Francis Heylighen
Francis Heylighen | |
---|---|
complex systems, | |
Institutions | Vrije Universiteit Brussel |
Doctoral students | Johan Bollen, Carlos Gershenson |
Website | pcp |
Francis Paul Heylighen (born 27 September 1960) is a Belgian
Biography
Heylighen was born on September 27, 1960, in
In 1983 he started working as a researcher for the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (
In 1989
Heylighen is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science,[8] and of the Web Intelligence Academy[9] as well as a member of the Global Agenda Council on Complex Systems of the World Economic Forum.[10] His biography has been listed since 2002 in Marquis Who's Who in the world.[11] In 2015, he received an "Outstanding Technology Contribution Award" from the Web Intelligence Consortium,[12] for his research on the Global Brain.
Work
His research focuses on the
Heylighen's scientific work covers an extremely wide range of subjects, exemplifying his intellectual curiosity and fundamentally transdisciplinary way of thinking. In addition to the topics mentioned above, his publications cover topics such as the foundations of
Basic ideas
This broad variety of work is held together by two basic principles. The relational principle notes that phenomena do not exist on their own but only in relation (connection or distinction) to other phenomena. They thus only make sense as part of an encompassing network or system.[13] The evolutionary principle notes that variation through (re)combination of parts and natural selection of the fitter combinations results in ever more complex and adaptive systems. This principle is a direct application of Universal Darwinism, the idea that Darwinian mechanisms can be extended to virtually all disciplines and problem domains.
The two principles come together in Heylighen's concept of distinction dynamics.[14] In his analysis, classical scientific methodology is based on given, unchanging distinctions between elements or states. Therefore, it is intrinsically unable to model creative change. But the evolutionary principle makes distinctions dynamic, explaining the creation and destruction of relations, distinctions, and connections, and thus helping us to understand how and why complex organization emerges.
Moreover, any system must be adapted to its environment, which implies that it is able to react adequately to changes in that environment. This is the origin of mind or intelligence, as the system should be able to select the right actions for the given conditions. These "condition-action" relations are the basis of knowledge.[15] As systems evolve, their adaptiveness tends to increase, and therefore also their knowledge or intelligence. Thus, the general trend of evolution is self-organization, or a spontaneous increase in intelligent organization.
Principia Cybernetica
Together with Cliff Joslyn and the late Valentin Turchin, Heylighen is a founding editor of the Principia Cybernetica Project, which is devoted to the collaborative development of an evolutionary-systemic philosophy. He created its website, the Principia Cybernetica Web,[16] in 1993, as one of the first complex webs in the world. It is still viewed as one of the most important sites on cybernetics, systems theory and related approaches.
The Global Brain
In 1996, Heylighen founded the "Global Brain Group",
In the 2007 article "The Global Superorganism: an evolutionary-cybernetic model of the emerging network society" Heylighen gave a detailed exposition of the superorganism/global brain view of society, and an examination of the underlying evolutionary mechanisms, with applications to the ongoing and future developments in a globalizing world. Presently, he is developing a detailed mathematical and simulation model of the global brain, together with his collaborators in the Global Brain Institute.[18]
See also
Publications
Heylighen has published over 100 papers and a book.[19] A selection:
- 2016. Stigmergy as a universal coordination mechanism I: Definition and components. Cognitive Systems Research, 38, 4–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2015.12.002
- 2015. Return to Eden? Promises and Perils on the Road to a Global Superintelligence. In B. Goertzel & T. Goertzel (Eds.), The End of the Beginning: Life, Society and Economy on the Brink of the Singularity. Humanity+ Press.
- 2013. Self-organization in Communicating Groups: the emergence of coordination, shared references and collective intelligence. In A. Massip-Bonet & A. Bastardas-Boada (Eds.), Complexity perspectives on language, communication, and society, (pp. 117–150). Springer.
- 2008. Cultural evolution and memetics. Encyclopedia of Complexity and System Science, B. Meyers, ed.: Springer
- 2007. The Global Superorganism: an evolutionary-cybernetic model of the emerging network society. In: Social Evolution & History. Vol 6 No. 1, p. 58-119
- — (2007). "Accelerating socio-technological evolution: from ephemeralization and stigmergy to the Global Brain" (PDF). In ISBN 978-1-135-97764-1.
- 2007. Characteristics and Problems of the Gifted: neural propagation depth and flow motivation as a model of intelligence and creativity
- 2001. The science of self-organization and adaptivity. The Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems 5 (3), 253-280
- 2001. Cybernetics and second order cybernetics, with C Joslyn. Encyclopedia of physical science & technology 4, 155-170
- 1999. Collective Intelligence and its Implementation on the Web: algorithms to develop a collective mental map. Computational & Mathematical Organization Theory 5 (3), 253-280
- 1999. The growth of structural and functional complexity during evolution. The evolution of complexity, 17-44
- 1992. A cognitive-systemic reconstruction of Maslow's theory of self-actualization. Behavioral Science 37 (1), 39-58
References
- ^ Dr. Francis Heylighen at LifeBoat Foundation Bios. Accessed 14 May 2009
- ^ "ECCO Home - ecco.vub.ac.be". ecco.vub.ac.be. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
- ^ * Francis Heylighen's Curriculum Vitae, 2005.
- ^ Heylighen, Francis. Representation and change: a metarepresentational framework for the foundations of physical and cognitive science. Communication and Cognition, 1990.
- ^ a b c "Dr". www.goertzel.org. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
- ^ Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group (ECCO)
- ^ Edmonds, Bruce. "Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission". cfpm.org. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
- ^ General Listing Archived 2016-01-23 at the Wayback Machine World Academy of Art & Science. Retrieved Nov 16, 2012
- ^ https://wi-consortium.org/wiacademy.php
- ^ Francis Heylighen The World Economic Forum. Retrieved Nov 16, 2012
- ^ Francis Paul Heylighen on marquiswhoswho.com. Retrieved Nov 16, 2012
- ^ "WIC Annual". wi-consortium.org. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
- ^ Heylighen, F. (1990). Representation and Change: A Metarepresentational Framework for the Foundations of Physical and Cognitive Science. Communication and Cognition.
- ^ Heylighen, F. (2011). Self-organization of complex, intelligent systems: an action ontology for transdisciplinary integration. Integral Review.
- ^ "Welcome to Principia Cybernetica Web". pespmc1.vub.ac.be. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
- ^ "The Global Brain Institute". globalbraininstitute.org. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
- ^ Heylighen, F. (2012). Challenge Propagation: a new paradigm for modeling distributed intelligence (No. 2012-01). GBI Working Papers.
- ^ Francis Heylighen Google Scholar Profile
External links
- Francis Heylighen's Homepage
- http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ Principia Cybernetica webpage