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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Communication studies > Information theory > Cybernetics & systems theory
What causes one system to break down and another to rebound? Are we
merely subject to the whim of forces beyond our control? Or, in the
face of constant disruption, can we build better shock
absorbers--for ourselves, our communities, our economies, and for
the planet as a whole?
In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, Limits to Growth--the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet-- Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Meadows' newly released manuscript, Thinking in Systems, is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute's Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. Some of the biggest problems facing the world--war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation--are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.
organized around health and human development, environment and sustainability, and communities and social change Includes agent-based modeling, system dynamics, and network analysis Indroductory framing essays for each section
For the past 50 years, the advancements of technology have equipped architects with unique tools that have enabled the development of new computer-mediated design methods, fabrication techniques, and architectural expressions. Simultaneously, in contemporary architecture new frameworks emerged that have radically redefined the traditional conceptions of design, of the built environment, and of the role of architects. Cybernetic Architectures argues that such frameworks have been constructed in direct reference to cybernetic thinking, a thought model that emerged concurrently with the origins of informatics and that embodies the main assumptions, values, and ideals underlying the development of computer science. The book explains how the evolution of the computational perspective in architecture has been parallel to the construction of design issues in reference to the central ideas fostered by the cybernetic model. It unpacks and explains this crucial relationship, in the work of digital architects, between the use of information technology in design and the conception of architectural problems around an informational ontology. This book will appeal to architecture students and scholars interested in understanding the recent transformations in the architectural landscape related to the advent of computer-based design paradigms.
This book discusses the application of complex adaptive systems theory to the design and evaluation of patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs). The three defining goals of PCMHs are to spread patient-care roles among healthcare team members, focus on disease prevention and include the patient in the healthcare team. It explains why some PCMH pilots are highly successful while others do not show much benefit, covers specific sub-theories that allow for bracketing of different aspects of the clinic system and highlights strategies by which institutions can engage in this process. Inter professional Education in Patient-Centered Medical Homes is a valuable resource for faculty and managers of health professions teaching clinics, deans of medical and health professional schools and medical administrators.
Summary Explains in easy-to-understand terms what executives and senior managers need to know and do about the ever-changing cyber threat landscape. Gives strategic, business-focused guidance and advice relevant to C-suite executives. Provides an effective and efficient framework for managing cyber governance, risk and compliance. Explains what is required to implement an effective cyber security strategy. Description With high-profile cyber attacks, data breaches and fines for GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) non-compliance hitting the headlines daily, businesses must protect themselves and their reputations, while reassuring stakeholders they take cyber security seriously. Cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated and prevalent, and the cost of data breaches is soaring. In addition, new regulations and reporting requirements make cyber security a critical business issue. Board members and senior management must understand the threat landscape and the strategies they can employ to establish, implement and maintain effective cyber resilience throughout their organisation. How Cyber Security Can Protect your Business - A guide for all stakeholders provides an effective and efficient framework for managing cyber governance, risk and compliance, which organisations can adapt to meet their own risk appetite and synchronise with their people, processes and technology. It explains what is meant by governance, risk and compliance, how it applies to cyber security and what is required to implement an effective cyber security strategy. The pocket guide: Gives readers a greater understanding of cyber governance, risk and compliance; Explains what executives, senior managers and their advisors need to know and do about the ever-changing cyber threat landscape; Provides context as to why stakeholders need to be aware of and in control of their organisation's cyber risk management and cyber incident response; Gives guidance on building an appropriate and efficient governance framework that enables organisations to demonstrate their cyber approach in a non-technical, strategic, business-focused way; Details an overview process to enable risk assessment, assess existing defence mitigations and provide a framework for developing suitable controls; and Includes a checklist to help readers focus on their higher-priority cyber areas. Suitable for all managers and executives, this pocket guide will be of interest to non-cyber specialists, including non-executive directors, who may be required to review cyber arrangements. For cyber specialists, it provides an approach for explaining cyber issues in non-jargonistic, business-based language. Kick-start your journey to becoming cyber secure - buy this pocket guide today!
This book aims to provide the latest research developments and results in the domain of AI techniques for smart cyber ecosystems. It presents a holistic insight into AI-enabled theoretic approaches and methodology in IoT networking, security analytics using AI tools and network automation, which ultimately enable intelligent cyber space. This book will be a valuable resource for students, researchers, engineers and policy makers working in various areas related to cybersecurity and privacy for Smart Cities. This book includes chapters titled "An Overview of the Artificial Intelligence Evolution and Its Fundamental Concepts, and Their Relationship with IoT Security", "Smart City: Evolution and Fundamental Concepts", "Advances in AI-Based Security for Internet of Things in Wireless Virtualization Environment", "A Conceptual Model for Optimal Resource Sharing of Networked Microgrids Focusing Uncertainty: Paving Path to Eco-friendly Smart Cities", "A Novel Framework for a Cyber Secure Smart City", "Contemplating Security Challenges and Threats for Smart Cities", "Self-Monitoring Obfuscated IoT Network", "Introduction to Side Channel Attacks and Investigation of Power Analysis and Fault Injection Attack Techniques", "Collaborative Digital Forensic Investigations Model for Law Enforcement: Oman as a Case Study", "Understanding Security Requirements and Challenges in the Industrial Internet of Things: A Review", "5G Security and the Internet of Things", "The Problem of Deepfake Videos and How to Counteract Them in Smart Cities", "The Rise of Ransomware Aided by Vulnerable IoT Devices", "Security Issues in Self-Driving Cars within Smart Cities", and "Trust-Aware Crowd Associated Network-Based Approach for Optimal Waste Management in Smart Cities". This book provides state-of-the-art research results and discusses current issues, challenges, solutions and recent trends related to security and organization within IoT and Smart Cities. We expect this book to be of significant importance not only to researchers and practitioners in academia, government agencies and industries, but also for policy makers and system managers. We anticipate this book to be a valuable resource for all those working in this new and exciting area, and a "must have" for all university libraries.
Conceptually, as well as practically, digitalization is similar to the implementation of a modern computation model - the model may be a centralized setup using a mainframe or it may be extended to an N-tier architecture. Regardless of the specifics of the implementation, however, the conceptual model of data processing remains the same. Digitalization is nothing but a system relying on digital technologies to create, conduct and, potentially, expand a business activity of some sort. Digitalization can be used to create an e-commerce model for a small business or to create a global supply and distribution chain geared toward almost any kind of a business. It could also be used for non-profit purposes, such as on-line education and telemedicine or e-government. Digitalization: Contexts, Roles, and Outcomes is a contemplation and analysis of the socio-technical system that is known as digitalization. It considers the context of digitalization as well as the ways by which digitalization offers value to the context within which it operates. This book aims to offer readers an entry point to a path of inquiry into the different aspects of digitalization. The goal is to identify main directions for further inquiry as well as to outline the most obvious obstacles along the way. The book aims to guide readers on their own unique journeys using the basic ideas, principles, and concepts synthesized, developed, and presented in the book. It is beneficial to both practitioners and researchers. The book covers: The functionality of digitalization The significance of digitalization Identifying the context of digitalization Designing a control system A cognitive model for the theory of digitalization Designing a theory of digitalization The book helps readers to consider the subject of digitalization in a rigorous and rational way so their own perspectives can emerge stronger and be substantiated and reinforced by building an argument vis-a-vis perspectives and points examined in this book.
`While there is much noise about the control of money laundering, there are few whose work is able to rise above the din and in clear notes contribute in a constructive manner to the debate. This work is not only an intelligent discussion of many of the substantive issues relating to the control of money laundering, but a great deal more. Drawing on systems theory and seeing the control of money laundering particularly from the standpoint of technology as complex and integral to the proper and effective operation of financial institutions, the author addresses in a novel and practical way the design and management of risk based compliance. The theory is tested, not only in terms of viable technology, but also in an actual case study involving real issues in a bank. Consequently, those concerned with the formulation of policy, the design of controls and procedures and the implementation of such will find the contribution that this book makes of great significance.' - Barry Rider, Bryan Cave LLP, UK`This book avoids the usual trap of interminably listing AML war stories. Instead Dr. Demetis presents a solid theoretical foundation for AML research and practice. He gives a damning critique of the way so-called technological solutions are used uncritically by some AML professionals, and analyses the risk-based approach, describing its problems and ways of avoiding them. He presents a fascinating in-depth case study of a financial institution, and a short case of a bank using technology to improve its True Positive Rate substantially to 17 per cent.' - Ian Angell, London School of Economics, UK `Dr Demetis makes a great contribution to our understanding of anti-money laundering at both a systems and practical level. [He] writes as someone who not only thinks deeply about these issues but, as the in-depth case examples show, has tried to see how far technology can address some audacious goals. Readers will learn that while risk-based approaches to anti-money laundering have been an interesting regulatory development, practical implementation, despite the hype of technology vendors, is "still at a primordial state".' - Michael Mainelli, Gresham College and Z/YEN Group, UK This insightful book examines the influence of information systems on anti-money laundering (AML). It builds on systems theory in order to develop a coherent theoretical framework that can be used for AML research. By using a case study of a major financial institution in the EU-area, a number of technological influences on AML are deconstructed and are used to examine the role that technology plays within AML. The book provides a systems theoretical description of the effects of technology on AML and offers considerations on the risk-based approach - the most important contemporary evolution within regulatory initiatives on AML and terrorism financing. Technology and Anti-Money Laundering will appeal to researchers of financial crime and AML as well as those interested in information systems and systems theory. A number of considerations for practitioners are also discussed, including the risk-based approach and the integration of AML-technology in financial institutions, as well as an important data-mining application. Money Laundering Reporting Officers (MLROs) in financial institutions and central bankers will also find much of interest in this book.
'Rana el Kaliouby's vision for how technology should work in parallel with empathy is bold, inspired and hopeful' Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global 'This lucid and captivating book by a renowned pioneer of emotion-AI tackles one of the most pressing issues of our time: How can we ensure a future where this technology empowers rather than surveils and manipulates us?' Max Tegmark, professor of physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of Life 3.0 We are entering an empathy crisis. Most of our communication is conveyed through non-verbal cues - facial expressions, tone of voice, body language - nuances that are completely lost when we interact through our smartphones and other technology. The result is a digital universe that's emotion-blind - a society lacking in empathy. Rana el Kaliouby discovered this when she left Cairo, a newly-married, Muslim woman, to take up her place at Cambridge University to study computer science. Many thousands of miles from home, she began to develop systems to help her better connect with her family. She started to pioneer the new field of Emotional Intelligence (EI). She now runs her company, Affectiva (the industry-leader in this emerging field) that builds EI into our technology and develops systems that understand humans the way we understand one another. In a captivating memoir, Girl Decoded chronicles el Kaliouby's mission to humanise technology and what she learns about humanity along the way.
Provides a comprehensive introduction to multi-robot systems planning and task allocation; Explores multi robot aerial planning, flight planning, orienteering and coverage, and deployment, patrolling, and foraging; Includes real-world case studies; Treats different aspects of cooperation in multi-agent systems.
AI for Digital Warfare explores how the weaponising of artificial intelligence can and will change how warfare is being conducted, and what impact it will have on the corporate world. With artificial intelligence tools becoming increasingly advanced, and in many cases more humanlike, their potential in psychological warfare is being recognised, which means digital warfare can move beyond just shutting down IT systems into more all-encompassing hybrid war strategies.
This book aims to provide the latest research developments and results in the domain of AI techniques for smart cyber ecosystems. It presents a holistic insight into AI-enabled theoretic approaches and methodology in IoT networking, security analytics using AI tools and network automation, which ultimately enable intelligent cyber space. This book will be a valuable resource for students, researchers, engineers and policy makers working in various areas related to cybersecurity and privacy for Smart Cities. This book includes chapters titled "An Overview of the Artificial Intelligence Evolution and Its Fundamental Concepts, and Their Relationship with IoT Security", "Smart City: Evolution and Fundamental Concepts", "Advances in AI-Based Security for Internet of Things in Wireless Virtualization Environment", "A Conceptual Model for Optimal Resource Sharing of Networked Microgrids Focusing Uncertainty: Paving Path to Eco-friendly Smart Cities", "A Novel Framework for a Cyber Secure Smart City", "Contemplating Security Challenges and Threats for Smart Cities", "Self-Monitoring Obfuscated IoT Network", "Introduction to Side Channel Attacks and Investigation of Power Analysis and Fault Injection Attack Techniques", "Collaborative Digital Forensic Investigations Model for Law Enforcement: Oman as a Case Study", "Understanding Security Requirements and Challenges in the Industrial Internet of Things: A Review", "5G Security and the Internet of Things", "The Problem of Deepfake Videos and How to Counteract Them in Smart Cities", "The Rise of Ransomware Aided by Vulnerable IoT Devices", "Security Issues in Self-Driving Cars within Smart Cities", and "Trust-Aware Crowd Associated Network-Based Approach for Optimal Waste Management in Smart Cities". This book provides state-of-the-art research results and discusses current issues, challenges, solutions and recent trends related to security and organization within IoT and Smart Cities. We expect this book to be of significant importance not only to researchers and practitioners in academia, government agencies and industries, but also for policy makers and system managers. We anticipate this book to be a valuable resource for all those working in this new and exciting area, and a "must have" for all university libraries.
"Nature-inspired" includes, roughly speaking, "bio-inspired"+"physical-inspired"+"social-inspired"+ and so on. This book contains highly original contributions about how nature is going to shape networking systems of the future. Hence, it focuses on rigorous approaches and cutting-edge solutions, which encompass three classes of major methods: 1) Those that take inspiration from nature for the development of novel problem solving techniques; 2) Those that are based on the use of networks to synthesize natural phenomena; and 3) Those that employ natural materials to compute or communicate.
The Soft Machine, originally published in 1985, represents a significant contribution to the study of contemporary literature in the larger cultural and scientific context. David Porush shows how the concepts of cybernetics and artificial intelligence that have sparked our present revolution in computer and information technology have also become the source for images and techniques in our most highly sophisticated literature, postmodern fiction by Barthelme, Barth, Pynchon, Beckett, Burroughs, Vonnegut and others. With considerable skill, Porush traces the growth of "the metaphor of the machine" as it evolves both technologically and in literature of the twentieth century. He describes the birth of cybernetics, gives one of the clearest accounts for a lay audience of its major concepts and shows the growth of philosophical resistance to the mechanical model for human intelligence and communication which cybernetics promotes, a model that had grown increasingly influential in the previous decade. The Soft Machine shows postmodern fiction synthesizing the inviting metaphors and concepts of cybernetics with the ideals of art, a synthesis that results in what Porush calls "cybernetic fiction" alive to the myths and images of a cybernetic age.
Provides a comprehensive introduction to multi-robot systems planning and task allocation; Explores multi robot aerial planning, flight planning, orienteering and coverage, and deployment, patrolling, and foraging; Includes real-world case studies; Treats different aspects of cooperation in multi-agent systems.
This is the first full-length study about the British artist Roy Ascott, one of the first cybernetic artists, with a career spanning seven decades to date. The book focuses on his early career, exploring the evolution of his early interests in communication in the context of the rich overlaps between art, science and engineering in Britain during the 1950s and 1960s. The first part of the book looks at Ascott's training and early work. The second park looks solely at Groundcourse, Ascott's extraordinary pedagogical model for visual arts and cybernetics which used an integrative and systems-based model, drawing in behaviourism, analogue machines, performance and games. Using hitherto unpublished photographs and documents, this book will establish a more prominent place for cybernetics in post-war British art.
This book emerged out of international conferences organized as part of the AAAI Fall Symposia series, and the Swarmfest 2017 conference. It brings together researchers from diverse fields studying these complex systems using CAS and agent-based modeling tools and techniques. In the past, the knowledge gained in each domain has largely remained exclusive to that domain. By bringing together scholars who study these phenomena, the book takes knowledge from one domain to provide insight into others. Most interesting phenomena in natural and social systems include constant transitions and oscillations among their various phases - wars, companies, societies, markets, and humans rarely stay in a stable, predictable state for long. Randomness, power laws, and human behavior ensure that the future is both unknown and challenging. How do events unfold? When do they take hold? Why do some initial events cause an avalanche while others do not? What characterizes these events? What are the thresholds that differentiate a sea change from a non-event? Complex adaptive systems (CAS) have proven to be a powerful tool for exploring these and other related phenomena. The authors characterize a general CAS model as having a large number of self-similar agents that: 1) utilize one or more levels of feedback; 2) exhibit emergent properties and self-organization; and 3) produce non-linear dynamic behavior. Advances in modeling and computing technology have led not only to a deeper understanding of complex systems in many areas, but they have also raised the possibility that similar fundamental principles may be at work across these systems, even though the underlying principles may manifest themselves differently.
Handbook of MARINE CRAFT HYDRODYNAMICS AND MOTION CONTROL The latest tools for analysis and design of advanced GNC systems Handbook of Marine Craft Hydrodynamics and Motion Control is an extensive study of the latest research in hydrodynamics, guidance, navigation, and control systems for marine craft. The text establishes how the implementation of mathematical models and modern control theory can be used for simulation and verification of control systems, decision-support systems, and situational awareness systems. Coverage includes hydrodynamic models for marine craft, models for wind, waves and ocean currents, dynamics and stability of marine craft, advanced guidance principles, sensor fusion, and inertial navigation. This important book includes the latest tools for analysis and design of advanced GNC systems and presents new material on unmanned underwater vehicles, surface craft, and autonomous vehicles. References and examples are included to enable engineers to analyze existing projects before making their own designs, as well as MATLAB scripts for hands-on software development and testing. Highlights of this Second Edition include: Topical case studies and worked examples demonstrating how you can apply modeling and control design techniques to your own designs A Github repository with MATLAB scripts (MSS toolbox) compatible with the latest software releases from Mathworks New content on mathematical modeling, including models for ships and underwater vehicles, hydrostatics, and control forces and moments New methods for guidance and navigation, including line-of-sight (LOS) guidance laws for path following, sensory systems, model-based navigation systems, and inertial navigation systems This fully revised Second Edition includes innovative research in hydrodynamics and GNC systems for marine craft, from ships to autonomous vehicles operating on the surface and under water. Handbook of Marine Craft Hydrodynamics and Motion Control is a must-have for students and engineers working with unmanned systems, field robots, autonomous vehicles, and ships. MSS toolbox: https: //github.com/cybergalactic/mss Lecture notes: https: //www.fossen.biz/wiley Author's home page: https: //www.fossen.biz
This book demonstrates the theoretical value and practical significance of systems science and its logic of thinking by presenting a rigorously developed foundation-a tool for intuitive reasoning, which is supported by both theory and empirical evidence, as well as practical applications in business decision making. Following a foundation of general systems theory, the book presents an applied method to intuitively learn system-sciences fundamentals. The third and final part examines applications of the yoyo model and the theoretical results developed earlier within the context of problems facing business decision makers by organically combining methods of traditional science, the first dimension of science, with those of systems science, the second dimension, as argued by George Klir in the 1990s. This text would benefit graduate students, researchers, or practitioners in the areas of mathematics, systems science or engineering, economics, and business decision science.
Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Cybernetics-the science of communication and control as it applies to machines and to humans-originates from efforts during World War II to build automatic antiaircraft systems. Following the war, this science extended beyond military needs to examine all systems that rely on information and feedback, from the level of the cell to that of society. In The Cybernetics Moment, Ronald R. Kline, a senior historian of technology, examines the intellectual and cultural history of cybernetics and information theory, whose language of "information," "feedback," and "control" transformed the idiom of the sciences, hastened the development of information technologies, and laid the conceptual foundation for what we now call the Information Age. Kline argues that, for about twenty years after 1950, the growth of cybernetics and information theory and ever-more-powerful computers produced a utopian information narrative-an enthusiasm for information science that influenced natural scientists, social scientists, engineers, humanists, policymakers, public intellectuals, and journalists, all of whom struggled to come to grips with new relationships between humans and intelligent machines. Kline traces the relationship between the invention of computers and communication systems and the rise, decline, and transformation of cybernetics by analyzing the lives and work of such notables as Norbert Wiener, Claude Shannon, Warren McCulloch, Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, and Herbert Simon. Ultimately, he reveals the crucial role played by the cybernetics moment-when cybernetics and information theory were seen as universal sciences-in setting the stage for our current preoccupation with information technologies.
Complex system studies are a growing area of central importance to a wide range of disciplines, ranging from physics to politics and beyond. Adopting this interdisciplinary approach, Systems, Self-Organisation and Information presents and discusses a range of ground-breaking research in complex systems theory. Building upon foundational concepts, the volume introduces a theory of Self-Organization, providing definitions of concepts including system, structure, organization, functionality, and boundary. Biophysical and cognitive approaches to Self-Organization are also covered, discussing the complex dynamics of living beings and the brain, and self-organized adaptation and learning in computational systems. The convergence of Peircean philosophy with the study of Self-Organization also provides an original pathway of research, which contributes to a dialogue between pragmatism, semeiotics, complexity theory, and self-organizing systems. As one of the few interdisciplinary works on systems theory, relating Self-Organization and Information Theory, Systems, Self-Organisation and Information is an invaluable resource for researchers and postgraduate students interested in complex systems theory from related disciplines including philosophy, physics, and engineering.
Complex system studies are a growing area of central importance to a wide range of disciplines, ranging from physics to politics and beyond. Adopting this interdisciplinary approach, Systems, Self-Organisation and Information presents and discusses a range of ground-breaking research in complex systems theory. Building upon foundational concepts, the volume introduces a theory of Self-Organization, providing definitions of concepts including system, structure, organization, functionality, and boundary. Biophysical and cognitive approaches to Self-Organization are also covered, discussing the complex dynamics of living beings and the brain, and self-organized adaptation and learning in computational systems. The convergence of Peircean philosophy with the study of Self-Organization also provides an original pathway of research, which contributes to a dialogue between pragmatism, semeiotics, complexity theory, and self-organizing systems. As one of the few interdisciplinary works on systems theory, relating Self-Organization and Information Theory, Systems, Self-Organisation and Information is an invaluable resource for researchers and postgraduate students interested in complex systems theory from related disciplines including philosophy, physics, and engineering.
AI for Digital Warfare explores how the weaponising of artificial intelligence can and will change how warfare is being conducted, and what impact it will have on the corporate world. With artificial intelligence tools becoming increasingly advanced, and in many cases more humanlike, their potential in psychological warfare is being recognised, which means digital warfare can move beyond just shutting down IT systems into more all-encompassing hybrid war strategies. |
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