Autopoietic Machines Research Articles

Cyber-Pedagogy

The use of virtual and digital technological resources is a phenomenon that crosses humanity in such an intense way that it often interferes with the existential naturalness of individuals and allows to launch to the world, even if in a subtle and gradual way, a relationship of mastery of the machine with the mankind. The work aims to make the reader aware of the problem of the human-machine relationship and bring paths and reflections based on a perspective of studies and debates in the field of Philosophy, about this functioning in which it can generate a subservient behavior of the human as the creator of digital functions. but that loses this domain due to the self-development of the machine. The study's methodology is bibliographic research, as well as references to films and series such as Akira (1988); Neon Genenis Evangelion (1995) and Ghost In The Shell (1995) that address this issue and serve as a basis for analyzing the facts raised as problematic. The main result of the research was the discussions based on the term Cyber-pedagogy, which is replaced and empowered from a neologistic perspective that attributes this term to a pedagogical operation in which the autopoietic machine educates the individual and can subject him/her to a process of human instrumentalization, of which the human would be an instrument for the use of the machine and digital resources by losing its essence as the creator of the virtual digital resource.

From data Processing to Knowledge Processing: Working with Operational Schemas by Autopoietic Machines

Knowledge processing is an important feature of intelligence in general and artificial intelligence in particular. To develop computing systems working with knowledge, it is necessary to elaborate the means of working with knowledge representations (as opposed to data), because knowledge is an abstract structure. There are different forms of knowledge representations derived from data. One of the basic forms is called a schema, which can belong to one of three classes: operational, descriptive, and representation schemas. The goal of this paper is the development of theoretical and practical tools for processing operational schemas. To achieve this goal, we use schema representations elaborated in the mathematical theory of schemas and use structural machines as a powerful theoretical tool for modeling parallel and concurrent computational processes. We describe the schema of autopoietic machines as physical realizations of structural machines. An autopoietic machine is a technical system capable of regenerating, reproducing, and maintaining itself by production, transformation, and destruction of its components and the networks of processes downstream contained in them. We present the theory and practice of designing and implementing autopoietic machines as information processing structures integrating both symbolic computing and neural networks. Autopoietic machines use knowledge structures containing the behavioral evolution of the system and its interactions with the environment to maintain stability by counteracting fluctuations.

Trama de ‘floresceres’ no ensino da ciência. Percursos orientados por entrelaços de amorosidade, confiança e alegria, em processos autopoiéticos de ensino e produção da ciência

The text has an essayistic character, as a result of 30 years of teaching, research, consulting and supervision of texts, linked to the science production, in several areas. The weft of 'floresceres', on Science teaching, proposes to present signs found in the teaching pathways, guided by assumptions of amorousness, trust and joy, on autopoietic process, involving graduating students, specialization, master's degree and doctorate degree in many areas, special and directly, in the work developed on six brazilian universities, with partnerships with researchers of, at leats, eight countries. The theoretical referential is transdisciplinary, Strongly marked by Schizoanalysis of Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze, as well as by epistemological assumptions of contemporary science mutation, signaled by authors as Fritjof Capra, Roberto Crema, Boaventura de Souza Santos, Deepak Chopra, Amit Goswmani, Marcelo Gleiser and others. On education, stands out the thouth of Paulo Freire, Francisco Varela and Humberto Maturana, always in association to the schizoanalytical assumptions, especially regarding the autopoietic machines of subjectivity production. In methodological terms, the text has a guiding of authoral strategy named as Knowledge Cartography, in combination with Rhizomatic Matrices, seeking the combination between four investigation paths: Personal Knowledge, Theorical Knowledge, Factory Production and Intuitive Dimension of the Research, with the matrix alignment of narrative flows, with the matrix alignment of narrative flows, possible to be apprehended only in reflective rhizomes.

MÁQUINA E REALIDADE: CIBERNÉTICA, AUTOPOIESE E PRODUÇÃO DE SUBJETIVIDADE EM FÉLIX GUATTARI

O presente artigo tem como objetivo abordar o conceito de máquina e a consequente apropriação do mesmo nas discussões sobre a subjetividade. É um estudo teórico na interface entre psicologia, filosofia, física e biologia. Nesse sentido, ele se inicia apresentando que, na modernidade, a analogia à máquina foi estendida à compreensão do universo como sendo um relógio preciso e geometricamente previsível em seu funcionar. E se, até o século XVIII, a vida, o corpo e o cosmos foram significados, pela ciência emergente, como uma máquina mecânica (de movimento calculável em sua previsibilidade), no século XIX estes passaram igualmente a serem compreendidos como uma máquina térmica, com seus desdobramentos na física da termodinâmica e na cibernética. No final do século XX, a partir dos trabalhos dos biólogos Francisco Varela e Humberto Maturana, o conceito de máquina autopoiética ganhou relevância nos estudos sobre a vida e sobre a cognição, sendo este apropriado por Félix Guattari no desenvolvimento de seu conceito de produção de subjetividade e suas problematizações em torno dos processos de subjetivação. Assim, o conceito de máquina saiu das limitações de uma leitura mecânica e termodinâmica da realidade, para uma abordagem existencial, processual e inventiva da subjetividade.

Carrying pieces of information in organocatalytic bytes: Semiopoiesis—A new theory of life and its origins

Living beings have been classically described as autopoietic machines: chemical systems, which maintain a reproducible steady state by producing their components and boundaries. On the other hand, very simple autopoietic micelles have been produced in laboratory. They consist in micelles able to catalyse the production of their own surfactants. However is very clear that these autopoietic systems are unable to evolve. In this way, these autopoietic micelles cannot be associated to living organisms, which are always linked by evolutionary relationships. Here I claim that living beings are a class of autopoietic systems able to conserve molecular information, a feature denoted by the term semiopoiesis. By defining the molecular information of their products, semiopoietic systems control their interaction with the medium and, by being able to convey molecular information beneficial to the maintenance of the organization to their offspring, semiopoietic systems can evolve by natural selection. Information can be described as a specific state or order assumed among a set of other possible states or orders. Thus, molecular information is the specific order by which the molecular components are ordered, such as the sequence of nucleotides in nucleic acids or of amino acids in proteins. However, molecular information is not limited to copolymers. The atoms in small organic compounds may also present diverse orders, giving rise to isomers. Different isomers can present very distinct chemical and physical properties such that the biophysical-chemical properties of an organic compound are determined by its composition and molecular information i.e. the specific positions in which their atoms are posited. This molecular information can be conserved during reactions catalysed by selective organocatalysts. In this way, organocatalysts appear as plausible candidates to primitive hosts for the genetic information, before the emergence of systems based in biopolymers. The bases of a putative organocatalysts-based evolution are discussed. Finally, I argue that organocatalytic micelles can be designed to produce programmable materials, artificial photosynthesis, self-building materials and artificial life with relevant industrial impact.

Human being – organization homomorphism: between autopoiesis and allopoiesis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the condition of human beings and organizations producing goods and/or services as autopoietic and allopoietic machines, with the aim of establishing a functional homomorphism between the productive system of an organization and the productive system of human beings, a matter that involves reflecting on what human beings do that is distinguished as allopoietic by an observer. Design/methodology/approach – Use is made of Ashby’s concept of functional homomorphism to establish similarities between human beings and organizations. The definitions of autopoietic and allopoietic machine of Maturana and Varela are used to distinguish similarities and differences between what organizations do and what human beings do. Findings – As a result of using the autopoietic/allopoietic viewpoint, it is proposed to homologate the human nervous system with the production system of an organization, defining the latter as a world-creating energy/communication processing system. Research limitations/implications – A homomorphism is established here between a human nervous system and the production system of an organization; it remains pending the other homomorphisms that can be made between the systems of the human body and the organization. Practical implications – A proposal is made to understand an organization as a world-creating energy/communication processing system, and it is estimated that this would imply displacing attention, at present strongly centered on the generated products and/or services, toward the sense that they have for both persons and society, restating the question on the world we construct/live in, from the organizational standpoint. Originality/value – Human beings are seen as allopoietic machines, aiming to contribute to the discussion about what it is that we call human, homologating it with the work of an organization. As a result a new definition of organization is proposed.

Explaining Maturana's Concept of Autopoiesis

This document is the printed version of a PowerPoint presentation screened during a talk given by the author at a Seminar in the University of Essex, UK, 26th April 2012. In this occasion, reference was made to the fundamental ideas and discussions presented in a series of 3 papers published by the author in the Constructivist Foundations Journal (Ed. Alexander Riegler), aimed at a rigorous explanation of Humberto Maturana's Concept of Autopoiesis: a) Autopoietic Systems: A Generalized Explanatory Approach - Part 1: Vol 6, No. 3, pp. 307-324, July 2011; b) Autopoietic Systems: A Generalized Explanatory Approach - Part 2: Vol 7, No. 1, pp. 48-67, November 2011; c) Autopoietic Systems: A Generalized Explanatory Approach - Part 3: The Scale of Description Problem: Vol 7, No. 3, pp. 180-195, July 2012.A 4th paper on the subject is under press and will be published in Constructivist Foundations Journal 2014, under the title: Autopoiesis?: The Problem - Under which physical and components’ relational conditions can some social systems be properly considered as autopoietic unities compliant with the six Varela-Maturana-Uribe's rules? The three abovementioned papers are intended for specialists of different disciplines interested in Theory of Autopoiesis and in particular by the still unresolved debate concerning the existence social or economical organizations that could be considered as autopoietic systems like the molecular autopoietic systems existing in the biological domain. As the seminal work of Humberto Maturana has encountered some problems in being fully and correctly understood in scientific domains other than theoretical biology or cognitive sciences, I intend to propose some general systemic distinctions that I consider as necessary to explain the notion of autopoietic system, as implied from the grounding definitions proposed by Maturana and Varela. In my opinion, the above mentioned debate is rooted in a poor and incomplete application of the rigorous distinctions, definitions and epistemological considerations introduced by Humberto Maturana when he coined the term autopoiesis.The theory of autopoietic systems was stated in cybernetic terms whereby biological organisms can be considered as particular cases of a more general class of dynamic systems, namely the class of autopoietic machines. Broadly, an observed system may appear as behaving autonomously and as being self-producing like a biological autopoietic machine, but in practice some precise distinctions need to be verified through observation in order to properly claim its autopoietic nature. These distinctions were defined by Maturana, Varela and Uribe as a set of decisional rules whereby an observer may provide the answers to six basic questions and eventually justify a positive claim by means of descriptions of observational experiences performed in the system‟s domain of existence. The entailments of applying the six decisional rules one by one in the most general case - when the nature of the phenomenal domain is not specified - are analyzed thoroughly. The purpose of this exercise is to explain through which basic distinctions an observer may bring forth more elaborated descriptions that are essential to identify a structure determined dynamic activity compliant with the rules that define an autopoietic machine in a composite system being so far unknown as a member of the class of autopoietic systems.In all three papers are successively presented and discussed in details the necessary cognitive steps that an observer should perform in order to focus on pertinent observations that would allow him or her to describe a suspected autopoietic behavior shown by an observed composite dynamic system. By following the entailments of Maturana's proposed distinctions concerning the nature of the dynamic components that build up an autopoietic system, it is shown that this task must be completed by focusing our attention on what happens “inside the boundaries”, how observers can describe the intra-boundary phenomenology in order to explain how the key processes (like self-organization, self-production of components and self-adaptation to varying environmental circumstances) do manifest themselves. These explanations are vital to reveal what is determinant in general and applicable in particular to an observed system so that observers can validate an eventual claim about it being autopoietic.This approach could be valuable to tackle the application of Autopoiesis Theory beyond the realm of Biology and settle ongoing discussions in Social Sciences and Economics on this subject. Extensions of this analysis to other Cognitive Sciences disciplines, like Knowledge Management in Organizations, for example, are also envisioned.

Autopoietic Systems in General Phenomenal Domains

Autopoietic Systems in General Phenomenal Domains

Agamben's geographies of modernity

Abstract This paper examines the geographical underpinnings of Giorgio Agamben's theory of sovereign power. Reflecting on Agamben's attempt in developing a unified theory of power, I highlight the eminently spatial nature of two of the key concepts that mark his argument: the structure of the ban and the camp as a paradigm of modern politics. In particular, I analyse how the spatialisation of biopolitics finds in the camp the ideal site for the definition of endless caesurae in the body of the nation, and for the definition of population as a merely spatial concept. I claim, therefore, that the biopolitical state machine activated by the recent war on terror is not only an autopoietic machine, but that it is also at the origin of new geographies of exception that are imposing a new nomos on global politics: a nomos within which decision is produced by a permanent state of exception, and where law exists only through its endless strategic (dis)application.