248,758 research outputs found
Contextual emergence of intentionality
By means of an intriguing physical example, magnetic surface swimmers, that
can be described in terms of Dennett's intentional stance, I reconstruct a
hierarchy of necessary and sufficient conditions for the applicability of the
intentional strategy. It turns out that the different levels of the intentional
hierarchy are contextually emergent from their respective subjacent levels by
imposing stability constraints upon them. At the lowest level of the hierarchy,
phenomenal physical laws emerge for the coarse-grained description of open,
nonlinear, and dissipative nonequilibrium systems in critical states. One level
higher, dynamic patterns, such as, e.g., magnetic surface swimmers, are
contextually emergent as they are invariant under certain symmetry operations.
Again one level up, these patterns behave apparently rational by selecting
optimal pathways for the dissipation of energy that is delivered by external
gradients. This is in accordance with the restated Second Law of thermodynamics
as a stability criterion. At the highest level, true believers are intentional
systems that are stable under exchanging their observation conditions.Comment: 27 pages; 4 figures (Fig 1. Copyright by American Physical Society);
submitted to Journal of Consciousness Studie
Individual emergence in contextual analysis
Located within the tradition of Hermeneutic Dialectics (HD) this paper offers an approach which can further an analysis of a fit between information and organizational systems. Drawn upon Information Systems Development projects a relationship between theory and practice is aided through a multi-disciplinary approach to sense making activity. Using a contemporary version of contextual analysis to understand a way in which individuals construct adapt and create meaning from their environment offers a route to improve a systems analysis process. This type of enquiry into contextual dependencies of knowledge creation can help direct a development of systems that have the intention to serve specific organizational actors and their needs. Combining methods outside of a traditional polar divide, sense making research undertaken within a systems thinking arena can enrich understanding by complementing qualitative and / or quantitative analysis with reflective depth. Drawing together interdisciplinary strands through a critical systems thinking approach offers new levels of professionalism for computer- and management-, practitioners or researchers in the 21st Century
Contextual analysis: a multiperspective inquiry into emergence of complex socio-cultural systems
This paper explores the concept of organizations as complex human activity systems, through the perspectives of alternative systemic models. The impact of alternative models on perception of individual and organizational emergence is highlighted. Using information systems development as an example of management activity, individual and collective sense-making and learning processes are discussed. Their roles in relation to information systems concepts are examined. The main locus of the paper is on individual emergence in the context of organizational systems. A case is made for the importance of attending to individual uniqueness and contextual dependency when carrying out organizational analyses, e.g. information systems analysis. One particular method for contextual inquiry, the framework for Strategic Systemic Thinking, is then introduced, The framework supports stakeholders to own and control their own analyses. This approach provides a vehicle through which multiple levels of contextual dependencies can be explored and allows for individual emergence to develop
The Emergence of Norms via Contextual Agreements in Open Societies
This paper explores the emergence of norms in agents' societies when agents
play multiple -even incompatible- roles in their social contexts
simultaneously, and have limited interaction ranges. Specifically, this article
proposes two reinforcement learning methods for agents to compute agreements on
strategies for using common resources to perform joint tasks. The computation
of norms by considering agents' playing multiple roles in their social contexts
has not been studied before. To make the problem even more realistic for open
societies, we do not assume that agents share knowledge on their common
resources. So, they have to compute semantic agreements towards performing
their joint actions. %The paper reports on an empirical study of whether and
how efficiently societies of agents converge to norms, exploring the proposed
social learning processes w.r.t. different society sizes, and the ways agents
are connected. The results reported are very encouraging, regarding the speed
of the learning process as well as the convergence rate, even in quite complex
settings
Contextual organismality: Beyond pattern to process in the emergence of organisms
Biologists have taken the concept of organism largely for granted. However, advances in the study of chimerism, symbiosis, bacterial-eukaryote associations, and microbial behavior have prompted a redefinition of organisms as biological entities exhibiting low conflict and high cooperation among their parts. This expanded view identifies organisms in evolutionary time. However, the ecological processes, mechanisms, and traits that drive the formation of organisms remain poorly understood. Recognizing that organismality can be context dependent, we advocate elucidating the ecological contexts under which entities do or do not act as organisms. Here we develop a "contextual organismality" framework and provide examples of entities, such as honey bee colonies, tumors, and bacterial swarms, that can act as organisms under specific life history, resource, or other ecological circumstances. We suggest that context dependence may be a stepping stone to the development of increased organismal unification, as the most integrated biological entities generally show little context dependence. Recognizing that organismality is contextual can identify common patterns and testable hypotheses across different entities. The contextual organismality framework can illuminate timeless as well as pressing issues in biology, including topics as disparate as cancer emergence, genomic conflict, evolution of symbiosis, and the role of the microbiota in impacting host phenotype.John Templeton FoundationVersion of record online: 27 October 2016; published open access.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]
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Designing information systems requirements in context: Insights from the theory of deferred action
This paper considers conceptual and contextual issues relating to the problem of
developing systems models capable of representing knowable and unknowable
information requirements. It postulates that the systemic emergence property of
systems is the cause of unknowable organisational information requirements. The
Theory of Deferred Action and its systems constructs are invoked to explain
emergence and how it can be modelled in formal systems. The insights proposed are
believed to assist designers in developing functional and relevant approaches within
dynamic organisational contexts
Contextual Emergence
Contextual emergence is a relatively simple but disruptive concept. It undermines the claim that emergence is necessarily a form of supervenience, often repeated by philosophers. It bucks the “false forced choice” between weak and strong emergence. It is scientifically grounded but challenges the prevailing reductive worldview in science. It has much to recommend a detailed philosophical treatment, such as this one. This book is thus a welcome treatise on a timely topic
Tumor angiogenic switch determines sustained proliferative malignant transformation in tumorigenesis and overlaps with para-inflammatory phenomena
Contextual BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase over-activity determines in formulated fashion the emergence of
proliferation and anti-apoptosis that arise largely as derived phenomena of otherwise homeostatic mechanisms of
the c-ABL gene within hematopoietic stem cells and hemangioblasts in the bone marrow. The ability to suppress
almost completely, both in terms of phenotype and cytogenetically, the myeloid cell line expansion by imatinib
mesylate is indicative of a phenomenon that depends strictly on the transformed status of the cell of origin in the
chronic myeloid leukemia process. It is with relevance to complex participation of the dynamics of the fused BCR-
ABL protein product that contextual conditioning of the cells of origin of the gene translocation further motivates the
dimensional expansion of the transformed myeloid cell clones to increasing proliferative rates, thus leading to blast
crisis as eventual loss of differentiating potential.peer-reviewe
A dual origin for Bcr-Abl gene translocation/fusion as dynamics of synergism of the hematopoietic stem cell and hemangioblast in chronic myeloid leukemia
Contextual BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase over-activity determines in formulated fashion the emergence of
proliferation and anti-apoptosis that arise largely as derived phenomena of otherwise homeostatic mechanisms of
the c-ABL gene within hematopoietic stem cells and hemangioblasts in the bone marrow. The ability to suppress
almost completely, both in terms of phenotype and cytogenetically, the myeloid cell line expansion by imatinib
mesylate is indicative of a phenomenon that depends strictly on the transformed status of the cell of origin in the
chronic myeloid leukemia process. It is with relevance to complex participation of the dynamics of the fused BCR-
ABL protein product that contextual conditioning of the cells of origin of the gene translocation further motivates the
dimensional expansion of the transformed myeloid cell clones to increasing proliferative rates, thus leading to blast
crisis as eventual loss of differentiating potential.peer-reviewe
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