Emergence and Embodiment

Emergence and Embodiment
Author: Bruce Clarke
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780822391388

Download Emergence and Embodiment Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Emerging in the 1940s, the first cybernetics—the study of communication and control systems—was mainstreamed under the names artificial intelligence and computer science and taken up by the social sciences, the humanities, and the creative arts. In Emergence and Embodiment, Bruce Clarke and Mark B. N. Hansen focus on cybernetic developments that stem from the second-order turn in the 1970s, when the cyberneticist Heinz von Foerster catalyzed new thinking about the cognitive implications of self-referential systems. The crucial shift he inspired was from first-order cybernetics’ attention to homeostasis as a mode of autonomous self-regulation in mechanical and informatic systems, to second-order concepts of self-organization and autopoiesis in embodied and metabiotic systems. The collection opens with an interview with von Foerster and then traces the lines of neocybernetic thought that have followed from his work. In response to the apparent dissolution of boundaries at work in the contemporary technosciences of emergence, neocybernetics observes that cognitive systems are operationally bounded, semi-autonomous entities coupled with their environments and other systems. Second-order systems theory stresses the recursive complexities of observation, mediation, and communication. Focused on the neocybernetic contributions of von Foerster, Francisco Varela, and Niklas Luhmann, this collection advances theoretical debates about the cultural, philosophical, and literary uses of their ideas. In addition to the interview with von Foerster, Emergence and Embodiment includes essays by Varela and Luhmann. It engages with Humberto Maturana’s and Varela’s creation of the concept of autopoiesis, Varela’s later work on neurophenomenology, and Luhmann’s adaptations of autopoiesis to social systems theory. Taken together, these essays illuminate the shared commitments uniting the broader discourse of neocybernetics. Contributors. Linda Brigham, Bruce Clarke, Mark B. N. Hansen, Edgar Landgraf, Ira Livingston, Niklas Luhmann, Hans-Georg Moeller, John Protevi, Michael Schiltz, Evan Thompson, Francisco J. Varela, Cary Wolfe

Embodiment, Enaction, and Culture

Embodiment, Enaction, and Culture
Author: Christoph Durt
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 451
Release: 2017-04-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0262035553

Download Embodiment, Enaction, and Culture Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The first interdisciplinary investigation of the cultural context of enactive embodiment, offering perspectives that range from the neurophilosophical to the anthropological. Recent accounts of cognition attempt to overcome the limitations of traditional cognitive science by reconceiving cognition as enactive and the cognizer as an embodied being who is embedded in biological, psychological, and cultural contexts. Cultural forms of sense-making constitute the shared world, which in turn is the origin and place of cognition. This volume is the first interdisciplinary collection on the cultural context of embodiment, offering perspectives that range from the neurophilosophical to the anthropological. The book brings together new contributions by some of the most renowned scholars in the field and the latest results from up-and-coming researchers. The contributors explore conceptual foundations, drawing on work by Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre, and respond to recent critiques. They consider whether there is something in the self that precedes intersubjectivity and inquire into the relation between culture and consciousness, the nature of shared meaning and social understanding, the social dimension of shame, and the nature of joint affordances. They apply the notion of radical enactive cognition to evolutionary anthropology, and examine the concept of the body in relation to culture in light of studies in such fields as phenomenology, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and psychopathology. Through such investigations, the book breaks ground for the study of the interplay of embodiment, enaction, and culture. Contributors Mark Bickhard, Ingar Brinck, Anna Ciaunica, Hanne De Jaegher, Nicolas de Warren, Ezequiel Di Paolo, Christoph Durt, John Z. Elias, Joerg Fingerhut, Aikaterini Fotopoulou, Thomas Fuchs, Shaun Gallagher, Vittorio Gallese, Duilio Garofoli, Katrin Heimann, Peter Henningsen, Daniel D. Hutto, Laurence J. Kirmayer, Alba Montes Sánchez, Dermot Moran, Maxwell J. D. Ramstead, Matthew Ratcliffe, Vasudevi Reddy, Zuzanna Rucińska, Alessandro Salice, Glenda Satne, Heribert Sattel, Christian Tewes, Dan Zahavi

Evolvability, Environments, Embodiment, & Emergence in Robotics

Evolvability, Environments, Embodiment, & Emergence in Robotics
Author: John H. Long
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Total Pages: 109
Release: 2018-11-08
Genre: Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
ISBN: 2889456226

Download Evolvability, Environments, Embodiment, & Emergence in Robotics Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Embodied and evolving systems — biological or robotic — are interacting networks of structure, function, information, and behavior. Understanding these complex systems is the goal of the research presented in this book. We address different questions and hypotheses about four essential topics in complex systems: evolvability, environments, embodiment, and emergence. Using a variety of approaches, we provide different perspectives on an overarching, unifying question: How can embodied and evolutionary robotics illuminate (1) principles underlying biological evolving systems and (2) general analytical frameworks for studying embodied evolving systems? The answer — model biological processes to operate, develop, and evolve situated, embodied robots.

How We Became Posthuman

How We Became Posthuman
Author: N. Katherine Hayles
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2008-05-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0226321398

Download How We Became Posthuman Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

In this age of DNA computers and artificial intelligence, information is becoming disembodied even as the "bodies" that once carried it vanish into virtuality. While some marvel at these changes, envisioning consciousness downloaded into a computer or humans "beamed" Star Trek-style, others view them with horror, seeing monsters brooding in the machines. In How We Became Posthuman, N. Katherine Hayles separates hype from fact, investigating the fate of embodiment in an information age. Hayles relates three interwoven stories: how information lost its body, that is, how it came to be conceptualized as an entity separate from the material forms that carry it; the cultural and technological construction of the cyborg; and the dismantling of the liberal humanist "subject" in cybernetic discourse, along with the emergence of the "posthuman." Ranging widely across the history of technology, cultural studies, and literary criticism, Hayles shows what had to be erased, forgotten, and elided to conceive of information as a disembodied entity. Thus she moves from the post-World War II Macy Conferences on cybernetics to the 1952 novel Limbo by cybernetics aficionado Bernard Wolfe; from the concept of self-making to Philip K. Dick's literary explorations of hallucination and reality; and from artificial life to postmodern novels exploring the implications of seeing humans as cybernetic systems. Although becoming posthuman can be nightmarish, Hayles shows how it can also be liberating. From the birth of cybernetics to artificial life, How We Became Posthuman provides an indispensable account of how we arrived in our virtual age, and of where we might go from here.

Handbook of Positive Body Image and Embodiment

Handbook of Positive Body Image and Embodiment
Author: Niva Piran
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2019-04-02
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0190841885

Download Handbook of Positive Body Image and Embodiment Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

For five decades, negative body image has been a major focus of study due to its association with psychological and social morbidity, including eating disorders. However, more recently the body image construct has broadened to include positive ways of living in the body, enabling greater understanding of embodied well-being, as well as protective factors and interventions to guide the prevention and treatment of eating disorders. Handbook of Positive Body Image and Embodiment is the first comprehensive, research-based resource to address the breadth of innovative theoretical concepts and related practices concerning positive ways of living in the body, including positive body image and embodiment. Presenting 37 chapters by world-renowned experts in body image and eating behaviors, this state-of-the-art collection delineates constructs of positive body image and embodiment, as well as social environments (such as families, peers, schools, media, and the Internet) and therapeutic processes that can enhance them. Constructs examined include positive embodiment, body appreciation, body functionality, body image flexibility, broad conceptualization of beauty, intuitive eating, and attuned sexuality. Also discussed are protective factors, such as environments that promote body acceptance, personal safety, diversity, and activism, and a resistant stance towards objectification, media images, and restrictive feminine ideals. The handbook also explores how therapeutic interventions (including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Dissonance, and many more) and public health and policy initiatives can inform scholarly, clinical, and prevention-based work in the field of eating disorders.

Interactive Art and Embodiment

Interactive Art and Embodiment
Author: Nathaniel Stern
Publisher: Gylphi Limited
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2013
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1780240090

Download Interactive Art and Embodiment Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Nathaniel Stern's 'Interactive Art and Embodiment' defies the world of interactive art and new media from the perspective of the body and identity. It presents the ongoing and emergent processes of embodiment in art and includes immersive descriptions of interactive artworks.

Situated Embodiment

Situated Embodiment
Author: Jordan Zlatev
Publisher:
Total Pages: 349
Release: 1997
Genre: Language acquisition
ISBN: 9789171536518

Download Situated Embodiment Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Foundations of Embodied Cognition

Foundations of Embodied Cognition
Author: Martin H. Fischer
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Cognition
ISBN: 9781138805828

Download Foundations of Embodied Cognition Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This two-volume set is the first comprehensive overview of the multi-disciplinary field of Embodied Cognition. The second volume covers the fields of embodied language processing and embodied conceptual representations. It also covers the emerging areas of embodied social interaction and humanoid embodiment. With contributions from internationally acknowledged researchers from a variety of disciplines, the two volumes will be a landmark publication in the field, and of great interest to researchers and advanced students in the cognitive sciences and allied disciplines.

Emergence of Mind

Emergence of Mind
Author: David Herman
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2011
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0803234988

Download Emergence of Mind Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

An anthology that traces the representation of consciousness and mind creation in English literature from 700 to the present.

Culture, Mind, and Brain

Culture, Mind, and Brain
Author: Laurence J. Kirmayer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 683
Release: 2020-09-24
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1108580572

Download Culture, Mind, and Brain Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Recent neuroscience research makes it clear that human biology is cultural biology - we develop and live our lives in socially constructed worlds that vary widely in their structure values, and institutions. This integrative volume brings together interdisciplinary perspectives from the human, social, and biological sciences to explore culture, mind, and brain interactions and their impact on personal and societal issues. Contributors provide a fresh look at emerging concepts, models, and applications of the co-constitution of culture, mind, and brain. Chapters survey the latest theoretical and methodological insights alongside the challenges in this area, and describe how these new ideas are being applied in the sciences, humanities, arts, mental health, and everyday life. Readers will gain new appreciation of the ways in which our unique biology and cultural diversity shape behavior and experience, and our ongoing adaptation to a constantly changing world.