Kategoria BISAC: Science >> System Theory

The theory of nonlinear, complex systems has become by now a proven problem-solving approach in the natural sciences. And it is now also recognized that many if not most of our social, ecological, economical and political problems are essentially of a global, complex and nonlinear nature. And it is now further accepted than any holistic perspective of the human mind and brain can hardly be achieved by any other approach. In this wide-ranging, scholarly but very concise treatment, physicist, computer scientist and philosopher Klaus Mainzer discusses, in essentially nontechnical language,...

Are there universal principles of coordinated group motion and if so what might they be? This carefully edited book presents how natural groupings such as fish schools, bird flocks, deer herds etc. coordinate themselves and move so flawlessly, often without an apparent leader or any form of centralized control. It shows how the underlying principles of cooperative control may be used for groups of mobile autonomous agents to help enable a large group of autonomous robotic vehicles in the air, on land or sea or underwater, to collectively accomplish useful tasks such as distributed,...

How real is reality? Are our images of the world mere inventions, or does an external reality correspond to them? Is it possible to know the truth?
These are questions that physicist and philosopher Heinz von Foerster and journalist Bernhard Poerksen debate about in their conversations. Together, they explore the borders of our capacity for knowledge. They discuss the seeming objectivity of our sensual perception, the consequences of "truth terrorism" and the connections between knowledge and ethics, sight and insight.

Combining research approaches from biology, philosophy and linguistics, the field of Biosemiotics proposes that animals, plants and single cells all engage in semiosis the conversion of objective signals into conventional signs. This has important implications and applications for issues ranging from natural selection to animal behavior and human psychology, leaving biosemiotics at the cutting edge of the research on the fundamentals of life.

Drawing on an international expertise, the book details the history and study of biosemiotics, and provides a state-of-the-art summary of the...

A Novel Method to Analyze Problems and Encourage Systemic Thinking
Real-Life Case Studies Illustrate the Application of the Systemic Yoyo Model in Diverse Areas

Written by the co-creator of the systemic yoyo model, Systemic Yoyos: Some Impacts of the Second Dimension shows how the yoyo model and its methodology can be employed to study many unsettled or extremely difficult problems in modern science and technology.

The first part of the book presents the theoretical foundation of the yoyo model and its...

Aimed at professionals active in subsea production systems, in particular those engaged in the control and monitoring of such installations, and engineers keen to keep abreast of current practice and technologies, this volume covers operational experience of long offset control and monitoring, as well as enhanced oil recovery...

Advancing a methodology that is...