TIM_BM_025 Cybernetics, Computation, Pask & Conversation, AI & Constellations

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2024
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Marcus J. Carney, MA (lecturer), doc. Mgr. Jana Horáková, Ph.D. (deputy)
Marcus John Carney, MA (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Jana Horáková, Ph.D.
Department of Musicology – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Bc. Jitka Leflíková
Supplier department: Department of Musicology – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Wed 25. 9. 10:00–13:40 C33, Thu 26. 9. 10:00–13:40 L21, Fri 27. 9. 10:00–13:40 L35, Fri 18. 10. 10:00–13:40 L35, Fri 8. 11. 10:00–13:40 L35, Fri 29. 11. 10:00–13:40 L35
Prerequisites
There are no official prerequisites other than students should be conversant / sufficiently fluent in English as the course will be taught in English. It is recommended that students are able to fully commit their time to the intensive and condensed nature of the class, and recognize that the course is highly participatory and reading intensive relative to its timeframe. Overall, the course welcomes all students that have an interest in cybernetics, artificial intelligence, 2nd order cybernetics, foundations of language, modeling, perception, computation, information, modes of learning, problem solving / solution finding, epistemological strategies to understanding. A cooperative, inventive mindset is welcome, playfulness is encouraged.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 55 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 10/55, only registered: 0/55, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/55
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 24 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
The course objective is to give students an introductory understanding-of as well as a feel-for cybernetic concepts / terminology (e.g. A. Turing understood intelligence as emotional concept), in order to pass them on, especially given the interdisciplinary disposition and transdisciplinary consequences cybernetics has brought about. This includes an understanding of the philosophical background / epistemological challenges regarding language, modeling, saying / showing and drawing distinctions.
Learning outcomes
The learning outcome is for the student to be able to convey general (and some specific / advanced) notions and ideas behind cybernetic and related concepts and terminology. Conveying what problems the cybernetic community tried to solve and how this is relevant to respective fields. Each student will extract a particular example they choose to explicate to themselves and their peers in form of a presentation, as part of fulfilling the course.
Syllabus
  • That in a room full of cyberneticists there are easily as many understandings of their subject says more about cybernetics and the loops (re-entries) it sends us into. What would become “Cybernetics" began with the interdisciplinary Macy Conferences in 1942 — on circular causal and feedback mechanisms in biological and social systems — but was only given its name by Norbert Wiener in 1948. This was preceded by Warren McCulloch’s & Walter Pitts’s seminal 1943 paper ‘A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity’, introducing the concept of neural networks. We will touch upon some of the preceding epistemological problems that brought Wittgenstein and Turing together in order to better understand the later interweaving of cybernetics and artificial intelligence. We will look at “Information” in Claude Shannon’s first order and Gregory Bateson’s second order understanding of the term. The Biological Computer Lab (BCL; Univ. of Illinois), founded by Heinz v. Foerster, was the center of cybernetic research from 1958 to 1974, where the ideas of foundational researchers such as W. Ross Ashby (Homeostat; Law of Requisite Variety), Gordon Pask (Conversation Theory) and Humberto Maturana (Autopoiesis) were the driving forces. Second-order cybernetics introduced the “oberserver [problem]” and brought about an opening away from strictly machine-based computation towards social practices with emergent phenomena, some of which appear enigmatic and are gaining new perspectives through current foundational research. If the “black box" (non-trivial machine) seems to continue to grow before everyone's eyes through current generative AIs, the syntactic approach of systemic-structurual constellations work (representational / inferential group modeling) offers interesting approaches to thinking and acting on cybernetic concepts such as regulation, control, information and boundaries, or on the various possibilities of how Wittgenstein's Tractarian “saying" & “showing" could (also) be navigated. We will take cues from Karl Friston, Michael Levin and Joscha Bach to look at current developments in AI and biological research.
Literature
  • B. Jack Copeland (Ed.) (2004), The Essential Turing: Seminal Writings in Computing, Logic, Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Life- Plus The Secrets of Enigma
  • Claus Pias (ed.) (2016), Cybernetics The Macy Conferences 1946-1953. The Complete Transactions,
  • Norbert Wiener (1948), Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus-Logico-Philosophicus (1922) https://people.umass.edu/klement/tlp/tlp-ebook.pdf USE mainly the Pear/ McGuiness translation (but check in / use the other Ogden translation as well)
  • W. S. McCulloch & W. Pitts (1943), A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity.
  • Albert Müller, Karl H. Müller (ed.) (2007), An Unfinished Revolution? Heinz von Foerster and the Biological Computer Laboratory 1958 – 76
  • Norbert Wiener (1950), The Human Use of Human Beings
Teaching methods
Each of the six days will entail reflection (of what has been read / discussed / achieved), followed by inputs by the lecturer in form of introductions to the topics at hand. Close reading of texts and excerpts of texts to be brought into correspondence will be complemented by group discussions, both in small break-out groups and also the plenum, as well as exercises to be worked on in small groups of 3—4 persons: e.g. how would you explain […] to (I) your peer/s, (II) a child, (III) without academic language (e.g. through everyday examples)? Approaches to cybernetics will be reflective / philosophical and taken through the concepts as well as their personage (discoverers / inventors) of respective concepts. The course is meant to facilitate conceptual understanding (“understanding” itself a cybernetic term), which means we will ever so slightly (and humbly) just graze the actual scientific (mathematical) pathways that were employed for scientific discourse — in other words: no mathematical knowledge is required. The point is to grasp the original ideas, how they connect and to what consequence in all our lives. Systemic-structural constellations work (SySt) will be explained and may be used for illustration, but no actual client work will be facilitated for students. SySt will be used as demonstration example of a modeling methodology, which works along the topological boundarys of the “black box” that is the client’s model of his/her/their chosen theme to work on in this way.
Assessment methods
*Assessment methods and criteria: Given the short, intensive seminar format of this course, full attendance and active, engaged participation that demonstrates that students have done the readings are the most significant components of the evaluation. In addition, there will be one written essay required as a final evaluation marker of the course that encourages the use of both creative and critical-thinking approaches to the subject matter.
  • *Grading Distribution: The course only has a pass/fail grading option. Attendance is 40%, participation that demonstrates that the student has done the required reading is 40%, presentation of individual and group work in a professional communication style is 10%, and required final essay, which also demonstrates that the student has done the required readings is 10%. In order to pass the course, students must get a minimum evaluation of 65%.
    • Language of instruction
    English
    Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
    Study Materials
    The course is taught only once.
    Teacher's information
    Marcus J. Carney — marcusjcarney@gmail.com
    • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
    • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/autumn2024/TIM_BM_025