Studying a Self-Sustainable System by Making a Mind Time Machine

Abstract We present our pilot study on a special machine that selfsustains its rich dynamics in an open environment. We made a machine called "MTM" (Mind Time Machine) that runs all day long, receiving massive visual data from the environment, processing by an internal neural dynamics with a learning capability, and showing sustainable complex adaptive dynamics. The System's internal time structure is also self-organized as a result of coupling with the environment. By observing MTM over 2 and half months, we argue for the possibility of machine consciousness in an artificial system. Keywords mind time, massive data, plasticity, sustainability Robustness and system design It is time for bringing artificial life in silicon into the real world. In contrast to the artificially simulated environment, the real world presents many unexpected complex encounters, and living systems are essentially adaptive to these real world complexities. In this pilot study, we designed an artificial system that can be a first test system for overcoming various problems for artificial systems to "survive" in an open ended environment. We required that any artificial life should simultaneously cope with various kinds of sensory flows while simultaneously maintaining its own identity and autonomy over a relatively long period of time. In creating such a machine, our main concern is how to design a system's time structure. A human has subjective time structures which is different from objective time. Our hypothesis is that this should be true for all intenPermission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Workshop on Self-sustaining Systems (S3) 2010 September 27-28, 2010, The University of Tokyo, Japan Copyright c 2010 ACM 978-1-4503-0491-7/10/09. . . $10.00 tional/functional systems, whether natural or artificial. Objective time structures, i.e. the physical Newtonian time scale, can be measured by a mechanical clock, but our mind's time scale, the so-called Bergsonian time scale, may not be treated the same way. That is, a minimal-length time segment can be regarded as infinitesimally small in the case of Newtonian time, but in Bergsonian time it can be bounded. I submit that there is no continuous time flow which can be assumed, as it is always perturbed by the inflow from an open-ended environment. Wiener's definition of Bergsonian time, as opposed to Newtonian time (chapter 1 in Some authors In our case, a novel biochemical experiment together with simulation and robotics approaches are being used to develop an in-depth understanding of robustness and how we may quantify and examine its effects 1 We define robustness of the droplets with respect to their ability to sustain self-moving behavior. In contrast, if we pick an example from the game of Life, gliders (the simplest moving pattern in the game) appear to display self-moving behavior but do not actually function in this way. This evolution of self-movement, autonomy and individuality appears to be a key prerequisite for developing robust behaviors. Using a robotic platform, we used pure Hebbian learning dynamics to show how auditory and visual modules cooperatively work together to self-organize robust goaloriented behavior By increasing our understanding of how we can connect artificial systems with natural environments, we can further our development of a theoretical framework that provides a background of assumptions to inform our robotic and simulated models. One of my proposals is the Maximal Design Principle Concerning the above robustness issue, we designed a machine called MTM (Mind Time Machine). In order to take into account the system's internal time structure, Benjamin Libet's neuro-physiological early experiments In our pilot work, the system receives and edits the video inputs, while it self-organizes the momentary "now," in agreement with Libet's arguments. Its core program is a neural network that includes chaos (a mechanism that expands the small difference) inside the system, and a metanetwork that consists of neural networks. Using this system as a hardware, and chaotic itinerancy In section 2, we illustrate the architecture of MTM explaining the underlying neural dynamics. In section 3, we report how MTM behaves over 2.5 months and show some characterization of the behaviors-its temporal complexity and dynamics of the internal clock. In section 4, we briefly describe how a sound version of MTM might function, and report on the pilot study of it. In section 5, we discuss how a system's sustainability is restored by the asynchronous memory updating and sensory networks. We then return to the Bergsonian vs. Newtonian time scale issue

Farm enterprises as self-organizing systems: A new transdisciplinary framework for studying farm enterprises?

The growing attention to sustainable food production and multifunctional agriculture calls for a multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary research and development perspective on farming, which is able to grasp the environmental, social, technical, and financial aspects of a farm and the dynamic relationship between the farm enterprises and the surrounding world. Our thesis is that a transdisciplinary approach needs to build on a working ontology that goes beyond the epistemology of each discipline and that is not just pieced together of the ontologies connected to these different epistemologies. Based on a review of three prevailing theoretical frameworks within the field of agro-sociology: The farming styles approach, the Bawden approach, and Conway’s agroecosystem approach, we argue that these existing theories do not offer such a theoretical framework. The claim of this paper is that a new concept of a farm enterprise as a self-organizing social system, which combines ideas from Actor-Network theory (ANT) and Luhmann’s theory of social systems, can serve as a useful ontological platform for understanding a farm-enterprise as an entity independent of a scientific observer. In this framework, each farm is understood as a self-organizing node in a complex of heterogeneous socio-technical networks of food, supply, knowledge, technology, etc. This implies that a farm has to be understood as the way in which these network relationships are organised by the farm as a self-organizing social system. Among all the different possible ways in which to interact with the surrounding world, the system has to select a coherent strategy in order to make the farming processes possible at all. It will be discussed how this framework may add to the understanding of the continuous development of a heterogeneity of farm strategies and contribute to a more comprehensive view of the fields of regulation and extension

ICS Materials. Towards a re-Interpretation of material qualities through interactive, connected, and smart materials.

The domain of materials for design is changing under the influence of an increased technological advancement, miniaturization and democratization. Materials are becoming connected, augmented, computational, interactive, active, responsive, and dynamic. These are ICS Materials, an acronym that stands for Interactive, Connected and Smart. While labs around the world are experimenting with these new materials, there is the need to reflect on their potentials and impact on design. This paper is a first step in this direction: to interpret and describe the qualities of ICS materials, considering their experiential pattern, their expressive sensorial dimension, and their aesthetic of interaction. Through case studies, we analyse and classify these emerging ICS Materials and identified common characteristics, and challenges, e.g. the ability to change over time or their programmability by the designers and users. On that basis, we argue there is the need to reframe and redesign existing models to describe ICS materials, making their qualities emerge

03-11 "Clocks, Creation, and Clarity: Insights on Ethics and Economics from a Feminist Perspective"

This essay discusses the origins, biases, and effects on contemporary discussions of economics and ethics of the unexamined use of the metaphor “an economy is a machine.” The neoliberal view that the self-regulated workings of free markets should be kept free of impediments is based on this metaphor. Many of the critiques of capitalist systems are, as well. The belief that economists simply uncover universal “laws of motion” of economies, however, is shown to be based on a variety of rationalist thinking that—while widely held—is inadequate for explaining lived human experience. Feminist scholarship in philosophy of science and economics has brought to light some of the biases that have supported the mechanistic worldview. By structuring thought and language in dualistic categories such that alternatives to a mechanistic worldview are labeled as “soft,” the mechanistic view maintains some of its power by seeming “masculine” and “tough.” Possible alternatives to the “an economy is a machine” metaphor are discussed in their relation to developments in philosophy, psychology, and the natural sciences. The essay argues that metaphors such as “an economy is a creative process” and “an economy is an organism” are both intellectually defensible as guides to scientific inquiry and provide a richer ground for moral imagination.

Conservation architecture and the narrative imperative: Birmingham back to backs

The paper uses a case study to explore how the opposing logics of conservation architecture and interpretive exhibition design were played out in the shaping of a narrative museum space. The former concerns itself with an archaeological conception of physical space, which is defined through the decipherability of traces and their layering over time. The latter concerns itself with a theatrical notion of event space defined through the mapping and programming of performances and information flows. The contingencies of the Birmingham Back to Backs project – its incep¬tion, the in¬volvement of the National Trust, the foregrounding of community interests and the interpretive design process – gave rise to a novel resolution of contrasting interests. A particular idea of narrative was able to frame the use of, on the one hand, physical evidence to interpret what may have existed and, on the other, a combination of lived and documentary evidence to reconstruct the patterns of daily life. This can be understood as a process of recovering ordinary lives. The research addresses the following conference themes: sites overlaid with narrative, the role of visitor-centred design in the production of museum space, and the emergence of new approaches that cut across disciplines. Analysis of interpretive design and heritage management documentation is informed by Samuel’s theorization of the shaping power of memory (1994). However, overall, the approach is pragmatic, in that it engages in critical conversations, resists reductionism, and tries to point up what may be useful in helping us cope together in the world. The principal conclusions concern the role that a focus on narrative (re)construction can play in framing cross-disciplinary collaboration and the potential of embracing radically different conceptions of space in museum design

The design with intent method: A design tool for influencing user behaviour

The official published version can be found at the link below.Using product and system design to influence user behaviour offers potential for improving performance and reducing user error, yet little guidance is available at the concept generation stage for design teams briefed with influencing user behaviour. This article presents the Design with Intent Method, an innovation tool for designers working in this area, illustrated via application to an everyday human–technology interaction problem: reducing the likelihood of a customer leaving his or her card in an automatic teller machine. The example application results in a range of feasible design concepts which are comparable to existing developments in ATM design, demonstrating that the method has potential for development and application as part of a user-centred design process

Cognitive biases, heuristics and decision-making in design for behaviour change

Copyright @ 2012 Social Science Electronic PublishingMuch human behaviour can be seen as decision-making, and so understanding and influencing those decision-making processes could be an important component in design for behaviour change. This paper examines the 'heuristics and biases' approach to modelling decision-making, and attempts to extract insights which are relevant to designers working to influence user behaviour for social or environmental benefit -- either by exploiting biases, or helping to counter those which lead to undesirable behaviour. Areas covered include a number of specific cognitive biases in detail, and the alternative perspective of Gigerenzer and others, who contend (following Herbert Simon) that many heuristics potentially leading to biases are actually ecologically rational, and part of humans' adaptive responses to situations. The design relevance of this is briefly considered, and implications for designers are summarised