Here is an imaginative way of surveying the stigmergic activity of an ant colony. (I’m sorry that these creatures were sacrificed in the interest of science but they still “rule the world” and we have much to learn from them – respect!).
Roger Koppl was been banging on about knowledge monopolies for the last year or so. I’ve heard comments to the effect: “What business is it of an economist meddling in the world of forensics?” Roger makes the point crystal clear in a recent posting of his. I quote the punchline: The issue is not getting the…
I’d like to give a plug to a blog that’s just been started by some members of the Colloquium on Market Institutions and Economic Processes at the Department of Economics, New York University – ThinkMarkets. With names like Mario Rizzo, Bill Butos, Gene Callahan and Roger Koppl involved (this is no slight on the other contributors…
If you’ve ever heard the term “extended mind” and thought it denoted some sort of hocus pocus, then this recording will set you straight. Zoe Drayson of Bristol University has recorded a superb overview of the notion and the ethical implications arising from it. Zoe’s motivation for coming to this multidisciplinary literature had resonance for…
Once again a superb posting by Vitorino Ramos on his blog. Heretofore I’d not been aware of the existence of hobo signs or the gum election, both of which nicely illustrate the various conceptual lenses associated with distributed cognition/knowledge. I’ll definitely be invoking these ideas. Good stuff! I also notice another posting about Brian Arthur’s El Farol Bar…
I don’t often plug workshops or conferences but here is one that appeals to my interest in social epistemology and computational intelligence. ************************** Workshop on Computer Simulations in Social Epistemology, Leuven, October 30-31 Centre for Logic and Analytical Philosophy The Workshop will be held in Seminar Room 2.41, Van Der Heuvelinstituut, 2nd floor (just to…
Good news. Andy Clark’s eagerly awaited book Supersizing the Mind is now available. I notice that Clark and Chalmers’ “The Extended Mind” is reprinted here as well. Groovy Dali-esque cover! (Now that I actually have the book in my hands, I see that it is a Dali painting). Something to look forward to will be…
Here is a slideshow giving an overview of the concept of stigmergy and its applications.
Alvin Goldman, the doyen of analytic social epistemology, has a draft paper posted on his website entitled “The Social Epistemology of Blogging.” What’s gratifying to me is that via Richard Posner (whom Goldman cites), Hayek, who I have argued is the social epistemologist par excellence, makes an appearance. I have recently argued that if Hayek was centrally…
Another journal plug – this time for a special issue of Swarm Intelligence on Swarm Robotics. Check out the announcement on Simon Garnier’s blog.
manwithoutqualities 