Triadic motifs and dyadic self-organization in the World Trade Network

In self-organizing networks, topology and dynamics coevolve in a continuous feedback, without exogenous driving. The World Trade Network (WTN) is one of the few empirically well documented examples of self-organizing networks: its topology strongly depends on the GDP of world countries, which in turn depends on the structure of trade. Therefore, understanding which are the key topological properties of the WTN that deviate from randomness provides direct empirical information about the structural effects of self-organization. Here, using an analytical pattern-detection method that we have recently proposed, we study the occurrence of triadic "motifs" (subgraphs of three vertices) in the WTN between 1950 and 2000. We find that, unlike other properties, motifs are not explained by only the in- and out-degree sequences. By contrast, they are completely explained if also the numbers of reciprocal edges are taken into account. This implies that the self-organization process underlying the evolution of the WTN is almost completely encoded into the dyadic structure, which strongly depends on reciprocity.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; Best Paper Award at the 6th International Conference on Self-Organizing Systems, Delft, The Netherlands, 15-16/03/201

INSTITUTIONAL APPROACHES TO THE ORGANIZATION OF COMPLEX SELF-GOVERNING SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

The object of research is complex self-regulatory socio-economic systems (such as: enterprise, company, corporation, civil society). Investigated problem: the problem to be solved consists in substantiating conceptual approaches in the principles of organizing complex self-governing socio-economic systems and substantiating the concepts of their management system. The main scientific results of the research are the conceptual substantiation of the approaches of both organizing complex self-governing socio-economic systems depending on the objective function of the main activity, and designing management systems to achieve the objective function in market conditions, through the use of existing production and intellectual potentials of the system. It is shown that in modern conditions of activity, and in the near future, it is forecasting the functional approaches of complex self-governing socio-economic systems based on the use of organizational and production potential and the intellectual potential of workers. At the same time, their organizational structures and operational management systems will be designed, for the most part, taking into account activities in market relations. The basis of such approaches is the level of organizational and technological production processes that can in a certain way contribute to the achievement of goals and the intelligence of the staff. The scope of research results can be the design processes of civil societies, corporations by type of activity, enterprises as complex self-governing socio-economic systems. An innovative technological product is the conceptual approaches of designing economically oriented elements in complex self-governing socio-economic systems. The scope of the innovative technological product is any industry, line of business

Organizing Open Digital Innovation: Evidence from Hackathons

In this research, I study a novel open digital innovation phenomenon called hackathons. Hackathon, literally meaning a sprint of coding, is an open source programming competition for problem solving. Hackathons lead to self-organizing of a new group at the onset of a challenge, which questions a previously dominant imagery in organization studies that organization already exists as a static entity. The Information Systems (IS) scholars have recently started studying new organizational arrangements in terms of open innovation but we have paid less attention in emerging hackathon organizing. By taking a close look at this distinct environment for innovation, the study can provide a coherent account on the generative mechanism for open innovation and its relationship with the characteristics of digital technology. This research contributes to theory by looking at what transpires in this new organizing context for open digital innovation

Predicting green: really radical (plant) predictive processing

In this article we account for the way plants respond to salient features of their environment under the free-energy principle for biological systems. Biological self-organization amounts to the minimization of surprise over time. We posit that any self-organizing system must embody a generative model whose predictions ensure that (expected) free energy is minimized through action. Plants respond in a fast, and yet coordinated manner, to environmental contingencies. They pro-actively sample their local environment to elicit information with an adaptive value. Our main thesis is that plant behaviour takes place by way of a process (active inference) that predicts the environmental sources of sensory stimulation. This principle, we argue, endows plants with a form of perception that underwrites purposeful, anticipatory behaviour. The aim of the article is to assess the prospects of a radical predictive processing story that would follow naturally from the free-energy principle for biological systems; an approach that may ultimately bear upon our understanding of life and cognition more broadly

Dynamical system with plastic self-organized velocity field as an alternative conceptual model of a cognitive system

It is well known that architecturally the brain is a neural network, i.e. a collection of many relatively simple units coupled flexibly. However, it has been unclear how the possession of this architecture enables higher-level cognitive functions, which are unique to the brain. Here, we consider the brain from the viewpoint of dynamical systems theory and hypothesize that the unique feature of the brain, the self-organized plasticity of its architecture, could represent the means of enabling the self-organized plasticity of its velocity vector field. We propose that, conceptually, the principle of cognition could amount to the existence of appropriate rules governing self-organization of the velocity field of a dynamical system with an appropriate account of stimuli. To support this hypothesis, we propose a simple non-neuromorphic mathematical model with a plastic self-organized velocity field, which has no prototype in physical world. This system is shown to be capable of basic cognition, which is illustrated numerically and with musical data. Our conceptual model could provide an additional insight into the working principles of the brain. Moreover, hardware implementations of plastic velocity fields self-organizing according to various rules could pave the way to creating artificial intelligence of a novel type

Minimal self-models and the free energy principle

The term “minimal phenomenal selfhood” (MPS) describes the basic, pre-reflective experience of being a self (Blanke and Metzinger, 2009). Theoretical accounts of the minimal self have long recognized the importance and the ambivalence of the body as both part of the physical world, and the enabling condition for being in this world (Gallagher, 2005a; Grafton, 2009). A recent account of MPS (Metzinger, 2004a) centers on the consideration that minimal selfhood emerges as the result of basic self-modeling mechanisms, thereby being founded on pre-reflective bodily processes. The free energy principle (FEP; Friston, 2010) is a novel unified theory of cortical function built upon the imperative that self-organizing systems entail hierarchical generative models of the causes of their sensory input, which are optimized by minimizing free energy as an approximation of the log-likelihood of the model. The implementation of the FEP via predictive coding mechanisms and in particular the active inference principle emphasizes the role of embodiment for predictive self-modeling, which has been appreciated in recent publications. In this review, we provide an overview of these conceptions and illustrate thereby the potential power of the FEP in explaining the mechanisms underlying minimal selfhood and its key constituents, multisensory integration, interoception, agency, perspective, and the experience of mineness. We conclude that the conceptualization of MPS can be well mapped onto a hierarchical generative model furnished by the FEP and may constitute the basis for higher-level, cognitive forms of self-referral, as well as the understanding of other minds.Peer Reviewe

(WP 2020-01) The Sea Battle Tomorrow: The Identity of Reflexive Economic Agents

This paper develops a conception of reflexive economic agents as an alternative to the standard utility conception, and explains individual identity in terms of how agents adjust to change in a self-organizing way, an idea developed from Herbert Simon. The paper distinguishes closed equilibrium and open process conceptions of the economy, and argues the former fails to explain time in a before-and-after sense in connection with Aristotle’s sea battle problem. A causal model is developed to represent the process conception, and a structure-agency understanding of the adjustment behavior of reflexive economic agents is illustrated using Merton’s self-fulfilling prophecy analysis. Simon’s account of how adjustment behavior has stopping points is then shown to underlie how agents’ identities are disrupted and then self-organized, and the identity analysis this involves is applied to the different identity models of Merton, Ross, Arthur, and Kirman. Finally, the self-organization idea is linked to the recent ‘preference purification’ debate in bounded rationality theory regarding the ‘inner rational agent trapped in an outer psychological shell,’ and it is argued that the behavior of self-organizing agents involves them taking positions toward their own individual identities

Understanding and managing a complex estuary: the process towards more congruence between the physical system characteristics and the management system of the Westerschelde (Netherlands)

International audienceIn this article, we expand on the relationship between the social processes of policymaking, management and research in the context of the Westerschelde estuary. This complex estuary system, located in Belgium and the Netherlands, has its own morphological and ecological characteristics and dynamics, and has three core functions: economically, it makes the port of Antwerp accessible; ecologically, it generates habitats for certain unique species; and in terms of safety, it prevents the hinterland from being flooded. We analyze how the social processes of policymaking, management and analysis have focused on these three aspects, and how they have affected the estuary. We proceed to develop a framework for evaluating the social system of policy-making, management and research. This framework focuses on the social system's adaptive capabilities (how it evolved in a non-linear fashion), integrative capacity (how the system's interconnectivity was taken into account), and participative competencies (how the different interests and insights regarding the estuary were absorbed). This framework was then applied to twenty years of policymaking about, management of, and research on the Westerschelde estuary. We conclude that, because of policy learning effects, policy/management and research take the estuary's self-organizing capacities into account much more than they did in the past. However, the self-referential behaviour of policymakers, managers and researchers makes it possible that an anthropocentric and technocratic approach towards managing the estuary, indicating a disconnection between the social and physical systems, could return