödor eller faror
skyende yrkesdetektiv.

Sherlock Holmes gjorde entré i världen 1887 i

samband med romanen En studie i rött,
och vann stor ryktbarhet några år senare
när de första Holmesnovellerna började
publiceras i tidskriften The Strand
Magazine.

Holmes karakteriseras av sin imponerande

iakttagelse- och slutledningsförmåga vilken
han då och då prövar på sin
levnadstecknare, och följeslagare Dr.
Watson.

3
 Sherlock Holmes

En studie i rött (A Study in Scarlet) är den

första boken om detektiven Sherlock
Holmes och är skriven av Arthur Conan
Doyle 1887. Det är i denna bok doktor
Watson och Sherlock Holmes lär känna
varandra och Sherlock Holmes-figuren
introduceras för världen. Genast startar
en spännande mordgåta som ger prov på
Sherlock Holmes skarpsinne.

http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes 4
 Deduction-Induction Roller Coaster

general

induction deduction

particular 5
Konsten att vara vetenskaplig
Sven Ove Hansson, KTH

Innehåll
Förord

1 Vilken kunskap vill vi ha?

1.1 Vetande och handlingskunskap
1.2 Vetenskapsbegreppet
1.3 ”Ren” och ”tillämpad” vetenskap
1.4 Generell kontra speciell kunskap
1.5 Handlingskunskapen
1.6 Intersubjektivitet och objektivitet
1.7 Faran med auktoritetstro
1.8 Att utgå från den bästa tillgängliga
kunskapen
1.9 Vetenskapen är en mänsklig aktivitet
1.10 Det stora och det lilla tvivlet
1.11 Sinnen och förnuft
1.12 Empirism och rationalism
1.13 Hantverkarnas bidrag
1.14 Episteme och techne närmar sig
varandra igen
6
Konsten att vara vetenskaplig
Sven Ove Hansson, KTH

2 Att resonera förnuftigt

2.1 Det rationella samtalet
2.2 Fora för vetenskapliga samtal
2.3 Stegvis framlagda argument
2.4 Mångtydighet och vaghet
2.5 När behöver ord vara väldefinierade?
2.6 Definitioner
2.7 Tre vägar till mer precisa begrepp
2.8 Värdeladdade ord
2.9 Kreativitet och kritik
2.10 Intuition

3 Att observera
3.1 Sinnenas ofullkomlighet
3.2 Observationer är teoriberoende
3.3 Tekniken hjälper sinnena och minnet
3.4 Utvalda observationer
3.5 Fyra slags observationer
3.6 När observationsidealet inte kan uppnås
3.7 Observatören själv
3.8 Att vara beredd på det oväntade
3.9 Källkritik – att dra slutsatser från andras observationer
3.10 Mätningar 7
Konsten att vara vetenskaplig
Sven Ove Hansson, KTH

4 Att göra experiment

4.1 Experiment finns av många slag
4.2 Att konstruera ett experiment
4.3 Att separera
4.4 Att kontrollera variablerna
4.5 Experiment ska gå att upprepa
4.6 Upprepning i praktiken

5 Att påvisa samband

5.1 Att pröva hypoteser
5.2 Verifiering eller falsifiering?
5.3 Falsifieringens problem
5.4 Den nödvändiga sammanvägningen
5.5 Kravet om enkelhet
5.6 Slumpens skördar
5.7 Statistisk hypotesprövning
5.8 All forskning är inte hypotesprövande

8
Konsten att vara vetenskaplig
Sven Ove Hansson, KTH

6 Att använda modeller

6.1 Tre slags modeller
6.2 Idealisering
6.3 Om faran med modeller
6.4 Simulering

7 Att förklara
7.1 Vetenskap utan förklaringar?
7.2 Förklaringar och förståelse
7.3 Förklaringssätt som har övergetts
7.4 Reduktioner

8 Att finna orsaker

8.1 Orsak som undantagslös
upprepning
8.2 Orsaksbegreppet är antropomorft
8.3 Allt har inte en orsak
8.4 Att fastställa orsakssamband
8.5 Samverkan mellan flera
orsaksfaktorer

9
Konsten att vara vetenskaplig
Sven Ove Hansson, KTH

9 Vetenskap, värderingar och

världsbilder
9.1 Vetenskapens beslutsfattande
9.2 Att skilja mellan fakta och värderingar
9.3 Vetenskap och världsbild

10
Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic, Courses
(Follow Open Source Philosophy)
http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/courses.html

CDT314 - Formal Languages, Automata and Theory of Computation

CDT403 - Research Methodology for Natural Science and Technology

CDT212 - Vetenskapsmetodik (Scientific Method, in Swedish)

CDT409 - Professional Ethics in Science and Engineering

Research Ethics and Professionalism (Interdepartmental PhD course)

Interdisciplinary Research and Co-Production of Knowledge

(NEW! Interdepartmental PhD course)

CD5650 - Philosophy of Computer Science, Swedish National Course

(2004)
11
 The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn
by Richard W. Hamming

Highly effective thinking is an art that engineers

and scientists can be taught to develop. By
presenting actual experiences and analyzing
them as they are described, the author
conveys the developmental thought processes
employed and shows a style of thinking that
leads to successful results is something that
can be learned. Along with spectacular
successes, the author also conveys how
failures contributed to shaping the thought
processes.
Provides the reader with a style of thinking that will
enhance a person's ability to function as a
problem-solver of complex technical
issues.
Consists of a collection of stories about the
author's participation in significant discoveries,
relating how those discoveries came about
and, most importantly, provides analysis about
the thought processes and reasoning that took
place as the author and his associates
progressed through engineering problems.

12
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html Hamming’s talk on research
 Random Notes from R. W. Hamming,
Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

Knowledge also comes from years of study of the work of others.

The belief anything can be "talked about" in words was certainly held by
the early Greek philosophers, Socrates (469-399), Plato (427-347), and
Aristotle (384-322).
This attitude ignored the contemporary mystery cults which asserted you
have to "experience" some things which could not be communicated in
words. Examples might be beauty, gods, arts, and love.

13
 Random Notes from R. W. Hamming,
Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

Traditional scientific training has emphasized the role of words, along with a strong
belief in reductionism, hence to emphasize the possible limitations of language
we can take up several places in this book.

“Style" is such a topic. ..This talking about first person experiences will give a flavor
of "bragging," ... Learning from the experiences of others saves making errors
yourself, but the study of successes is basically more important than the study
of failures. ... there are so many ways of being wrong and so few of being right,
studying successes is more efficient, and furthermore when your turn comes you
will know how to succeed rather than how to fail! You must think carefully about
what you hear or read
...reductionism...

14
 Random Notes from R. W. Hamming,
Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

A simulation is the answer to the question: "what if ...?" 1. cheaper, 2.

faster, 3. often better 4. can do what you cannot do in the lab.

Why should anyone believe the simulation is relevant?

You are responsible for your decisions, and cannot blame them on those
who do the simulations, as much as you wish you could. Reliability is a
central question with no easy answers.

All impossibility proofs must rest on a number of assumptions which may

or may not apply in the particular situation.

"If an expert says something can be done he is probably correct, but

if he says it is impossible then consider getting another opinion."

15
 Skepticism

“Det är nästan som under renässansen: människor kan utropa

Ad fontes! Till källorna, alltså. Man behöver inte nöja sig
med en second opinion; man kan försöka skaffa sig tusen,
och man kan bli odrägligt påläst som patient.”

Bodil Jönsson, Tänk om det är precis tvärtom!?

16
 Science, Knowledge, Truth, Meaning

WHAT IS SCIENCE?
What Sciences are there?
What Liberal Arts are there?

WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC METHOD?

Critique of Usual Naïve Image of Scientific Method

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?

SCIENCE, TRUTH AND MEANING

17
 Theory of Science Lectures

Lecture 1 SCIENCE, KNOWLEDGE, TRUTH, MEANING. FORMAL

LOGICAL SYSTEMS LIMITATIONS LANGUAGE AND
COMMUNICATION
Lecture 2 SCIENCE, RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETAL
ASPECTS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. PROGRESS IN
SCIENCE A BRIEF RETROSPECTIVE OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY
Lecture 3 LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION, CRITICAL
THINKING AND PSEUDOSCIENCE - DEMARCATION
Lecture 4 GOLEM LECTURE. ANALYSIS OF SCIENTIFIC
CONFIRMATION: THEORY OF RELATIVITY, COLD FUSION,
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
Lecture 5 COMPUTING HISTORY OF IDEAS
Lecture 6 PROFESSIONAL & RESEARCH ETHICS

18
 Red Thread: Critical Thinking

A red thread in this course: critical thinking.

We use critical thinking as method when approaching science.

We think (critically!) about critical thinking.

19
 Red Thread: Critical Thinking

Reserve your right to think,

for even to think wrongly
is better than not to think at all.

Hypatia, natural philosopher and mathematician

20
 What Is Science?

Concentric Rinds
(Concentric Space Filling/Regular Sphere Division). Maurits Cornelis Escher

21
 SCIENTISTS

"Scientists are people of very dissimilar temperaments doing

different things in very different ways.
Among scientists are collectors, classifiers and compulsive
tidiers-up; many are detectives by temperament and many are
explorers; some are artists and others artisans.
There are poet-scientists and philosopher-scientists and even a
few mystics."

Peter Medawar, Pluto's Republic

22
 Science: Definitions by Goal and Process (1)

Science (Lat. scientia, from scire, “to know”) is wonder about

nature. Like philosophy, science poses questions –
but also has the specific means to answer them, as long as they
concern the state and behavior of the physical world.

23
 Science: Definitions by Goal and Process (2)

Science is the systematic study of the properties of the physical

world, by means of repeatable experiments and measurements,
and the development of universal theories that are capable of
describing and predicting observations. Statements in science
must be precise, such that other people can test them (in order
to establish “universality”).

24
 Science: Definitions by Contrast

To do science is to search for repeated patterns, not simply to

accumulate facts.
Robert H. MacArthur

Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.

Richard Feynman

25
 Dewey Decimal Classification®
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/8866/15urls.html

000 - Computers, Information & General Reference

100 - Philosophy & Psychology
200 - Religion
300 - Social sciences
400 - Language
500 - Science
600 - Technology
700 - Arts & Recreation
800 - Literature
900 - History & Geography

26
 Dewey Decimal Classification®

500 – Science
510 Mathematics
520 Astronomy
530 Physics
540 Chemistry
550 Earth Sciences & Geology
560 Fossils & Prehistoric Life
570 Biology & Life Sciences
580 Plants (Botany)
590 Animals (Zoology)

27
 Scientific Comunities as Family Trees

Josh Dever at the University of Texas is compiling a "family tree" of

philosophers related by the Ph.D. supervisor relation (or
equivalent).

The tree is online at

https://webspace.utexas.edu/deverj/personal/philtree/philtree.html

28
Classical Sciences in their Cultural Context –
Language Based Scheme

Logic
& Culture
Mathematics (Religion, Art, …)
1 5

Natural Sciences
(Physics,
Chemistry,
Biology, …)
2

Social
Sciences
(Economics,
Sociology,
Anthropolog
y, …)
3

The Humanities
(Philosophy, History,
Linguistics …)
4 29
 Critique of Usual Naïve Image
of Scientific Method (1)

The narrow inductivist conception of scientific inquiry

1. All facts are observed and recorded.

2. All observed facts are analyzed, compared and classified,
without hypotheses or postulates other than those necessarily
involved in the logic of thought.
3. Generalizations inductively drawn as to the relations,
classificatory or causal, between the facts.
4. Further research employs inferences from previously
established generalizations.

30
 Critique of Usual Naïve Image
of Scientific Method (2)

This narrow idea of scientific inquiry is groundless for several

reasons:

1. A scientific investigation could never get off the ground, for a

collection of all facts would take infinite time, as there are infinite
number of facts.
The only possible way to do data collection is to take only
relevant facts. But in order to decide what is relevant and what is
not, we have to have a theory or at least a hypothesis about what
is it we are observing.

31
 Critique of Usual Naïve Image
of Scientific Method (3)

A hypothesis (theory) is needed to give the direction to a

scientific investigation!

2. A set of empirical facts can be analyzed and classified in

many different ways. Without hypothesis, analysis and
classification are blind.

3. Induction is sometimes imagined as a method that leads, by

mechanical application of rules, from observed facts to
general principles. Unfortunately, such rules do not exist!

32
 Why is it not possible to derive hypothesis (theory)
directly from the data? (1)

– For example, theories about atoms contain terms like “atom”,

“electron”, “proton”, etc; yet what one actually measures are spectra
(wave lengths), traces in bubble chambers, calorimetric data, etc.

– So the theory is formulated on a completely different (and more

abstract) level than the observable data!

– The transition from data to theory requests creative imagination!

33
 Why is it not possible to derive hypothesis (theory)
directly from the data? (2)

– Scientific hypothesis is formulated based on “educated guesses” at the

connections between the phenomena under study, at regularities and
patterns that might underlie their occurrence. Scientific guesses are
completely different from any process of systematic inference.

– The discovery of important mathematical theorems, like the discovery

of important theories in empirical science, requires inventive ingenuity.

34
 Socratic Method
1. Wonder. Pose a question
(of the “What is X ?” form).
2. Hypothesis. Suggest a plausible answer (a
definition or definiens) from which some
conceptually testable hypothetical propositions
can be deduced.
3. Elenchus ; “testing,” “refutation,” or “cross-
examination.” Perform a thought experiment by
imagining a case which conforms to the definiens
but clearly fails to exemplify the definiendum, or
vice versa. Such cases, if successful, are called
counterexamples. If a counterexample is
generated, return to step 2, otherwise go to step
4.
4. Accept the hypothesis as provisionally true.
Return to step 3 if you can conceive any other
case which may show the answer to be
defective.
5. Act accordingly.
Scientific Method
1. Wonder. Pose a question.
(Formulate a problem).
2. Hypothesis. Suggest a plausible answer (a theory)
from which some empirically testable hypothetical
propositions can be deduced.
3. Testing. Construct and perform
an experiment, which makes it possible to observe
whether the consequences specified in one or more
of those hypothetical propositions actually follow
when the conditions specified in the same
proposition(s) pertain. If the test fails, return to step 2,
otherwise go to step 4.
4. Accept the hypothesis as provisionally true. Return
to step 3 if there are predictable consequences of the
theory which have not been experimentally
confirmed.
5. Act accordingly.
35
 The Scientific Method – A Complex Adaptive System

EXISTING THEORIES HYPOTHESIS PREDICTIONS

AND OBSERVATIONS
2 3
1 Hypotesen
Hypothesis
måste must
Hypothesis must bejusteras
adjusted
be redefined

SELECTION AMONG TESTS AND NEW

COMPETING THEORIES OBSERVATIONS
6 4
Consistency achieved
The hypotetico-deductive cycle
EXISTING THEORY CONFIRMED
(within a new context) or
NEW THEORY PUBLISHED
5
The scientific-community cycle
36
 Formulating Research Questions and Hypotheses

Different approaches:

Intuition – (Educated) Guess

Analogy
Symmetry
Paradigm
Metaphor
.... and many more...

37
 Criteria to Evaluate Theories

When there are several rivaling hypotheses number of criteria can

be used for choosing a best theory.

Following can be evaluated:

– Theoretical scope
– Heuristic value (heuristic: rule-of-thumb or argument
derived from experience)
– Parsimony (simplicity, Ockham’s razor)
– Esthetics
– Etc.

38
 Criteria which Good Scientific Theory Shall Fulfill

– Logically consistent
– Consistent with accepted facts
– Testable
– Consistent with related theories
– Interpretable: explain and predict
– Parsimonious
– Pleasing to the mind (Esthetic, Beautiful)
– Useful (Relevant/Applicable)

39
 Ockham’s Razor (Occam’s Razor)
(Law Of Economy, Or Law Of Parsimony, Less Is More!)

A philosophical statement developed by William of Ockham,

(1285–1347/49), a scholastic, that Pluralitas non est ponenda
sine necessitate; “Plurality should not be assumed without
necessity.”

The principle gives precedence to simplicity; of two competing

theories, the simplest explanation of an entity is to be preferred.

40
 What Is Knowledge?
Plato´s Definition

Knowledge is justified, true belief.

The problem with this concerns the word “justified”. All

interpretations of “justified” are deemed inadequate.

These analyses are an excellent example of the critique of theories

of knowledge, but do not provide an answer to what knowledge
is.

41
 What Is Knowledge?
Plato´s Definition – Gettier Problem

Edmund Gettier, in the paper called "Is Justified True Belief

Knowledge?“ argues that knowledge is not the same as justified
true belief.

42
 Knowledge and Objectivity
Observations

– All observation is potentially ”contaminated”, whether by our

theories, our worldview or our past experiences.
– It does not mean that science cannot ”objectively” [inter-
subjectivity] choose from among rival theories on the basis of
empirical testing.

– Although science cannot provide one with hundred percent

certainty, yet it is the most, if not the only, objective mode of
pursuing knowledge.

43
Perception and “Direct Observation”

44
Perception and “Direct Observation”

"Reality is merely an
illusion, albeit a very
persistent one." -
Einstein

45
Perception and “Direct Observation”

46
Perception and “Direct Observation”

47
48
 Perception and “Direct Observation”

Checker-shadow illusion
http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.html

See even:
http://persci.mit.edu/people/adelson/publications/gazzan.dir/gazzan.htm
Lightness Perception and Lightness Illusions

http://www.ihu.his.se/~christin/Vetenskapsteori/Vetenskapsteorikurser

49
Truth and Reality

Noumenon
("Ding an sich")
is distinguished
from
phenomenon
("Erscheinung"),
an observable
event or physical
manifestation,
and the two
words serve as
interrelated
technical terms in
Kant's
philosophy.

50
 Whole vs. Parts

• tusk → spear
• tail → rope
• trunk → snake
• side → wall
• leg → tree
• The flaw in all their reasoning is that speculating on the WHOLE
from too few FACTS can lead to VERY LARGE errors in
judgment.

51
 Science and Truth

– Science as Consensus

– Science as Controversy

52
 Scientific Truth (1)

– Physics professor is walking across campus, runs into Math

professor. Physics professor has been doing an experiment,
and has worked out an empirical equation that seems to explain
his data, and asks the Math professor to look at it.

53
 Scientific Truth (2)

– A week later, they meet again, and the Math professor says the
equation is invalid. By then, the Physics professor has used his
equation to predict the results of further experiments, and he is
getting excellent results, so he asks the Math professor to look
again.

– Another week goes by, and they meet once more. The Math
professor tells the Physics professor the equation does work,
”but only in the trivial case where the numbers are real and
positive."

54
 TRUTH VS. PROVABILITY
ACCORDING TO GÖDEL

After: Gödel, Escher, Bach - an Eternal Golden Braid

by Douglas Hofstadter. 55
 TRUTH VS. PROVABILITY
ACCORDING TO GÖDEL

Gödel theorem is built upon Aristotelian logic.

So it is true within the paradigm of Aristotelian logic.

However, nowadays it is not the only logic existing!

56
 NON-ARISTOTELIAN LOGIC

The term non-Aristotelian logic, sometimes shortened to null-A, means any

non-classical system of logic which rejects some of Aristotle's
premises.

Related topics:
Intuitionistic logic
Fuzzy logic
General Semantics
Meta-systems
Multi-valued logic
Paraconsistent logic
Quantum logic
Is logic empirical?
Theory of mind

57
 The Limits of Reason - G J Chaitin

The limits of reason

Scientific American 294, No. 3 (March 2006), pp. 74-81.
Epistemology as information theory: from Leibniz to Ω
Collapse 1 (2006), pp. 27-51.
Reprinted in Teoria algoritmica della complessità, 2006.
Meta Math!
first paperback edition
Vintage, 2006.
Speculations on biology, information and complexity
Bulletin of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science 91
(February 2007), pp. 231-237.

58
Cybernetics as a Language for Interdisciplinary Communication

Stuart A. Umpleby
The George Washington University
Washington, DC
www.gwu.edu/~umpleby

59
 How is interdisciplinary communication possible?

• We would need to share a common language

• Perhaps there is a common “deep structure” which is hidden by our

more specialized discipline-oriented terms and theories

Stuart A. Umpleby
60
 What is the origin of the “deep structure”?

There are at least three possibilities:

1. Common processes and structures in the external world

2. Common human cognitive structures and processes

(Mental models)

3. Logic (Mathematics)

After Stuart A. Umpleby

61
 2. Common processes in the external world

• General systems theory, particularly James G. Miller’s living

systems theory, claims that there are certain functions that a
living system must perform

• Miller suggested that “living systems” exist at seven levels

cell,
organ,
organism,
group,
organization,
nation,
supranational organization

Stuart A. Umpleby
62
 1. Mathematical Isomorphisms

• Anatol Rapoport suggested that the aim of general systems

theory is to identify mathematical isomorphisms

The word 'isomorphism' applies when two complex structures can be mapped onto
each other, in such a way that to each part of one structure there is a
corresponding part in the other structure, where 'corresponding' means that the
two parts play similar roles in their respective structures." (Douglas Hofstadter,
Gödel, Escher, Bach, p. 49)

• Not many isomorphisms have been discussed in the literature

• Their theoretical importance is not clear

After Stuart A. Umpleby

63
 Nineteen critical subsystems in “living systems”

• Matter-energy processing subsystems – ingestor, distributor, converter,

producer,matter-energy storage, extruder, motor, supporter

• Information processing subsystems – input transducer, internal

transducer, channel and net, decoder, associator, memory, decider,
encoder, output transducer

• Subsystems that process both – reproducer, boundary

Stuart A. Umpleby
64
 3. Conceptual models

• In cybernetics there are basically three conceptualizations

– Regulation
– Self-organization
– Reflexivity

Stuart A. Umpleby
65
 How can these models be used?

• To find common ground with a person in a different field, listen

to identify which of these models is being used
• When you have identified which model is being used,
cybernetics provides a set of theories and methods to be
employed
• Often more than one, indeed all three, models can be used

Stuart A. Umpleby
66
 1. Regulation

• Two analytic elements – regulator and system being regulated

• Engineering examples – thermostat and heater, automatic pilot
and airplane
• Biological examples – feeling of hunger and food in stomach,
light in eye and iris opening
• Social system examples – manager and organization, therapist
and patient

Stuart A. Umpleby
67
 The law of requisite variety

• Information and selection

– “The amount of selection that can be performed is limited by
the amount of information available”

• Regulator and regulated

– “The variety in a regulator must be equal to or greater than
the variety in the system being regulated”
W. Ross Ashby

Stuart A. Umpleby
68
 Methods to use in regulation

• Is there requisite (necessary) variety?

What is the variety in the system to be controlled?
What variety is available to match it?

• Choose the level of analysis in order to achieve requisite variety

• Define a model of cause and effect – list actions and their

expected consequences

Stuart A. Umpleby
69
 Coping with complexity

When faced with a complex situation, there are only two choices

1. Increase the variety in the regulator: hire staff or subcontract

2. Reduce the variety in the system being regulated: reduce the

variety one chooses to control

Stuart A. Umpleby
70
 The management of complexity

• There has been a lot of discussion of “complexity,” as if it exists

in the world

• Cyberneticians prefer to speak about “the management of

complexity”

• Their view is that complexity is observer dependent, that the

system to be regulated is defined by the observer

• This point of view greatly expands the range of alternatives

Stuart A. Umpleby
71
Self-organization

72
 Self-organization

• Definition – every isolated, determinate, dynamic system

obeying unchanging laws will develop organisms adapted to
their environments, W. Ross Ashby

• Many elements within the system

• Boundary conditions – open to energy (hence dynamic), closed

to information (interaction rules do not change during the period
of observation)

http://www-lih.univ-lehavre.fr/~bertelle/cossombook/cossombook.html
Complex Systems and Self-organization Modelling

After Stuart A. Umpleby 73

 Examples of self-organization 1

• Physical example – chemical reactions; iron ore, coke, and

oxygen heated in a blast furnace will change into steel, carbon
dioxide, water vapor and slag

• Biological examples – food in the stomach is transformed into

usable energy and materials, species compete to yield animals
adapted to their environments

After Stuart A. Umpleby 74

Digital Video Feedback and Morphogenesis

Video Feedback systems tend toward

either stability or chaos. While the
stable attractor offers some interest in
the subtleties of its decay, the
unstable attractor offers an unlimited
supply of endless evolving motifs and
a window on emergent behaviour.
The system can be get into chaotic
emergence via camera movement
(rotation and positioning). The
important thing was to catch the
movement of ‘catching a shape’ in a
particular temporal phase to feed back
into the system advancing the
complexity and initiating lifelike
morphogenesis.
http://www.transphormetic.com/Talysis01.htm
75
 Microtubules viewed as molecular ant colonies -
reactive adaptive self-organizing systems
Populations of ants and other social insects self-
organize and develop ‘emergent’ properties
through stigmergy in which individual ants
communicate with one another via chemical
trails of pheromones that attract or repulse other
ants. In this way, sophisticated properties and
functions develop.
Under appropriate conditions, in vitro microtubule
preparations, initially comprised of only tubulin
and GTP, behave in a similar manner. They self-
organize and develop other higher-level
emergent phenomena by a process where
individual microtubules are coupled together by
the chemical trails they produce by their own
reactive growing and shrinking.
Viewing microtubules as populations of molecular
ants may provide new insights as to how the
cytoskeleton may spontaneously develop high-
Proposed mechanism for the formation of the self-
level functions. It is plausible that such
organized structure processes occur during the early stages of
embryogenesis and in cells.

Microtubules are long tubular-shaped supramolecular

assemblies with inner and outer diameters of approx. 16
nm and 24 nm respectively. are a major filamentary
component of the cytoskeleton. They have two major
roles; they organize the cell interior, and they permit and
control the directional movement of intracellular particles
and organelles from one part of the cell to another.

http://www.biolcell.org/boc/098/0603/boc0980603.htm 76
 Microtubules viewed as molecular ant colonies -
reactive adaptive self-organizing systems

Self-organization by reactive processes

Normally solutions of reacting chemicals in a test-
tube do not self-organize. (Kolmogorov et al.,
1937; Rashevsky, 1940; Turing, 1952; Prigogine
and Nicolis, 1971; Nicolis and Prigogine, 1977)
have proposed that some types of chemical
reaction might show strongly non-linear reaction
dynamics due to being sufficiently far-from-
equilibrium. They predicted that in some
cases this could result in macroscopic self-
organization.
Some chemical systems based on reactions originally
discovered in the 1920s (Bray, 1921) and 1950s
(Belousov, 1951, 1958) have been shown to
self-organize this way (Castets et al., 1990;
Ouyang and Swinney, 1991).
Viewing microtubules as populations of molecular
ants may provide new insights as to how the
cytoskeleton may spontaneously develop high-
Replication of form level functions. It is plausible that such
processes occur during the early stages of
embryogenesis and in cells.

http://www.biolcell.org/boc/098/0603/boc0980603.htm 77
 Microtubules viewed as molecular ant colonies –
reactive adaptive self-organizing systems

Self-organization by reactive processes

In populations of strongly coupled elements,
researchers have progressively discovered that
under appropriate conditions new, so-called,
‘emergent’ phenomena can develop.
These phenomena are not the sum of the
properties of the individual elements, but on
the contrary develop through the non-linear
dynamics by which the elements are coupled
together and behave as a collective
ensemble.
In recent years, systems of this type (Gleick, 1987;
Nicolis and Prigogine, 1989; Coveney and
Highfield, 1995; Camazine et al., 2001) have
been termed ‘complex’. In many complex
systems, self-organization occurs as a major
emergent property.
A feature of some complex systems is that weak
external factors, which at an early critical
moment break the symmetry of the process,
Numerical simulations containing only reactive and
modify the subsequent collective behaviour and
diffusive terms predict microtubule assembly
kinetics and self-organization comparable with
thus trigger or determine self-organization.
experiment

http://www.biolcell.org/boc/098/0603/boc0980603.htm 78
 Physical biology of molecular motors involved in intracellular
organisation

Motor proteins are key determinants for the spatial

organisation of eukaryotic cells. They are
thermodynamic non-equilibrium machines
playing a crucial role for the dynamic nature
of cellular order. In fact, they provide a
paradigm for the concept of intracellular order
depending on molecular dynamics. How
exactly the collective behaviour of various
motors with different kinetic properties drives
the organisation of the cytoskeleton is not
understood.

http://www-db.embl.de/jss/EmblGroupsOrg/g_175.html

Network of microtubules and two kinds of motor

proteins created by self-organisation in vitro

79
 Origami Programmable Cell Sheet

The objective is to produce a language for describing global shape that can
be compiled to local interactions amongst a large number of cells that
work robustly inspite of imprecise positioning and individual cell
limitations and failures. The long term goal is to contribute to the
understanding of engineered self-organisation, i.e. rather than
observing emergent global behavior from given local rules, how does
one derive local rules for a particular global goal? What are the high
level languages for describing global goals, and what are the primitives
for constructing local rules?

Origami is an example of a language that constructively describes global

structures.
Using a small set of axioms (called Huzita's axioms) and only two types of
folds (mountain and valley), one can construct a very wide variety of
complex shapes.The initial conditions are very simple and always the
same.
The methods of combination are very simple. Axioms generate new creases
from existing points and creases and new points can be formed only by
the intersection of previous folds.
Origami is a scale-independent language - i.e. the sequence of folds for a
particular shape is independent of the size of the sheet.

http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/projects/amorphous/Progmat/thesis/origami.html
80
 Origami Programmable Cell Sheet

• Huzita's Origami Axioms:

• Given two points p1 and p2, we can fold a line
through them
• Given two points p1 and p2, we can fold p1 onto
p2 (make a crease that bisects the line p1p2 at
right angles)
• Given two lines L1 and L2 we can fold L1 onto
L2 (crease is a bisector of the angle between L1
and L2)
• Given p1 and L1 we can make a fold through p1
perpendicular to L1
• Given p1 and p2 and line l1, we can make a fold
that places p1 on l1 and passes through p2
• Given p1 and p2 and lines l1 and l2, we can
make a fold that places p1 on l1 and p2 on l2.

http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/projects/amorphous/Progmat/thesis/origami.html
81
Self-Organizing Systems Resources

Archive of papers - adaptation/self-organizing systems

EVALife - Self-organisation in life-cycles
Extropia - open source software
Fractal Structures and Self-Organization - TMR Network
One-Over-F Noise - bibliography
Scalable Self-Organizing Simulations - DARPA
Self-Organising Adaptive Systems - BT Labs
Self-Organising Nanopatterns - Sandia National Laboratory
Self-organization and fractals - Geodynamics
Shalizi's Notebook - self-organization
SOS on The Web - small
Symbiotic Intelligence Project - self-organizing knowledge
Stigmergic Systems - Peter Small
The Self-Organization of the European Information Society - EU
TSER Project
WEBSOM Self-Organizing Maps - web intelligence

82
 Introduction to Complex Systems
by David Kirshbaum

A Complex System is any system which involves a number of elements, arranged in

structure(s) which can exist on many scales. These go through processes of
change that are not describable by a single rule nor are reducible to only one
level of explanation, these levels often include features whose emergence
cannot be predicted from their current specifications. Complex Systems Theory
also includes the study of the interactions of the many parts of the system.

Previously, when studying a subject, researchers tended to use a reductionist

approach which attempted to summarize the dynamics, processes, and change
that occurred in terms of lowest common denominators and the simplest, yet
most widely provable and applicable elegant explanations.

But since the advent of powerful computers which can handle huge amounts of
data, researchers can now study the complexity of factors involved in a subject
and see what insights that complexity yields without simplification or reduction.

83
http://www.calresco.org/intro.htm
 Introduction to Complex Systems
by David Kirshbaum

Four Important Characteristics of Complexity:

• Self-Organization
• Non-Linearity
• Order/Chaos Dynamic
• Emergent Properties

Computer Programming approaches used for demonstrating, simulating,

and analyzing these characteristics of Complex Systems:
• Artificial Life
• Genetic Algorithms
• Neural Networks
• Cellular Automata
• Boolean Networks

84
http://www.calresco.org/links.htm
 Structure and dynamics of animal social networks

Interactions between agents (whatever they may be) can be

represented by a network. In animal social systems the nodes
represent individual animals and the lines between them social
ties.

There is a growing interest, among mathematicians, statistical

physicists, sociologists and others in understanding and
characterizing the structure of such networks, and the dynamics
of processes (such as the transmission of disease or other
"information") on networks.

Algorithms are developed to search a complex animal social network

for "communities", or sets of nodes that are better connected
among themselves than they are to the rest of the network, and
to try to understand what causes the population to contain these
structures.
http://people.bath.ac.uk/pysrj/
Most of the animal social networks constructed so far are built via an
accumulation of many surveys of the population. An alternative
approach is to monitor interactions in real time, to try to
understand not only how information might be transmitted
through a network, but also how the nature of the information
might be having an effect on the structure of the network.

Some of the systems of interest, include tropical fish, Galapagos sea 85

lions, ants and deer.
Examples of self-organization

Large-scale lattice Boltzmann simulations of complex fluids:

advances through the advent of computational grids
Institute for Computational Physics. Physics on High
Performance Computers
http://www.ica1.uni-stuttgart.de/publications/2005/HCVC05/

86
 Supramolecular chemistry and self-assembling
molecules

Supramolecular chemists are now

extending their research beyond the
design of molecules that can be used
for molecular recognition or catalysis.
They are actively exploring systems that
undergo self-organisation - systems
that can spontaneously generate well-
defined functional supramolecular
Molecular fragments self-assemble to form a dynamic library of architectures by self-assembly from
their components.
potentially bioactive compounds
This spontaneous but controlled formation
of nanoscale architectures could be
"Self-organisation by selection takes advantage of dynamic used to engineer and process
diversity to allow variation in response to internal or
external factors in a Darwinian fashion."
functional nanostructures, offering a
powerful alternative to
"Constitutional dynamic chemistry paves the way towards an
nanofabrication, going from
adaptive and evolutive chemistry, a further step towards construction to self-construction.
unravelling the science of complex matter."
http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ChemScience/Volume/
2007/02/A_natural_selection.asp 87
Self-reference
Reflexivity

88
Douglas Hofstadter’s Writings

Self-reference is ubiquitous. It happens every time any one

says “I” or “me” or “word” or “speak” or “mouth”. It
happens every time a newspaper prints a story about
reporters, every time someone writes a book about
writing, designs a book about book design, makes a
movie about movies, or writes an article about self-
reference. Many systems have the capability to
represent or refer to themselves somehow, to
designate themselves (or elements of themselves)
within the system of their own symbolism. Whenever
this happens, it is an instance of self-reference.

SL #642: My proposal [...] is to see the “I” as a hallucination perceived by

a hallucination, which sounds pretty strange, or perhaps even stranger: the
“I” as a hallucination hallucinated by a hallucination.
SL #641: That sounds way beyond strange. That sounds crazy.
SL #642: Perhaps, but like many strange fruits of modern science, it can
sound crazy yet be right. At one time it sounded crazy to say that the earth
moved and the sun was still....
(I Am a Strange Loop, p. 293 )

89
Self-reference
(Reflexivity)

• This model has traditionally

been avoided and is logically
difficult

• Inherent in social systems

where observers are also
participants, in individual living
organisms

• Every statement reveals an

observer as much as what is
observed

After Stuart A. Umpleby

90
Examples of reflexivity – recursive algorithms

This weedlike plant is based on a

simple recursive algorithm.
Recursion is a popular technique
used to describe trees and the
like, because of the self-
referential nature of a tree.

Basically, you would describe a tree

by stating that a branch is
something from which smaller
branches sprout, and that the root
of a tree is a big branch.

Self-reference can lead to

undecidability (and paradoxes like
set of all sets that are not
members of themselves)

91
 Observation

Self-awareness

Stuart A. Umpleby92
Reflexivity in a social system

Stuart A. Umpleby
93
 Ideas

Variables Groups

Events

A reflexive theory operates at two levels

Stuart A. Umpleby
94
Equilibrium Theory Reflexivity Theory

- +
Stock Stock + Demand
price - Demand price
+ +

Equilibrium theory assumes negative feedback; reflexivity theory observes positive

feedback

Stuart A. Umpleby
95
 Equilibrium vs. Reflexivity
• A theorist is outside the system
observed
• Scientists should build theories
using quantifiable variables
• Theories do not alter the system
described
• Observers are part of the
system observed
• Scientists should use a variety
of descriptions of systems (e.g.,
ideas, groups, events,
variables)
• Theories are a means to
change the system described
Stuart A. Umpleby
96
 Adaptation/Reactivity/Regulation,
Self-organization,
Self-reference/Reflexivity/Recursiveness

Models of regulation, self-organization, and reflexivity – can be

used in two ways
• Either to develop descriptions of some system (develop
interdisciplinary models)
• Or to guide efforts to influence some system

Stuart A. Umpleby
97
 Overview of cybernetics

• The focus of attention within cybernetics has changed from engineering

to the biology of cognition to social systems

• Ideas from cybernetics have been used in computer science, robotics,

management, family therapy, philosophy of science, economics and
political science

• Cybernetics has created theories of the nature of information,

knowledge, adaptation, learning, self-organization, cognition,
autonomy, and understanding

Stuart A. Umpleby
98
 Author First Order Cybernetics Second Order Cybernetics

Von Foerster The cybernetics of observed The cybernetics of observing systems

systems The purpose of a modeler
Pask The purpose of a model Autonomous systems
Varela Controlled systems Interaction between observer and observed
Umpleby Interaction among the variables in Theories of the interaction between ideas
a system and society
Umpleby Theories of social systems

Definitions of First and Second Order Cybernetics

Stuart A. Umpleby
99
 Engineering Cybernetics Biological Cybernetics Social Cybernetics

The view of A realist view A biological view of A pragmatic view of

epistemology of epistemology: epistemology: how the epistemology:
knowledge is a brain functions knowledge is
“picture” of reality constructed to achieve
human purposes

A key distinction Reality vs. scientific Realism vs. Constructivism The biology of cognition vs.
theories the observer as a
social participant

The puzzle to be Construct theories which Include the observer within the Explain the relationship
solved explain observed domain of science between the natural
phenomena and the social sciences

What must be How the world works How an individual constructs a How people create,
explained “reality” maintain, and change
social systems through
language and ideas

A key assumption Natural processes can be Ideas about knowledge should Ideas are accepted if they
explained by be rooted in serve the observer’s
scientific theories neurophysiology. purposes as a social
participant
An important Scientific knowledge can If people accept constructivism, By transforming conceptual
consequence be used to modify they will be more tolerant systems (through
natural processes to persuasion, not
benefit people coercion), we can
change society

Three Versions of Cybernetics 100

Stuart A. Umpleby
 The cybernetics of science

NORMAL SCIENCE

The correspondence Incommensurable

principle definitions

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

Stuart A. Umpleby
101
 The Correspondence Principle

• Proposed by Niels Bohr when developing the quantum theory

• Any new theory should reduce to the old theory to which it
corresponds for those cases in which the old theory is known to
hold
• A new dimension is required

Stuart A. Umpleby
102
 New philosophy of science

Old philosophy of science

Amount of attention paid to

the observer

An Application of the Correspondence Principle

Stuart A. Umpleby
103
KLASSISKA VETENSKAPER I RELATION TILL ANDRA
KUNSKAPSOMRÅDEN

Logic
&
Mathematics

Natural Sciences
(Physics,
Chemistry,
Biology, …)

Social Sciences
(Economics,
Sociology,
Anthropology, …)

The Humanities
(Philosophy, History, Kultur (religion,
Linguistics …) konst..)

104
 CROSS DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH FIELDS

Our scheme represents the classical groups of sciences.

Modern sciences are stretching through several fields of our scheme.

Computer science e.g. includes the field of AI that has its roots in
mathematical logic and mathematics but uses physics, chemistry and
biology and even has parts where medicine and psychology are very
important.

Examples: Environmental studies, Cognitive sciences, Cultural studies,

Policy sciences, Information sciences, Women’s studies,
Molecular biology, Philosophy of Computing and Information,
Bioinformatics, ..

105
 CROSS DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH FIELDS

Disciplinary change is a present day phenomenon.

The discovery of DNA in the 1970s was a ”cognitive revolution”

which refigured traditional demarcations of physics, chemistry and
biology.

New fields of application arose.

New discoveries, tools, and approaches change the way that
research is conducted at empirical and methodological
levels.

106
SCIENCE, RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

Research

TECHNOLOGY EXPANDS OUR WAYS

OF
THINKING ABOUT THINGS, EXPANDS
OUR WAYS OF DOING THINGS.
Herbert A. Simon

Development
Science
Technology

107
 n

a
n
d

C
r
u
d
e

C
o
m
p
l ix
e
Preface
x
i
t
Part I The Simple and the Complex
y

4 R 4 1 Prologue: An Encounter in the Jungle 3

a 3
n 2 Early Light 11
d
o
m 3 Information and Crude Complexity 23
n
e
s
4 Randomness 43
s
5 A Child Learning a Language 51
5 A 5
1
C 6 Bacteria Developing Drug Resistance 63
h
i 7 The Scientific Enterprise 75
l
d
8 The Power of Theory 89
L
e
a
10
r
9 What Is Fundamental?
7
n
i
n
g

L
a
n
g
u
a
g
e 108
6 B 6
a 3
c
 m
p
l
e
x
i
t
y

4 R 4
a 3
n
d Part II The Quantum Universe
o
m
n
e
s
s

5 A 5 Simplicity and Randomness in the Quantum

1 10 123
C Universe
h
i
l
d

L
e A Contemporary View of Quantum Mechanics:
a
r 11 Quantum Mechanics and the Classical 135
n
i
Approximation
n
g

L
a
n
12 Quantum Mechanics and Flapdoodle 167
g
u
a
g
e

6 B 6 13 Quarks and All That: The Standard Model 177

a 3
c
t
e
r
i
a 14 Superstring Theory: Unification at Last? 199
D
e
v
e
l
o
p 15 Time's Arrows: Forward and Backward Time 215
i
n
g

D
r
u
109
g

R
e
 m
p
l
e
x
i
t
y

4 R 4 Part III Selection and Fitness

a 3
n
d
o
m Selection at Work in Biological Evolution and 23
n 16
e Elsewhere 5
s
s
26
5 A 5 17 From Learning to Creative Thinking
1 1
C
h
i 27
l 18 Superstition and Skepticism
d 5
L
e 29
a 19 Adaptive and Maladaptive Schemata
r
1
n
i
n 30
g
20 Machines That Learn or Simulate Learning
7
a

L
a Part IV Diversity and Sustainability
n
g
u
a
g 32
e 21 Diversities Under Threat
9
6 B 6
a 3
c 34
t 22 Transitions to a More Sustainable World
e 5
r
i
a 36
23 Afterword
D 7
e
v
e
l 37
o Index
p 7
i
n
g

D
r
u
110
g

R
e
 CLASSICAL SCIENCES
HAVE SPECIFIC AREAS OF VALIDITY

111
Scientific Worldview: the Structure of Matter

112
 DNA - Deoxyribonucleic Acid

DNA is the primary chemical component of

chromosomes and the material of which genes are made 113
DNA – BASE MOLECULE

114
MOLECULE - ATOM

115
ATOM – NUCLEUS - NUCLEON

116
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FORCES

117
 POSTMODERNISM

From the mid 1970s to the late 1990s a cluster of anti-rationalist

ideas became increasingly prevalent among academic
sociologists in America, France and Britain.

Those ideas have formed following fields

- Deconstructionism
- Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK)
- Social Constructivism or
- Science and Technology Studies (STS).

The umbrella term for above movements was Postmodernism.

118
 POSTMODERNISTS ANTI-SCIENTISM

All forms of post-modernism were anti-scientific, anti-philosophical and

generally highly skeptic about rationalism.
The view of science as a search for truths (or approximate truths)
about the world was resolutely rejected.

According to postmodernists, the natural world has a small or non-

existent role in the construction of scientific knowledge.
Science was just another social practice, producing ``narrations'' and
``myths'' with no more validity than the myths of pre-scientific
peoples.

119
 POSTMODERNISTS ANTI-SCIENTISM

``The dictum that everything that people do is 'cultural' ... licenses the idea
that every cultural critic can meaningfully analyze even the most
intricate accomplishments of art and science. ... It is distinctly weird to
listen to pronouncements on the nature of mathematics from the lips of
someone who cannot tell you what a complex number is!''

Norman Levitt, from "The flight From Science and Reason," New York
Academy of Science. Quoted from p. 183 in the October 11, 1996
Science)

120
 POSTMODERNISTS ANTI-SCIENTISM

Modernism has provided the philosophical foundation for much of Western

culture since the Enlightenment. Modernism reaches its highest form in
“science” although this approach arguably influences all of Western
culture.

Inherent in modernism is the notion of an essence: the truth behind the

appearances we see around us. Science is about discovering these
essences as science slowly reveals the truth about the world around
us. Postmodernist attacks on essentialism have taken aim at this
modernism version of essentialism.

121
 POSTMODERNISTS ANTI-SCIENTISM

• Third, postmodernists assert that because no interpretative framework

can be objectively shown to be true or false, the choice of interpretative
framework is purely relativist and subjective. We are in the world of
subjective values. That is, anything goes.

• This postmodern perspective provokes astonishment among those

working within a modernist framework. For the most part, such people
merely scoff at postmodernist attacks and believe no response is
needed—or possible—to what is seen as irrational anti-scientism.

122
 Objectivity and Values

Postmodernism’s attack on modernism has undercut modernism’s

pretension to scientific objectivity. Yet postmodernism’s success is
actually very narrow and their devastating critique of modernism does
not carry over to non-modernist perspectives on essences. Despite the
great confidence of many postmodern thinkers, postmodernism makes
sense as a general critique only if you accept two flaws of logic.

Postmodernist values appear to be the following:

• people have a right to decide what to believe,
• oppression is bad, and
• diversity of interpretive frameworks is good.

123
 An Alternative Resolution

Both modernism and postmodernism subscribe to the false dilemma

discussed above: we face a stark—and necessary—choice between
the correspondence theory of truth and the subjectivist approach.

“But in time, both in philosophy and politics, new ideas become old ideas; what was
once challenging, becomes predictable and boring; and what once served to focus
attention where it should be focused, later keeps discussion from considering new
alternatives. This has now happened in the debate between the correspondence views
of truth and subjectivist views. “
Hilary Putnam Reason, Truth and History, Cambridge University Press, 1981, page x.

124
 AFTER POSTMODERNISM’S DEATH ...
Interdisciplinarity and Complexity

• Relationships between economy, politics, law, media, and

science

• Emergent phenomena with nonlinear dynamics.

• Effects have positive and negative feedback to causes,

uncertainties continue to arise, and unexpected results occur.

• ‘Reality’ is a nexus of interrelated phenomena that are not

reducible to a single dimension (Goorhuis, 2000; Egger &
Jungmeier, 2000; Caetano, et al., 2000).
125
 AFTER POSTMODERNISM’S DEATH ...
Interdisciplinarity and Complexity

The new discourse centers on problem- and solution-oriented

research incorporating participatory approaches:

– problem-oriented,
– beyond disciplinarity,
– practice-oriented,
– participatory, and
– process-oriented.

126
 EFTER POSTMODERNISMENS DÖD ...
Interdisciplinarity and Complexity

Interdisciplinarity is necessitated by complexity. The nature of

complex systems, provides a comprehensive rationale for
interdisciplinary study, unifies the apparently divergent
approaches, and offers guidance for criteria in each step of the
integrative process.

The ultimate objective of any interdisciplinary inquiry becomes

understanding the portion of the world modeled by a particular
complex system. (William Newell)

127