-Jan
Symposium URL: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/cybspasy.html
[abridged -jch]
CALL FOR PAPERS
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* Symposium : *
* THEORIES AND METAPHORS OF CYBERSPACE *
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* modelling the cognitive and social implications of global networking *
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as part of the
13th European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research
EMCSR'96, Vienna, April 9-12, 1996
A symposium organized by the Principia Cybernetica Project (PCP) will be
held at EMCSR'96. Chaipersons are F. Heylighen and S. Umpleby. The
objective is to better understand the implications of the present explosive
growth in global computer networks, like the Internet or the World-Wide
Web. We wish to develop models of how these networks will further develop
and how they will affect individuals and society on all levels.
Soon, the whole of human knowledge will be directly available to any person
with access to a networked computer. Moreover, communication between
individuals will become much easier, faster and more transparent. "Smart"
computer systems will allow novel applications (virtual reality,
intelligent agents, distributed processing, automated indexing...) that no
one before ever would have dreamt of. These changes will affect and deeply
transform all aspects of society: education (distance learning, electronic
universities), work (telework, groupware), commerce (electronic cash and
banking), the media, government (electronic democracy), health, science and
technology... It seems as though society's collective intelligence will
increase manifold, perhaps producing an evolutionary transition to a higher
level of intelligence.
As these developments are so fast, and so difficult to predict, precise
models are usually not possible. In that case, comprehension may be helped
by using analogies. Examples of such metaphors for global network functions
are the "Information Superhighway", the network as a "Super-brain", which
emphasizes the collective intelligence of all users and computers connected
by the network, Jacques Vallee's notion of an "information singularity",
which notes that networked information becomes instantaneously available
everywhere, and "Cyberspace" itself, which visualizes networked information
as an immense space through which one can "surf".
Metaphors, however, only express one or a few aspects of a multidimensional
phenomenon. Therefore, we should move to more detailed and comprehensive
models, which can be tested by observation, implementation or simulation.
Cybernetics, as a theory of communication, information and control, seems
most directly applicable to such model-building, but valuable insights may
come from the most diverse domains: sociology, futurology, AI, complex
systems, man-machine interaction, cognitive psychology, etc. Our emphasis
is on concepts, principles, and observations, rather than on technical
protocols or implementations, although existing systems may provide a
concrete illustration from which more general implications can be derived.
[all the rest deleted, follow the URL at the top for more -jch]