Contents:Søren Brier: Foreword Full text Peter Bøgh Andersen: WWW as self-organizing system Abstract Joy Murray: Information, Communication and Technology: What can second order cybernetics contribute to the literacy debate Abstract Erminia Vaccari: Knowledge as Modelling Abstract Louis H. Kauffman: Virtual Logic - Self Reference and The Calculus of Indications Abstract Ranulph Glanville: A (Cybernetic) Musing: The Gestation of Second Order Cybernetics, 1968-1975 - A Personal Account Full text
|
Foreword:By Søren Brier The present issue concentrates on how the self-organizing structure of the electronic communication media, such as the Internet, influences how we communicate, perceive and understand texts. Peter Bøgh Andersen analyzes the basic com-munication structure of the Internet. He describes it as a 'technical autopoietic system', underlining that it is of course made by humans and only makes sense through human users, but as a medium it is more self-organized than any other media we know. Joy Murray writes about how the changing technology of communication provokes a new perspective on literacy learning in schools based on Maturana and Varela's work. Communication is seen as a braiding together of languaging and emotioning. Ermina Vaccari speaks about a specific methodology for modeling problems of organized complexity and its relevance for understanding the self-organizing character of cognition. As the papers are rather long this time we have had to postpone the praxis section and books reviews until the next issue. But we have been faithful to the columns. Louis Kauffman writes about self-reference and the calculus of indication while Ranulph Glanville gives a personal testimony of the early history of second order cybernetics. We welcome five new consulting editors, namely Marcelo Packman from Psychiatric Services, Behavioral Health Network, Springfield, MA, USA; David Russell, Centre for Research in Social Inquiry, University of Western Sidney, Hawksbury, Australia; Lloyd Fell, NSW Agriculture, University of New England, Armidale, Australia; David Depew, Dept. of Communication Studies and Project on the Rhetoric of Inquiry, University of Iowa, USA; and Bruce Weber, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, California State University, Fullerton, USA. Our book review editor Lawrence Bale is leaving us and we thank him for his dedicated work. As the journal's subject area is multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary we have decided to let voluntary consulting editors within different fields split the job of book review editor between them to get better coverage. The Artist for this issue is Roj Friberg. Finally let me draw your attention to the new design of our web page made by Martin and Torkild Thellefsen with the first prototype of a hypertext thesaurus covering volume four. It is the plan to enlarge it in the coming month and later build other more specialized search facilities into the web site.
|
