Francis Paul Heylighen (born 1960) is a Belgian cyberneticist, and research professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Dutch-speaking Free University of Brussels, where he directs the transdisciplinary research group on "Evolution, Complexity and Cognition".[1][2]
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Biography
Francis Heylighen was born on September 27, 1960 in Vilvoorde, Belgium. He got his high school education from the "Koninklijk Atheneum Pitzemburg" in Mechelen, in the section Latin-Mathematics. He received his MSc in mathematical physics in 1982, and his PhD in Sciences in 1987, both from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)[3].
In 1983 he started working as a researcher for the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (NFWO). In 1994 he became a tenured researcher at the NFWO and in 2001 a research professor at the VUB. Since 1995 he is affiliated with the VUB’s Center Leo Apostel for interdisciplinary studies[4]. In 2004, he created the ECCO research group which he presently directs.
In 1989, he, Valentin Turchin and Cliff Joslyn founded the Principia Cybernetica Project, and Heylighen joined a year later. In 1996, Heylighen founded the "Global Brain Group", an international discussion forum that groups most of the scientists who have worked on the concept of emergent Internet intelligence.[4] Heylighen was also one of the founders and former editor of the Journal of Memetics[5], which terminated in 2005.
Work
His research focuses on the emergence and evolution of complex, intelligent organization. Applications include the origin of life, the development of multicellular organisms, knowledge, culture, and societies, and the impact of information and communication technologies on future social evolution.
Heylighen's scientific work covers an extremely wide range of subjects, exemplifying his intellectual curiosity and fundamentally transdisciplinary way of thinking. In addition to the topics mentioned above, subjects include the foundations of quantum mechanics, the structure of space-time, hypermedia interfaces, the psychology of self-actualization and happiness, the market mechanism, formality and contextuality in language, causality, the measurement of social progress, the mechanism of stigmergy and its application to the web.
Basic principles
This impressive variety of ideas is held together by two basic principles. The relational principle notes that phenomena can only exist in relation (connection or distinction) to other phenomena, and thus only make sense as part of a complex network or system. The evolutionary principle notes that variation through (re)combination of parts and natural selection of the fitter combinations results in ever more complex and adaptive systems.
The two principles come together in Heylighen's concept of a distinction dynamics, which he first formulated in his PhD thesis (and later book), "Representation and Change". In Heylighen's analysis, classical scientific methodology is based on given, unchanging distinctions between elements or states. Therefore, it is intrinsically unable to model creative change. But the evolutionary principle makes distinctions dynamic, explaining the creation and destruction of relations, distinctions and connections, and thus helping us to understand how and why complexity emerges.
Principia Cybernetica
Together with Cliff Joslyn and Valentin Turchin, he is editor of the Principia Cybernetica Project, which is devoted to the collaborative development of an evolutionary-systemic philosophy. He created its website, the Principia Cybernetica Web[6], in 1993, as one of the first complex webs in the world. It is still viewed as the most important site on cybernetics, systems theory and related approaches.
The Global Brain
In 1996, Heylighen founded the "Global Brain Group", an international discussion forum that groups most of the scientists who have worked on the concept of emergent Internet intelligence.[4] Together with his PhD student Johan Bollen, Heylighen was the first to propose algorithms that could turn the world-wide web into a self-organizing, learning network that exhibits collective intelligence, i.e. a Global brain.
In the 2007 article "The Global Superorganism: an evolutionary-cybernetic model of the emerging network society" Heylighen gave a detailed exposition of the superorganism/global brain view of society, and an examination of the underlying evolutionary mechanisms, with applications to the on-going and future developments in a globalizing world.
Publications
Heylighen published over 100 papers and a book. A selection:
- 2004. "Das Globale Gehirn als neue Utopia" (The Global Brain as a new Utopia). In: R. Maresch & F. Rötzer (eds.) Renaissance der Utopie. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
- 2005. "Conceptions of a Global Brain: an historical review". In: Technological Forecasting and Social Change [in press]
- 2007. "The Global Superorganism: an evolutionary-cybernetic model of the emerging network society". In: Social Evolution & History. Vol 6 No. 1,p. 58-119
- 2007. "Accelerating Socio-Technological Evolution: from ephemeralization and stigmergy to the global brain". In: Globalization as an Evolutionary Process: Modeling Global Change. edited by George Modelski, Tessaleno Devezas, and William Thompson, London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415773614. p.286-335.
- 2008. Five Questions on Complexity, in: C. Gershenson (ed.): Complexity: 5 questions, Automatic Press / VIP, 2008.
References
- ^ Dr. Francis Heylighen at LifeBoat Foundation Bios. Accessed 14 May 2009.
- ^ ECCO
- ^ * Francis Heylighen's Curriculum Vitae, 2005.
- ^ a b c Francis Heylighen: Pioneer of the Global Brain by Ben Goertzel
- ^ Journal of Memetics
- ^ Principia Cybernetica Web
External links
- Francis Heylighen's Homepage
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