Climate and weather in self-organization

Without a doubt, the most common topic of conversation among inhabitants of the world is the weather. In a broader sense, this is quite reasonable. Collapses of many ancient societies can be attributed to rapid shifts in climate. The blame on social, economic and political forces must often be considered secondary causes. Sudden dramatic

The economy as self-organization

If an economical system manages to diversify and increase its complexity above a certain critical level, it undergoes an explosive increase in growth and creativity. This is called economic take off and is a kind of spontaneous self-organization. In market economies, this self-organization creates equilibrium between supply, demand, and prices. Diminishing returns ensure that

Artificial Intelligence and Life in system perspective

Progressive scientific optimists in Western societies are often heard to promote two main projects: that of nuclear fusion and of artificial intelligence. While billions of dollars have been invested in both of these areas and very little has happened, proponents are still claiming that a breakthrough is very near. To understand why the difficulties

The Turing test

Let us now return to the behaviouristic attitude and comment on the Turing test. This test was introduced in 1950 by the computer scientist Alan Turing (1912-1954). Its purpose was to find out if a computer really could have the capability to think. The idea was as simple as it was brilliant. A person

Parallel processing and neural networks

Today a significant part of the development of artificial intelligence is carried out within the area of neural nets and parallel processing. Researchers and medical neuroscientists within this area are often referred to as connectionists. They hold that mental functions such as cognition and learning depend upon the way in which neurons interconnect and

Expert systems

One of the beneficiaries of the spin-off effects of the AI area are expert systems, programs for problem solving in some scientific or technical domain. An expert system can be defined as a computer based system comprising the total sum of knowledge and rules of thumb which represent the highest level of expertise in

Some other applications of Artificial Intelligence

The potential application of both neural networks and parallel processing is most obvious in the areas of natural language understanding and speech recognition. To break the language barrier to knowledge, computer translation of scientific correspondence, papers and books would be a tremendous achievement. With the exponential proliferation of publications of all kinds, something which

Artificial life

Artificial life, AL, is a fairly new science and a first attempt to define the area involves parallels with artificial intelligence. As AI relates to intelligence, so artificial life will relate to life itself. Like the AI researchers, investigators in artificial life are attempting to create this phenomenon in a medium other than the

Computer viruses as Artificial life

Hitherto the only appreciable influence of AL on our own physical reality has been the consequences of computer viruses. Computer viruses reproduce and propagate by copying themselves into another computer or to some kind of electronic memory. They manage the metabolism of its host and implement their own functions just as real viruses do

A gloomy future of Artificial life

In a previous chapter (see p. 22) the existing pessimism at the turn of the foregoing century was mentioned. In the presence of our own turn of the century we must establish the fact that the world and society still are considered to have a very gloomy future by many scientists. The main threat

Organizational Theory and Management Cybernetics in system perspective

Organizations are a product of the surrounding society whose needs they serve. They have to survive and keep to its identity in this environment which must be thoroughly known if success should be possible. A characteristic of this social milieu includes the following: All changes in society take place with increasing speed. Science and technology

The origin of modern trading corporations in system perspective

To solve large-scale problems of different kind has always implied the compiling and combining of resources with labour. Certain goal can only be attained by cooperation and collaboration resulting in division of labour and specialization. The mediaeval man was well aware of these facts which lay behind his attempts of new social organization, where

The development of organizational theory in system perspective

The industrial revolution and the resulting technological, economical and social development initiated a great interest in organizational questions. But first at the foregoing turn of the century, different organizational schools had been established. The advancement of organizational theory cannot be separated from contemporary scientific and social development. Scientific management and bureaucratic design were brain-childs

The non-avoidable hierarchy in system perspective

To follow the development of modern organizational design is to witness a perpetual attack on the idea of the hierarchical organization. It has been accused from a great variety of perspectives and every new generation has taken the aim of breaking down its vertical boundaries. Instead they have a new revolutionary alternative design just

Organizational design in system perspective

When society changes in many areas, the shape of the organization quite naturally also changes. But like other phenomena in our world, new and old organizational design also exist side by side. We therefore can see old bureaucracies in the best of health as well as new matrix organizations existing simultaneously. A continuum of

Multiple perspectives of management cybernetics

As we already know, systemic and cybernetic scientists use metaphors as a means for explaining and providing insight and understanding into complex phenomena. When it comes to organizations a plethora of metaphors and perspectives have been suggested. Some of them are: Organizations as organisms Organizations as control systems Organizations as brains Organizations as machines

A systems approach in ten points

To conclude this chapter of the complex organization and its management, the following ten points is an attempt to sum up in systemic terms what has been discussed. Organizations change according to processes that take place on its own organizational level. The individual members only set the specific control parameters that define its behaviour

Decision-Making and Decision Aids in system perspective

Systems can be described in terms of inputs transformed into outputs, as a process of fulfilment of  a  purpose,  or the  pursuit of  a  goal.  The last is the equivalent of decision-making and together with monitoring and evaluation it is a basic human activity. As such, it concerns the main components of the cybernetic control

Some concepts and distinctions of Making and Decision Aids in system perspective

In order to understand the nature of decision-making (and the need for computer support) a description of the characteristics of a decision situation must first be given. It can be defined with the items below. A problem exists. At least two alternatives for action remain. Knowledge exists of the objective and its relationship to

Basic decision aids in system perspective

During the past years a number of mainly mathematical techniques have been developed to assist the decision maker. These techniques are called decision aids and their use is intended to maximize the probability that the chosen decision is the best one. Among the better known are the following: decision trees decision matrices linear programming