The art of conversation: design cybernetics and its ethics

Purpose This paper discusses ethical principles that are implicit in second-order cybernetics, with the aim of arriving at a better understanding of how second-order cybernetics frames living in a world with others. It further investigates implications for second-order cybernetics approaches to architectural design, i.e. the activity of designing frameworks for living. Design/methodology/approach The paper investigates the terminology in the second-order cybernetics literature with specific attention to terms that suggest that there are ethical principles at work. It further relates second-order cybernetics to selected notions in phenomenology, pragmatism and transcendental idealism. The comparison allows for conclusions about the specificity of a second-order inquiry. In line with the thematic focus of this journal issue on the framing of shared worlds, the paper further elaborates on questions relating to the activity of designing “worlds” in which people live with others. Findings The paper highlights that a radical openness toward the future and toward the agency of others is inscribed in the conception of second-order cybernetics. It creates a frame of reference for conceiving social systems of all kinds, including environments that are designed to be inhabited. Originality/value The paper identifies an aesthetics grounded in the process of living-with-others as an ethical principle implicit in second-order cybernetics thought. It is an aesthetics that is radically open for the agency of others. Linking aesthetics and ethics, the paper’s contributions will be of specific value for practitioners and theoreticians of design. Considering second-order cybernetics as a practice generally dealing with designing, it also contributes to the wider second-order cybernetics discourse

Visualization in cyber-geography: reconsidering cartography's concept of visualization in current usercentric cybergeographic cosmologies

This article discusses some epistemological problems of a semiotic and cybernetic character in two current scientific cosmologies in the study of geographic information systems (GIS) with special reference to the concept of visualization in modern cartography. Setting off from Michael Batty’s prolegomena for a virtual geography and Michael Goodchild’s “Human-Computer-Reality-Interaction” as the field of a new media convergence and networking of GIS-computation of geo-data, the paper outlines preliminarily a common field of study, namely that of cybernetic geography, or just “cyber-geography) owing to the principal similarities with second order cybernetics. Relating these geographical cosmologies to some of Science’s dominant, historical perceptions of the exploring and appropriating of Nature as an “inventory of knowledge”, the article seeks to identify some basic ontological and epistemological dimensions of cybernetic geography and visualization in modern cartography. The points made is that a generalized notion of visualization understood as the use of maps, or more precisely as cybergeographic GIS-thinking seems necessary as an epistemological as well as a methodological prerequisite to scientific knowledge in cybergeography. Moreover do these generalized concept seem to lead to a displacement of the positions traditionally held by the scientist and lay-man citizen, that is not only in respect of the perception of the matter studied, i.e. the field of geography, but also of the manner in which the scientist informs the lay-man citizen in the course of action in the public participation in decision making; a displacement that seems to lead to a more critical, or perhaps even quasi-scientific approach as concerns the lay-man user

Narratives of ocular experience in interactive 360° environments

The purpose of this research project was to examine how immersive digital virtual technologies have the potential to expand the genre of interactive film into new forms of audience engagement and narrative production. Aside from addressing the limitations of interactive film, I have explored how interactive digital narratives can be reconfigured in the wake of immersive media. My contribution to knowledge stems from using a transdisciplinary synthesis of the interactive systems in film and digital media art, which is embodied in the research framework and theoretical focal point that I have titled Cynematics (chapter 2). Using a methodology that promotes iterative experimentation I developed a series of works that allowed me to practically explore the limitations of interactive film systems that involve non-haptic user interaction. This is evidenced in the following series of works: Virtual Embodiment, Narrative Maze, Eye Artefact Interactions and Routine Error - all of which are discussed in chapter 4 of this thesis. Each of these lab experiments collectively build towards the development of novel interactive 360° film practices. Funneling my research towards these underexplored processes I focused on virtual gaze interaction (chapters 4-6), aiming to define and historically contextualise this system of interaction, whilst critically engaging with it through my practice. It is here that gaze interaction is cemented as the key focus of this thesis. The potential of interactive 360° film is explored through the creation of three core pieces of practice, which are titled as follows: Systems of Seeing (chapter 5), Mimesis (chapter 6), Vanishing Point (chapter 7). Alongside the close readings in these chapters and the theoretical developments explored in each are the interaction designs included in the appendix of the thesis. These provide useful context for readers unable to experience these site-specific installations as virtual reality applications. After creating these systems, I established terms to theoretically unpack some of the processes occurring within them. These include Datascape Mediation (chapter 2), which frames agency as a complex entanglement built on the constantly evolving relationships between human and machine - and Live-Editing Practice (chapter 7), which aims to elucidate how the interactive 360° film practice designed for this research leads to new way of thinking about how we design, shoot and interact with 360° film. Reflecting on feedback from exhibiting Mimesis I decided to define and evaluate the key modes of virtual gaze interaction, which led to the development of a chapter and concept referred to as The Reticle Effect (chapter 6). This refers to how a visual overlay that is used to represent a user's line of sight not only shapes their experience of the work, but also dictates their perception of genre. To navigate this, I combined qualitative and quantitative analysis to explore user responses to four different types of gaze interaction. In preparing to collect this data I had to articulate these different types of interaction, which served to demarcate the difference between each of these types of gaze interaction. Stemming from this I used questionnaires, thematic analysis and data visualisation to explore the use and response to these systems. The results of this not only supports the idea of the reticle effect, but also gives insight into how these different types of virtual gaze interaction shape whether these works are viewed as games or as types of interactive film. The output of this allowed me to further expand on interactive 360° film as a genre of immersive media and move beyond the realm of interactive film into new technological discourses, which serves to validate the nascent, yet expansive reach of interactive 360° film as a form of practice. The thesis is concluded by framing this research within the wider discourse of posthuman theory as given that the technologies of immersive media perpetuate a state of extended human experience - how we interact and consider the theories that surround these mediums needs to be considered in the same way. The practice and theory developed throughout this thesis contribute to this discourse and allow for new ways of considering filmic language in the wake of interactive 360° film practice

Second-order Science and Policy

In March 2016, an interdisciplinary group met for two days and two evenings to explore the implications for policy making of second-order science. The event was sponsored by SITRA, the Finnish Parliament's Innovation Fund. Their interest arose from their concern that the well-established ways, including evidence-based approaches, of policy and decision making used in government were increasingly falling short of the complexity, uncertainty, and urgency of needed decision making. There was no assumption that second-order science or second-order cybernetics would reveal any practical possibilities at this early stage of enquiry. On the other hand, some members of the group are practioners in both policy and in facilitating change in sectors of society. Thus, the intellectual concepts were strongly grounded in experience. This is an account of the deliberations of that group and some reflections on what came out of the various shared contributions and ensuing dialogues. The overall conclusion of the event is that there definitely are possibilities that are worthy of further research and exploration.</p

The feedback factor in the communication process

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston UniversityThis thesis develops the proposition that the feedback activities of human communication processes must operate effectively if a society, a community, of any social unit survives this complex, fast changing era. The concept of feedback as described in this thesis has not been employed in the typical public relations function. The term is widely used in a rhetorical sense of a plea for institutions to "listen" better. As an essential factor in the communication process, it is as yet a little understood phenomenon of the times. [TRUNCATED

Hooligans, vandals and the community: a study of social reaction to juvenile delinquency

The thesis consists of three studies on various ways in which society reacts to juvenile delinquency. It is introduced with an account of recent developments in the sociology of deviance which have drawn attention to the nature and effect of the societal reaction to deviance. These developments, termed the "transactional perspective", are put in the context of a "sceptical" reaction against more conventional ways of conceptualizing deviance. The implications of this new perspective for theory and research are indicated. The first study is on vandalism, and starts by attempting to unravel the different definitions of this behaviour as a form of rule-breaking and deviance. It goes on to consider the processes through which vandalism becomes defined as a social problem and then discusses the main images and stereotypes through which society tries to conceptualize this form of delinquency. It finally considers the organized approaches to the prevention and control of vandalism. The second study is a survey of the views about delinquency - its nature, causes and control - and allied topics, held by a selected sample of official and unofficial control agents in a London Borough "Northview". The relevance of these views to understanding the social control of delinquency is considered. The final study is of various types of response to the Mods and Rockers phenomenon. Using mass media and observational sources, an analysis is made of how this form of deviance was reported and conceptualized. The emergent images of the behaviour are related to the ways in which society attempted to control it. The effects of these reactions on the form and development of the phenomenon are suggested

Optimizing Adaptive Marketing Experiments with the Multi-Armed Bandit

Sequential decision making is central to a range of marketing problems. Both firms and consumers aim to maximize their objectives over time, yet they remain uncertain about the best course of action. So they allocate resources to both explore to reduce uncertainty (learning) and exploit their current information for immediate reward (earning). This explore/exploit tradeoff is best captured by the multi-armed bandit, the conceptual and methodological backbone of this dissertation. We focus on this class of marketing problems and aim to make the following substantive and methodological contributions. Our substantive contribution is that we solve an important and practical marketing problem with challenges that exceed those handled by existing multi-armed bandit methods: sequentially allocating resources for online advertising to acquire customers. Online advertisers serve millions of ad impressions to learn which ads work best on which websites. However, recognizing that ad effectiveness differs by website in unobserved ways creates a methodological challenge. Our methodological contribution is that we propose a novel bandit policy that simultaneously handles attributes of ads and how their importance differs across websites (heterogeneity) to generate recommended allocations of ad impressions. We not only test this in simulation, but we also run a live field experiment with a large retail bank to improve customer acquisition rates, lowering the firm\u27s cost per acquisition. Serving ads across websites is just one of a broader class of problems. Broadening our scope to that class, we aim to contribute a body of empirical results to better understand how key managerial issues in marketing experiments affect the performance of bandit methods. As firms become more sophisticated in their ability to test and adapt quickly, managers and researchers should understand the empirical realities of the problems and policies, such as, under what conditions do certain methods perform better than other methods. We run a numerical experiment motivated by common managerial issues to learn about these contingencies of bandit methods. Finally, while the literature spans disparate fields of research, we hope to organize the various streams of work to better guide future research using multi-armed bandit methods to solve marketing problems

Pretense, Pride And Prejudice In Qualitative Leadership Research: An Appraisal And Two Examples From Europe

In this paper we identify a number of prevailing epistemological inconsistencies in qualitative leadership research and suggest some emendations. We first analyze current research practices in the leadership field. We note that few qualitative studies are conducted and that many such so-called qualitative studies adhere wholly or partly to a positivist paradigm. We evoke possible rationales for this, i.e. we uncover mechanisms by which the positivist paradigm maintains its dominant position. Subsequently we propose an alternative research paradigm, social constructionism, and purport why this paradigm may be particularly suited to leadership research. By means of two practical personal research experiences we provide the reader with concrete examples of social constructionist leadership research and of what issues, barriers and satisfactions researchers might face during such a research journey. We conclude with some pragmatic ideas as to how scholars could be introduced to constructionist epistemologies and encouraged to apply interpretative research stances to leadership themes more often

Artificial Intelligence (and Christianity) : Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?

Open Access via the Sage AgreementPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Architecture and space for thought

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University, 21/11/1988.This thesis is concerned with the description of individual experiences of (architectural) space in a social milieu. Architecture, while considered to be primarily concerned with space as its medium, has a very impoverished (or occasionally, very contorted) verbal language in which to discuss space. The author, as a beginner teacher, noted this in attempts to explore spatial experience with students of architecture, and resolved with their help to generate an appropriate verbal vehicle. The main body of the thesis relates this attempt and accounts for its failure. The Thesis, thus, follows three intertwined streams. 1) A scientific investigation into means for the description of human experience of (architectural) space, using methods developed from Kelly's Personal Construct Theory Repertory Grids. 2) A partially developed spatial analytic language, my personal response to 1) above, which is to be seen as the start of a new research programme that may last many years (the future of which is outlined). 3) An account of a personal learning experience both from, around and through each of these. These streams are organised into three parts. Part 1: Background Studies - into work in associated areas and fields, with an assessment of their relevance to the undertaking presented here. Part 2: The Experiments - attempting (and failing) to create a language, and the transition from verbal to visual, with critical arguments and observations. Part 3: A New Beginning - learning from the failure of Part 2, and the argument for and commencement of a new research programme