First published in 1999. Volume 13 in the 13-volume set titled World Futures General Evolution Studies with a common focus of the emerging field of general evolutionary theory. This volume will expand across disciplines where scholars from new fields will contribute books that propose general evolution theory in novel contexts. The essays are structured with five topics: Approaches to Unification; Concepts of Information; Self-Organizing Systems; Life and Consciousness; Society and Technology.

First published in 1999. Volume 13 in the 13-volume set titled World Futures General Evolution Studies with a common focus of the emerging field of general evolutionary theory. This volume will expand across disciplines where scholars from new fields will contribute books that propose general evolution theory in novel contexts. The essays are structured with five topics: Approaches to Unification; Concepts of Information; Self-Organizing Systems; Life and Consciousness; Society and Technology.

First published in 1999. Volume 13 in the 13-volume set titled World Futures General Evolution Studies with a common focus of the emerging field of general evolutionary theory. This volume will expand across disciplines where scholars from new fields will contribute books that propose general evolution theory in novel contexts. The essays are structured with five topics: Approaches to Unification; Concepts of Information; Self-Organizing Systems; Life and Consciousness; Society and Technology.

This book examines the contributions of the transhumanism approach to technology, in particular the contributed chapters are wary of the implications of this popular idea.The volume is organized into four parts concerning philosophical, military, technological and sociological aspects of transhumanism, but the reader is free to choose various reading patterns. Topics discussed include gene editing, the singularity, ethical machines, metaphors in AI, mind uploading, and the philosophy of art, and some perspectives taken or discussed examine transhumanism within the context of the philosophy of technology, transhumanism as a derailed anthropology, and critical sociological aspects that consider transhumanism in the context of topical concerns such as whiteness, maleness, and masculinity.The book will be of value to researchers engaged with artificial intelligence, and the ethical, societal, and philosophical impacts of science and technology.

This book examines the contributions of the transhumanism approach to technology, in particular the contributed chapters are wary of the implications of this popular idea.The volume is organized into four parts concerning philosophical, military, technological and sociological aspects of transhumanism, but the reader is free to choose various reading patterns. Topics discussed include gene editing, the singularity, ethical machines, metaphors in AI, mind uploading, and the philosophy of art, and some perspectives taken or discussed examine transhumanism within the context of the philosophy of technology, transhumanism as a derailed anthropology, and critical sociological aspects that consider transhumanism in the context of topical concerns such as whiteness, maleness, and masculinity.The book will be of value to researchers engaged with artificial intelligence, and the ethical, societal, and philosophical impacts of science and technology.

This book examines the contributions of the transhumanism approach to technology, in particular the contributed chapters are wary of the implications of this popular idea.The volume is organized into four parts concerning philosophical, military, technological and sociological aspects of transhumanism, but the reader is free to choose various reading patterns. Topics discussed include gene editing, the singularity, ethical machines, metaphors in AI, mind uploading, and the philosophy of art, and some perspectives taken or discussed examine transhumanism within the context of the philosophy of technology, transhumanism as a derailed anthropology, and critical sociological aspects that consider transhumanism in the context of topical concerns such as whiteness, maleness, and masculinity.The book will be of value to researchers engaged with artificial intelligence, and the ethical, societal, and philosophical impacts of science and technology.

Der geborene Österreicher Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901-1972) gilt als der Begründer der Allgemeinen Systemtheorie. Die Querschnittswissenschaft Systemtheorie hat damit ihre Grundlage bekommen. Mark Davidson, Schriftsteller, Journalist, ehemaliger Professor für Kommunikationswissenschaften an der California State University in Dominguez Hills, hat mit diesem Buch Bertalanffy ein Denkmal gesetzt und eine leicht lesbare Einführung in die Systemwissenschaften vorgelegt. Es beschreibt eine Wissenschaftsströmung, die wie maßgeschneidert ist, den Herausforderungen unseres globalen Informationszeitalters zu begegnen, und es mag mithelfen, Bertalanffy den Platz in der österreichischen und internationalen Wissenschaftsgeschichte zuzuweisen, der ihm gebührt.

First published in 1999. Volume 13 in the 13-volume set titled World Futures General Evolution Studies with a common focus of the emerging field of general evolutionary theory. This volume will expand across disciplines where scholars from new fields will contribute books that propose general evolution theory in novel contexts. The essays are structured with five topics: Approaches to Unification; Concepts of Information; Self-Organizing Systems; Life and Consciousness; Society and Technology.

This book is a scientific basis for understanding the urgent need for a Great Transformation to a third step in social evolution. Already being a community of common destiny, humanity can form an actual unity through diversity to avoid extinction. Social actors can recognise informational imperatives for cognition, communication and co-operation to achieve such a unity. By doing so, they apply a logic that underlies the structuration of any agency, which is a real logic of self-organising systems from the physical to the social. This logic is the Logic of the Third — the Third is a meta-structure that emerges in a leap. The agents interact and when they co-act they are likely to form a real meta-structure of organisational relations. Informational agents anticipate this by generating requisite information in their attempt to cope with complex challenges. Such an information is a meta-structure too. The Third helps achieve synergy effects.This book discusses considerations from philosophy, systems theory, the study of information, social systems, social information, ecology and technology. It addresses ethical issues connected with the long-forgotten arms race in an atomic age, the global warming not yet under control, the pandemic misunderstood, the social question still unanswered.

This book is a collection of works related to information contributed by multiple authors dedicated to the memory of Mark Burgin who passed away on February 18, 2023. Mark Burgin had a very wide range of research and philosophical interests which has a reflection in the very broad subject range of the contributions to this book honoring his memory as an outstanding member of the academic community.The book Understanding Information and Its Role as a Tool: In Memory of Mark Burgin has two parts which have self-explanatory titles classifying submissions into two categories. One of them is "Understanding Information: Theory and Foundations" and the other "Information Realm: Information as a Tool for Exploring Reality". The former is intended as an inquiry of the concept of information itself, the latter as an inquiry of the use of the concept of information as a methodological tool for diverse forms of inquiries.The book was originally planned together with Mark Burgin and only after his passing was transformed by its present editors into his memorial. It was intended as a means to promote and disseminate the results of the ongoing research on information stimulated, initiated, or influenced by the 2021 IS4SI Summit. In the present form it goes way beyond its original design to focus on the most recent developments in the fields of information study.

This book is the first volume of a two-volume edition based on the International Society for Information Studies Summit Vienna 2015 on "The Information Society at the Crossroads. Response and Responsibility of the Sciences of Information" (see summit.is4is.org).The book represents a trans-disciplinary endeavor of the leading experts in the field of information studies posing the question for a better society, in which social and technological innovations help make information key to the flourishing of humanity and dispense with the bleak view of the dark side of information society.It is aimed at readers that conduct research into any aspect of information, information society and information technology, who develop or implement social or technological applications. It is also for those who have an interest in participating in setting the goals for sciences of information and social applications of technological achievements and scientific results.

This book is the second volume of a two-volume edition based on the International Society for Information Studies Summit Vienna 2015 on "The Information Society at the Crossroads. Response and Responsibility of the Sciences of Information" (see summit.is4is.org).The book gives an up-to-date multiaspect exposition of contemporary studies in the field of information and related areas. It presents most recent achievements, ideas and opinions of leading researchers in this domain reflecting their quest for advancing information science and technology. With the goal of building a better society, in which social and technological innovations help make information key to the flourishing of humanity, we dispense with the bleak view of the dark side of information society.It is aimed at readers that conduct research into any aspect of information, information society and information technology, who develop or implement social or technological applications. It is also for those who have an interest in participating in setting the goals for the sciences of information and the social applications of technological achievements and the scientific results.

At the dawn of the information age, a proper understanding of information and how it relates to matter and energy is of utmost importance for the survival of civilisation. Yet, attempts to reconcile information concepts underlying science and technology with those en vogue in social science, humanities, and arts are rather rare. This book offers a new approach, departing from fragmented information concepts.Many academics refrain from undergoing unifications, as most undertakings are reductionistic. This book contends that it is the noble task of an as-yet-to-be-developed science of information to go one step in the direction of a unified theory of information without falling back into neither reduction nor anthropomorphisation.To be able to succeed in an ambitious task like this, the book advocates the application of complex systems theory and its philosophical underpinnings. Information needs to be interpreted in terms of self-organisation to do justice to the richness of its manifestations. The way the book does so will provide the reader with a deep insight into a basic feature of our world.The following are discussed in the volume: A Science of Information; A New Way of Thinking; Praxio-Onto-Epistemology; Evolutionary Systems Design; Evolutionary Systems Ontology; Evolutionary Systems Methodology; Capurro's Information Concept Trilemma; A Multi-Stage Model of Evolutionary Types of Information: Pattern Formation, Code-Making, and Constituting Sense; A Triple-C Model of Systemic Functions of Information: Cognising, Communicating, and Co-Operating; Nine Categories of Information Capabilities: Reflectivity (physical), Psyche (biotic), Consciousness (human); Connectivity (physical), Signalability (biotic), Languageability (human); Cohesiveness (physical), Coherency (biotic), Communitarity (human); Nine Categories of Information: Response (physical), Flexible Response (biotic), Reflexion (human); Correspondences (physical), Signals (biotic), Symbolic Acts (human); Assemblage (physical), Assignment (biotic), Association (human); A Unified Theory of Information for, about, and by means of the Information Society.

First published in 1999. Volume 13 in the 13-volume set titled World Futures General Evolution Studies with a common focus of the emerging field of general evolutionary theory. This volume will expand across disciplines where scholars from new fields will contribute books that propose general evolution theory in novel contexts. The essays are structured with five topics: Approaches to Unification; Concepts of Information; Self-Organizing Systems; Life and Consciousness; Society and Technology.

First published in 1999. Volume 13 in the 13-volume set titled World Futures General Evolution Studies with a common focus of the emerging field of general evolutionary theory. This volume will expand across disciplines where scholars from new fields will contribute books that propose general evolution theory in novel contexts. The essays are structured with five topics: Approaches to Unification; Concepts of Information; Self-Organizing Systems; Life and Consciousness; Society and Technology.

First published in 1999. Volume 13 in the 13-volume set titled World Futures General Evolution Studies with a common focus of the emerging field of general evolutionary theory. This volume will expand across disciplines where scholars from new fields will contribute books that propose general evolution theory in novel contexts. The essays are structured with five topics: Approaches to Unification; Concepts of Information; Self-Organizing Systems; Life and Consciousness; Society and Technology.

This book examines the contributions of the transhumanism approach to technology, in particular the contributed chapters are wary of the implications of this popular idea.The volume is organized into four parts concerning philosophical, military, technological and sociological aspects of transhumanism, but the reader is free to choose various reading patterns. Topics discussed include gene editing, the singularity, ethical machines, metaphors in AI, mind uploading, and the philosophy of art, and some perspectives taken or discussed examine transhumanism within the context of the philosophy of technology, transhumanism as a derailed anthropology, and critical sociological aspects that consider transhumanism in the context of topical concerns such as whiteness, maleness, and masculinity.The book will be of value to researchers engaged with artificial intelligence, and the ethical, societal, and philosophical impacts of science and technology.

This book examines the contributions of the transhumanism approach to technology, in particular the contributed chapters are wary of the implications of this popular idea.The volume is organized into four parts concerning philosophical, military, technological and sociological aspects of transhumanism, but the reader is free to choose various reading patterns. Topics discussed include gene editing, the singularity, ethical machines, metaphors in AI, mind uploading, and the philosophy of art, and some perspectives taken or discussed examine transhumanism within the context of the philosophy of technology, transhumanism as a derailed anthropology, and critical sociological aspects that consider transhumanism in the context of topical concerns such as whiteness, maleness, and masculinity.The book will be of value to researchers engaged with artificial intelligence, and the ethical, societal, and philosophical impacts of science and technology.

This book examines the contributions of the transhumanism approach to technology, in particular the contributed chapters are wary of the implications of this popular idea.The volume is organized into four parts concerning philosophical, military, technological and sociological aspects of transhumanism, but the reader is free to choose various reading patterns. Topics discussed include gene editing, the singularity, ethical machines, metaphors in AI, mind uploading, and the philosophy of art, and some perspectives taken or discussed examine transhumanism within the context of the philosophy of technology, transhumanism as a derailed anthropology, and critical sociological aspects that consider transhumanism in the context of topical concerns such as whiteness, maleness, and masculinity.The book will be of value to researchers engaged with artificial intelligence, and the ethical, societal, and philosophical impacts of science and technology.

Der geborene Österreicher Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901-1972) gilt als der Begründer der Allgemeinen Systemtheorie. Die Querschnittswissenschaft Systemtheorie hat damit ihre Grundlage bekommen. Mark Davidson, Schriftsteller, Journalist, ehemaliger Professor für Kommunikationswissenschaften an der California State University in Dominguez Hills, hat mit diesem Buch Bertalanffy ein Denkmal gesetzt und eine leicht lesbare Einführung in die Systemwissenschaften vorgelegt. Es beschreibt eine Wissenschaftsströmung, die wie maßgeschneidert ist, den Herausforderungen unseres globalen Informationszeitalters zu begegnen, und es mag mithelfen, Bertalanffy den Platz in der österreichischen und internationalen Wissenschaftsgeschichte zuzuweisen, der ihm gebührt.

First published in 1999. Volume 13 in the 13-volume set titled World Futures General Evolution Studies with a common focus of the emerging field of general evolutionary theory. This volume will expand across disciplines where scholars from new fields will contribute books that propose general evolution theory in novel contexts. The essays are structured with five topics: Approaches to Unification; Concepts of Information; Self-Organizing Systems; Life and Consciousness; Society and Technology.

This book is a scientific basis for understanding the urgent need for a Great Transformation to a third step in social evolution. Already being a community of common destiny, humanity can form an actual unity through diversity to avoid extinction. Social actors can recognise informational imperatives for cognition, communication and co-operation to achieve such a unity. By doing so, they apply a logic that underlies the structuration of any agency, which is a real logic of self-organising systems from the physical to the social. This logic is the Logic of the Third — the Third is a meta-structure that emerges in a leap. The agents interact and when they co-act they are likely to form a real meta-structure of organisational relations. Informational agents anticipate this by generating requisite information in their attempt to cope with complex challenges. Such an information is a meta-structure too. The Third helps achieve synergy effects.This book discusses considerations from philosophy, systems theory, the study of information, social systems, social information, ecology and technology. It addresses ethical issues connected with the long-forgotten arms race in an atomic age, the global warming not yet under control, the pandemic misunderstood, the social question still unanswered.

This book is a collection of works related to information contributed by multiple authors dedicated to the memory of Mark Burgin who passed away on February 18, 2023. Mark Burgin had a very wide range of research and philosophical interests which has a reflection in the very broad subject range of the contributions to this book honoring his memory as an outstanding member of the academic community.The book Understanding Information and Its Role as a Tool: In Memory of Mark Burgin has two parts which have self-explanatory titles classifying submissions into two categories. One of them is "Understanding Information: Theory and Foundations" and the other "Information Realm: Information as a Tool for Exploring Reality". The former is intended as an inquiry of the concept of information itself, the latter as an inquiry of the use of the concept of information as a methodological tool for diverse forms of inquiries.The book was originally planned together with Mark Burgin and only after his passing was transformed by its present editors into his memorial. It was intended as a means to promote and disseminate the results of the ongoing research on information stimulated, initiated, or influenced by the 2021 IS4SI Summit. In the present form it goes way beyond its original design to focus on the most recent developments in the fields of information study.

This book is the first volume of a two-volume edition based on the International Society for Information Studies Summit Vienna 2015 on "The Information Society at the Crossroads. Response and Responsibility of the Sciences of Information" (see summit.is4is.org).The book represents a trans-disciplinary endeavor of the leading experts in the field of information studies posing the question for a better society, in which social and technological innovations help make information key to the flourishing of humanity and dispense with the bleak view of the dark side of information society.It is aimed at readers that conduct research into any aspect of information, information society and information technology, who develop or implement social or technological applications. It is also for those who have an interest in participating in setting the goals for sciences of information and social applications of technological achievements and scientific results.

This book is the second volume of a two-volume edition based on the International Society for Information Studies Summit Vienna 2015 on "The Information Society at the Crossroads. Response and Responsibility of the Sciences of Information" (see summit.is4is.org).The book gives an up-to-date multiaspect exposition of contemporary studies in the field of information and related areas. It presents most recent achievements, ideas and opinions of leading researchers in this domain reflecting their quest for advancing information science and technology. With the goal of building a better society, in which social and technological innovations help make information key to the flourishing of humanity, we dispense with the bleak view of the dark side of information society.It is aimed at readers that conduct research into any aspect of information, information society and information technology, who develop or implement social or technological applications. It is also for those who have an interest in participating in setting the goals for the sciences of information and the social applications of technological achievements and the scientific results.

At the dawn of the information age, a proper understanding of information and how it relates to matter and energy is of utmost importance for the survival of civilisation. Yet, attempts to reconcile information concepts underlying science and technology with those en vogue in social science, humanities, and arts are rather rare. This book offers a new approach, departing from fragmented information concepts.Many academics refrain from undergoing unifications, as most undertakings are reductionistic. This book contends that it is the noble task of an as-yet-to-be-developed science of information to go one step in the direction of a unified theory of information without falling back into neither reduction nor anthropomorphisation.To be able to succeed in an ambitious task like this, the book advocates the application of complex systems theory and its philosophical underpinnings. Information needs to be interpreted in terms of self-organisation to do justice to the richness of its manifestations. The way the book does so will provide the reader with a deep insight into a basic feature of our world.The following are discussed in the volume: A Science of Information; A New Way of Thinking; Praxio-Onto-Epistemology; Evolutionary Systems Design; Evolutionary Systems Ontology; Evolutionary Systems Methodology; Capurro's Information Concept Trilemma; A Multi-Stage Model of Evolutionary Types of Information: Pattern Formation, Code-Making, and Constituting Sense; A Triple-C Model of Systemic Functions of Information: Cognising, Communicating, and Co-Operating; Nine Categories of Information Capabilities: Reflectivity (physical), Psyche (biotic), Consciousness (human); Connectivity (physical), Signalability (biotic), Languageability (human); Cohesiveness (physical), Coherency (biotic), Communitarity (human); Nine Categories of Information: Response (physical), Flexible Response (biotic), Reflexion (human); Correspondences (physical), Signals (biotic), Symbolic Acts (human); Assemblage (physical), Assignment (biotic), Association (human); A Unified Theory of Information for, about, and by means of the Information Society.