John Avery: Information Theory and Evolution (2003)
Filed under book | Tags: · bioinformatics, biology, biosemiotics, entropy, evolution, information technology, information theory
This highly interdisciplinary book discusses the phenomenon of life, including its origin and evolution (and also human cultural evolution), against the background of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory. Among the central themes is the seeming contradiction between the second law of thermodynamics and the high degree of order and complexity produced by living systems. This paradox has its resolution in the information content of the Gibbs free energy that enters the biosphere from outside sources, as the author shows. The role of information in human cultural evolution is another focus of the book. One of the final chapters discusses the merging of information technology and biotechnology into a new discipline — bio-information technology.
Publisher World Scientific, 2003
ISBN 9812383999, 9789812383990
Length 217 pages
Jacques Barzun: Darwin, Marx, Wagner: Critique of a Heritage, 2nd ed (1941–)
Filed under book | Tags: · art, culture, darwinism, evolution, history, marxism, music, philosophy, politics, revolution, science
The nomination of Wagner rather than Freud in the trinity of emblematic modern minds is a sign of Barzun’s profound interest in music and the arts. He argued that these men achieved their reputations by catching the spirit of the age, like surfers on a wave, backed by the formidable public relations exercises mounted by their followers . This earned them the status of intellectual icons despite their lack of originality and the significant flaws in their systems. He described in some detail how all the leading ideas of evolutionary theory, socialism and the leading role of the artist were commonplace for decades before the big three started work.
Barzun was especially critical of the way that their adherents promoted determinism and scientism, with truly disastrous political consequences in the twentieth century. In addition to the shortcomings of their systems, two of the three titans were monstrously egocentric and unprincipled exploiters of their friends and denigrators of their enemies. These personal characteristics became prominent in the modus operandi of their followers, setting the tone for bad manners in transactions between intellectuals that have persisted to the present time.
Reprint of the revised 2nd edition, 1958, with a new Preface, 1981
Publisher University of Chicago Press
ISBN 0226038599
373 pages
PDF (updated on 2014-9-5)
Comment (0)Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau. Interactive Art Research (2009)
Filed under book | Tags: · algorithm, artificial life, evolution, interactivity, interface, internet, media art, nanotechnology
Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau are two of the most innovative and internationally renowned media artists and researchers. Their work has been called “epoch-making” (Toshiharu Itoh, NTT-ICC Museum, Tokyo) for developing natural and intuitive interfaces and for applying scientific principles such as artificial life, complexity, generative systems and nanotechnologies to their innovative interface design.
This monograph represents a comprehensive overview of Sommerer and Mignonneau’s art and research. In addition to providing detailed project descriptions of each interactive artwork, it includes essays and articles by highly recognized media scholars and theoreticians who bring the interactive artworks of Sommerer and Mignonneau in an art and media art history perspective.
Contributions from Roy Ascott, Anne Marie Duguet, Oliver Grau, Erkki Huhtamo, Machiko Kusahara, Hannes Leopoldseder, Christine Schopf and Peter Wiebel, among others
Editors: Gerfried Stocker, Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau
Publisher Springer, 2009
ISBN 3211990151, 9783211990155
Length 200 pages