Connectionists: Paper: Subsystem Formation Driven by Double Contingency

[Bernd Porr]

I'm please to announce this paper in the interdisciplinary Journal 
Constructivist Foundations.

Purpose: This article investigates the emergence of subsystems in 
societies as a solution to the double contingency problem.

Context: There are two underlying paradigms: one is radical 
constructivism in the sense that perturbations are at the centre of the 
self-organising processes; the other is Luhmann’s double contingency 
problem, where agents learn anticipations from each other.

Approach: Central to our investigation is a computer simulation where we 
place agents into an arena. These agents can learn to (a) collect food 
and/or (b) steal food from other agents. In order to analyse subsystem 
formation, we investigate whether agents use both behaviours or just one 
of these, which is equivalent to determining the number of 
self-referential loops. This is detected with a novel measure that we 
call “prediction utilisation.”

Results: During the simulation, symmetry breaking is observed. The 
system of agents divides itself up into two subsystems: one where agents 
just collect food and another one where agents just steal food from 
other agents. The ratio between these two populations is determined by 
the amount of food available.

Key words: Social systems, constructivist paradigm, cybernetics, double 
contingency, symmetry breaking, emergence.

http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/journal/9/2
(you might need to register but the journal is open access)

/Bernd Porr
-- 
http://www.berndporr.me.uk
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