This book traces the origins and evolution of cybersemiotics, beginning with the integration of semiotics into the theoretical framework of cybernetics and information theory. The book opens with chapters that situate the roots of cybersemiotics in Peircean semiotics, describe the advent of the Information Age and cybernetics, and lay out the proposition that notions of system, communication, self-reference, information, meaning, form, autopoiesis, and self-control are of equal topical interest to semiotics and systems theory. Subsequent chapters introduce a cybersemiotic viewpoint on the capacity of arts and other practices for knowing. This suggests pathways for developing Practice as Research and practice-led research, and prompts the reader to view this new configuration in cybersemiotic terms. Other contributors discuss cultural and perceptual shifts that lead to interaction with hybrid environments such as Alexa. The relationship of storytelling and cybersemiotics is covered at chapter length, and another chapter describes an individual-collectivity dialectics, in which the latter (Commind) constrains the former (interactants), but the former fuels the latter. The concluding chapter begins with the observation that digital technologies have infiltrated every corner of the metropolis - homes, workplaces, and places of leisure - to the extent that cities and bodies have transformed into interconnected interfaces. The book challenges the reader to participate in a broader discussion of the potential, limitations, alternatives, and criticisms of cybersemiotics.

Cybersemiotics not only builds a bridge between science and culture, it provides a framework that encompasses them both.

Important world institutions, such as the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Energy Agency (IEA), and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have publicly recognizing the highly interconnected nature of our world and therefore the relevance of systemic thinking and cybernetics as leading knowledge foundations to deal with the complexity of economic, social, and environmental issues. This recognition was the driving force of the Internet discussions held by participants to the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics 18th Congress, which last September 27 to 29(WOSC 2021). More than ever we needed to debate and develop current ontological, epistemological, and methodological approaches to the understanding of the future of humanity. WOSC organized this event in collaboration with the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). Scientists of this Academy together with scientists from all over the world made contributions to improving communications beyond particular nation states and regions toward the clarification of global issues like governance, health, education, technology, art, and others. Our aim in WOSC 2021 was bringing together scientists and researchers to collaborative debates at all levels from local communities to global societies. At the end of the Congress, scientists were invited to submit contributions to this Springer Nature book, along the following four themes: firstly, philosophical and methodological foundations for the development of the systems approach and cybernetics; secondly, the cybernetics of society, ecology and governance; thirdly, digital technologies and physical realities merging into a hybrid reality , and fourthly, the transdisciplinarity of systems sciences and cybernetics applied to the further development of knowledge areas, such as education, embodiment of social policies, and the arts. About 25 contributions were accepted for publication in this book. We see this as one of WOSC’s important contribution to the scientific community around the world.

The book focuses on the extension of quality-assured measurement and metrology into psychological and social domains. This is not only feasible and achievable, but also a pressing concern. Significant progress in developing a common conceptual system for measurement across the sciences has been made in recent collaborations between metrologists and psychometricians, as reported in the chapters of this book. Modeling, estimation, and interpretation of objectively reproducible unit quantities that support both general comparability and adaptation to unique local circumstances are demonstrated in fields as diverse as artificial intelligence, justice, and beauty perception.

The book gives up-to-date, multi-aspect exposition of the philosophy and methodology of information, and related areas within the nascent field of the study of information. It presents the most recent achievements, ideas and opinions of leading researchers in this domain, as well as from physicists, biologists and social scientists. Collaboration of researchers from different areas and fields opens new perspectives for the understanding of information essential in the innovative development of science, technology and society.The book is meant for readers conducting research into any aspect of information, information society and information technology. The ideas presented give new insights for those who develop or implement scientific, technological or social applications. They are especially for those who are participating in setting the goals for science in general and sciences of information in particular.

Louis R. Pondy was a leading management and organizational studies scholar whose work on open systems helped launch and define the future of the field. This book offers an assessment of Pondy’s contribution, through critical reflection on what happened to the relationship between conflict theory and “beyond open systems.” Exploring the ways in which Louis R. Pondy theorizes conflict and systems, and how he challenged the status quo paradigms, this book offers a historical analysis on Pondy’s work and the relation to contemporary management theory. The author develops a Triple Loop framework, building on Pondy’s theories as well as the work of Gregory Batesom, to demonstrate a beyond-open-systems approach and existing single- or double-loop systems. Demonstrating the value and legacy of Louis R. Pondy, this book will have international appeal to researchers, academics and students across management disciplines and organizational studies, including systems thinking and conflict resolution.

LIFE: A Transdisciplinary Inquiry examines nature, cognition and society as an interwoven tapestry across disciplinary boundaries. This volume explores how information and communication are instrumental in and for living systems, acknowledging an integrative account of media as environments and technologies. The aim of the collection is a fuller and richer account of everyday life through a spectrum of insights from internationally known scholars of the natural sciences (physical and life sciences), social sciences and the arts. How or should life be defined? If life is a medium, how is it mediated? Viewed as interactions, transactions and contexts of ecosystems, life can be recognized through patterns across the sciences, including metabolisms, habitats and lifeworlds. The book also integrates discussions of embodiment, ecological values, literacies and critiques, with bioinspired, synthetic and historical design approaches to envision what could constitute artful living in an ever-evolving, interdependent world. The volume foregrounds systemic approaches to life, drawing on a wide range of disciplines and fields, including architecture, art, biology, bioengineering, chemistry, cinema studies, communication, computer science, conservation, cultural studies, design, ecology, environmental studies, information science, landscape architecture, geography, journalism, materials science, media archaeology, media studies, philosophy, physics, plant signalling and development, political economy, sociology and system dynamics. This is the second volume in the MEDIA • LIFE • UNIVERSE Trilogy. It follows and builds upon the 2021 collection MEDIA: A Transdisciplinary Inquiry ISBN 9781789382655

This book addresses some of the key questions that scientists have been asking themselves for centuries: what is knowledge? What is information? How do we know that we know something? How do we construct meaning from the perceptions of things? Although no consensus exists on a common definition of the concepts of information and communication, few can reject the hypothesis that information – whether perceived as « object » or as « process » - is a pre-condition for knowledge. Epistemology is the study of how we know things (anglophone meaning) or the study of how scientific knowledge is arrived at and validated (francophone conception). To adopt an epistemological stance is to commit oneself to render an account of what constitutes knowledge or in procedural terms, to render an account of when one can claim to know something. An epistemological theory imposes constraints on the interpretation of human cognitive interaction with the world. It goes without saying that different epistemological theories will have more or less restrictive criteria to distinguish what constitutes knowledge from what is not. If information is a pre-condition for knowledge acquisition, giving an account of how knowledge is acquired should impact our comprehension of information and communication as concepts. While a lot has been written on the definition of these concepts, less research has attempted to establish explicit links between differing theoretical conceptions of these concepts and the underlying epistemological stances. This is what this volume attempts to do. It offers a multidisciplinary exploration of information and communication as perceived in different disciplines and how those perceptions affect theories of knowledge.

Bernard Scott’s book explains the relevance of cybernetics for the social sciences. He provides a non-technical account of the history of cybernetics and its core concepts, with examples of applications of cybernetics in psychology, sociology, and anthropology.

Poetry. Philosophy. Translated from French by William Garvin. Foreword by Gonçalo Tavares. "Liminally landing between prose and poetry, science and art, philosophy and spirituality, THE HIDDEN THIRD charismatically disseminates a new renaissance transmission. Leaving the reader breathless. Re-imagined, re-generated. Mind duly sanctified."--Gary P. Hampson "A first phrase is always a first phrase: it begins. And in these poetic theorems, each theorem is always a first phrase."--Gonçalo Tavares "We could ask Basarab Nicolescu about the last constituents of matter or language, since, according to him, language is a truly quantum phenomena."--Michel Camus