Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

Typical emergencies, capable to produce extended black-outs in large interconnected power systems, are set into evidence. The most appropriate control actions are thoroughly discussed. A classification is proposed, in which one considers medium, heavy, extremely severe disturbances. The role of stability is pointed out, automatic load-shedding plans that expressly account for stability are suggested.

We present an hypothesis of the existence of analogies between the bio-psycho-cognitive living organism, working as a model, and social institutions. These institutions are created to protect man against stress and changes. This hypothesis is supported by: 1) the analogies which exist between an enterprise and living organism. 2) the existence of “out of body experiences” observed in some natural conditions and electrophysiological manipulations. Furthermore the possibility to project out of the subject a virtual object is one of the elements contributing to human identity and consciousness. A trinitrian situation is realized between the subject, the out of body object and the outside observer. This observer (mirror of the subject) is classically recognized as one of the essential factors needed for the subject identity construction which constitute one of the defense factors of a living organism or social institution. So, a “trinitrian intelligent loop” exist, allowing the emergence of the consciousness of the conscience.

The work studies the trajectories, the emergent strategies and the effects due to the interaction of two robots, in a simulated environment. The robots have the same task: crossing some fixed zones of the environment. The study is focused on the emergence of collaborative or competitive behaviour, which is valued by taking into account the interaction area locations and the impact of the interaction on the behaviour. The results of the research show emergent behaviours with a strong analogy with those of dominance in nature, in which animals organize itself in groups that follow particular geometries. The experiments highlight that the resulting interaction geometries depend on the agent evolution degree and on the interaction area locations, while the relationship between these two factors appears as reciprocal.

This paper analyzes the role of computationalism in Cognitive Science in order to highligth its shortcomings. The main thesis is that, rather than eliminating computationalism from Cognitive Science, we would better reconsider the distinction between computable and uncomputable. Whereas such a distinction is useful to stress the intrinsic limitations of a mechanistic view of cognitive processing, it is useless when dealing with the main problem of post-computational Cognitive Science, namely the one of understanding the emergence of cognitive abilities from biological stuff.

In this paper we compare the features of models of emergence introduced within theoretical physics, mainly to account for phenomenology of second-order phase transitions, with the requirements coming from observations of biological self-organization. We argue that, notwithstanding the deep differences between biological and non-biological systems, the methods of theoretical physics could, in principle, account even for the main features of biological emergence.

On the basis of previous contributions about a methodology for the decomposition of systems, we attempt to investigate the interaction between subsystems. When considering the problem of decomposition of systems, different interaction levels can be evidenced and then a classification scheme can be defined. Some relation patterns in a decomposition can be interpreted as hierarchical levels showing the emergence of some hierarchical structure. The attitude (subjective or objective) and the methodological approach give the basic conditions for the application of these concepts. The preliminary analysis regarding the control of an industrial plant may be an useful example to test these ideas and to evaluate the interaction of critical subsystems, like human operator or critical control functions.

The historical difficulty in defining architecture corresponds to the complexity and variety of the actions implied, to their multiple interests and meanings, to the different knowledge and theories involved and to its great functional and cultural implications for human life and society. Vitruvius gave a notion of architecture as the emerging system of the main connections of and . A more recent and flexible definition is William Morris’s, who conceived architecture as something regarding “all the signs that mankind leaves on the Earth, except pure desert”. Today we could agreed on a definition of architecture as . To explore its dimensions, performances, multiple values, we need a systemic approach allowing us to recognize and act more consciously in the whole of its variables.

Music presents features typical of complex systems, whether for the multiple aspects it contains or the type of connections it establishes between systems that are seemingly far apart in terms of context, problematic and local characteristics. Actually, in music it is detected the necessary persistence and coexistence of contrasting or apparently irreconcilable elements whose interaction gives rise to what we call “beauty”; this can be more accurately defined, by way of complexity, as an emergent property of artistic production. In this sense, music can help us to redefine “cognitive paths” in virtue of its profound ability to represent and make emergent cognitive processes. Perception, representation, abstraction, creativity and non-linearity are, among the emergent properties of the music-system, those which are most consistent with the process of learning. A didactics of music based on complexity as methodological point of reference shapes the pedagogical process as an interaction in which teacher and student are involved in a reciprocal relationship. From the superposition of their roles in real experience and from the relational aspects, a form of self-defined learning process arises taking on the character of emergent property of the system.

Usually the uncertainties associated to modeling complex systems arise from the impossibility of adopting a single model to describe the whole set of possible behaviours of a given system. It is, on the contrary, taken as granted that, once chosen a particular model (and whence renouncing to a complete knowledge about the system itself), every uncertainty should disappear. In this paper we will show, by resorting to an example related to the choice of academic career and to a structural equations modeling, that, even in this case, there is a further intrinsic uncertainty associated to the fact that algorithms used to make previsions give different answers as a function of adopted software, of the algorithm details, and of the degree of precision required. Such a further uncertainty prevents, in principle, from any attempt to reach a complete elimination of uncertainty within the study of complex systems.

Nowadays, many educational services are offered through computers, and the fast spread of hypertexts impose a careful reflection to all experts, both on its structure and its organization design to reach an effective adaptation to the customer target and to the context of use. The problematic gains its greatest importance in the specific case of introduction and use of hypertextual support in the primary school, where structure, navigability, friendliness and coherence represent open key issues (Panto, 1999). Unfortunately, a standard of reference does not exist currently; it would predispose modalities of navigation, define rules and conventions on the quality of the information provided, or outline the relationship previewed in every node (Norman, 1994). Therefore, it is difficult to translate the educational plan into an effective and functional unit without a tutorial guidance. The objective of this contribution concerns the location of a “reasoned” hypertextual structure and organization in a systemic view of all the features, in order to identify a careful instructional model design.