deleuze and guattari:
"The rhizome is an antigenealogy. It is a short-term memory, or antimemory. The rhizome operates by variation, expansion, conquest, capture, offshoots. Unlike the graphic arts, drawing or photography, unlike tracings, the rhizome pertains to a map that must be produced, constructed, a map that is always detachable, connectable, reversilble, modifiable, and has multiple entryways and exits and its own lines of flight." p. 21 (Thousand Plateaus)
"Any point of a rhizome can be connected to anything other, and must be." p. 7 TP
"A rhizome may be broken, shattered at a given spot, but it will start up again on one of its old lines, or on new lines... Every rhiozme contain lines of segmentarity according to which it is stratified, territorialized, organized, signified attributed., as well as lines of deterritorialization down which it constantly flees." p. 9 TP
"A rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing, intermezzo. The tree is filiation, but the rhizome is alliance, uniquely alliance. The tree imposes the verb "to be," but the fabric of the rhizome is the conjunction, "and... and.. and..." p. 25 TP
"A rhizome ceaselessly establishes connections between semiotic chains, organizations of power, and circumstances relative to the arts, sciences and social struggles" p. 7 TP
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
complexity as a thermodynamic system
according to Michael Serres:
"[An organism] receives, stores, exchanges, and gives off both energy and information-- in all forms, from the light of the sun to the flow of matter which passes through it (food, oxygen, heat, signals). This system is not in equilibrium, since thermodynamic stability spells death for it, purely and simply. It is in a temporary state of imbalance, and it tends as much as possible to maintain this imbalance. It is hence subject to the irreversible time of the second law [of thermodynamics], since it is dying." (134-135)
qtd. in Mark C. Taylor, The Moment of Complexity (2001)
"[An organism] receives, stores, exchanges, and gives off both energy and information-- in all forms, from the light of the sun to the flow of matter which passes through it (food, oxygen, heat, signals). This system is not in equilibrium, since thermodynamic stability spells death for it, purely and simply. It is in a temporary state of imbalance, and it tends as much as possible to maintain this imbalance. It is hence subject to the irreversible time of the second law [of thermodynamics], since it is dying." (134-135)
qtd. in Mark C. Taylor, The Moment of Complexity (2001)
Noise and complexity, according to Henri Atlan
"Generalization: theory of organization by the diminution of redundancy under the effect of factors of noise. Following von Neumann, we have arrived at the idea according to which in a system of "extremely high complexity," the property of self-organization should consist in that the factors of noise in the environment product two opposite effects: on the one hand, they increase the quantity of information of the total system by augmenting the autonomy among the parts; on the other, they diminish this quantity of information by the accumulation of errors in the structure of these parts. in order for these effects to be possible, that is to say for them to be able to coexist without the system ceasing to function, it is necessary for the system to be of "extremely high complexity," that is, composed of a great number of parts interconnected in multiple ways." (136-137)
"randomness is a kind of order, if it can be made meaningful; [secondly,] the task of making meaning out of randomness is what self-organization is all about." (136)
"Complexity is composed of a great number of parts interconnected in multiple ways. [...] Complexity is an emergent phenomenon whose occurrence cannot be accurately predicted. [...] Evolution is apparently oriented toward more complexity. [...] Atlan identifies the state between rigid structure (the crystal) and vanishing structure (smoke) as the domain of living organisms. The interstitial condition marks the moment of complexity." (137)
qtd. in Mark C. Taylor, The Moment of Complexity (2001)
"randomness is a kind of order, if it can be made meaningful; [secondly,] the task of making meaning out of randomness is what self-organization is all about." (136)
"Complexity is composed of a great number of parts interconnected in multiple ways. [...] Complexity is an emergent phenomenon whose occurrence cannot be accurately predicted. [...] Evolution is apparently oriented toward more complexity. [...] Atlan identifies the state between rigid structure (the crystal) and vanishing structure (smoke) as the domain of living organisms. The interstitial condition marks the moment of complexity." (137)
qtd. in Mark C. Taylor, The Moment of Complexity (2001)
complexity in terms of "algorithmic compression"
"the complexity of something is the size of the smallest program which computes it or a complete description of it. Simpler things require smaller programs." - Gregory Chaitin (138-139)
"the complexity is directly proportional to the length of the shortest possible description of that object. As a corollary we can give a rather clear-cut condition for something to be random (i.e. maximally complex): a string of letters is random is there is no rules for generating it whose statement is appreciably shorter-- that is, requires fewer letters to write down-- than the string itself. So an object or pattern is random if its shortest possible description is the object itself. Another way of expressing this is to say that something is random if it is incompressible." When understood in this way, complexity and compressibility are indirectly proportional: the less compressible, the more complex, and vice versa." -John Casti (139)
qtd. in Mark C. Taylor, The Moment of Complexity (2001)
"the complexity is directly proportional to the length of the shortest possible description of that object. As a corollary we can give a rather clear-cut condition for something to be random (i.e. maximally complex): a string of letters is random is there is no rules for generating it whose statement is appreciably shorter-- that is, requires fewer letters to write down-- than the string itself. So an object or pattern is random if its shortest possible description is the object itself. Another way of expressing this is to say that something is random if it is incompressible." When understood in this way, complexity and compressibility are indirectly proportional: the less compressible, the more complex, and vice versa." -John Casti (139)
qtd. in Mark C. Taylor, The Moment of Complexity (2001)
complex vs. complicated
from David Depew and Bruce Weber:
"Complex systems are not just complicated systems. A snowflake is complicated but the rules for generating it are simple. The structure of a snowflake, moreover, persists unchanged and crystalline, from the first moment of its existence until it melts, while complex systems change over time. It is true that a turbulent river rushing through the narrow channel of rapids changes over time too, but it changes chaotically. The kind of change characteristic of complex systems lies somewhere between the pure order of crystalline snowflakes and the disorder of chaotic or turbulent flow. So identified, complex systems are systems that have a large number of components that can interact simultaneously in a sufficiently rich number of parallel ways so that the system shows spontaneous self-organization and produces global emergent structures." (142)
qtd. in Mark C. Taylor, The Moment of Complexity (2001)
"Complex systems are not just complicated systems. A snowflake is complicated but the rules for generating it are simple. The structure of a snowflake, moreover, persists unchanged and crystalline, from the first moment of its existence until it melts, while complex systems change over time. It is true that a turbulent river rushing through the narrow channel of rapids changes over time too, but it changes chaotically. The kind of change characteristic of complex systems lies somewhere between the pure order of crystalline snowflakes and the disorder of chaotic or turbulent flow. So identified, complex systems are systems that have a large number of components that can interact simultaneously in a sufficiently rich number of parallel ways so that the system shows spontaneous self-organization and produces global emergent structures." (142)
qtd. in Mark C. Taylor, The Moment of Complexity (2001)
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