Author Archives: vague

Information is everywhere. The term ‘information’ is so powerful, yet we understand it so little. Information is information. It’s neither energy nor is it matter (as Norbert Wiener claims). But this doesn’t say a lot, and perhaps it isn’t even accurate, because matter is a form of energy. What, though, is information? Perhaps the question is put the wrong way. Couldn’t we ask instead: how can we use information?

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In 1854 George Boole developed an algebra that reflects logical thought (An Investigation of the Laws of Thought). Computers follow this type of algebra and externalise precisely what we call logical thinking (Turing, 1936; von Neumann, 1945). We may call it Turing Computing. Using computers, we are able, as creative people, to explore this logical ‘think space’. We can discover phenomena never seen before. Multitudes of new images, geometries and artefacts become concrete constructions from a logical world. It’s so simple: procedures, iterations, recursions, objects, rules, constraints, agents, text, drawing, imagery, video, morphing, topology, grammar, cellular automata, parametric geometry, simulation, generation, evolutionary algorithms, neural networks… all easily accessible and online.
This module offers practical exercises in logical order systems and delivers an introduction to corresponding thought. Technologies: processing, Java, Eclipse.

With all these manifold availabilities, we, with our problems, tend to get in our own way. We can’t see the wood for the trees. In view of all the analysis and statistics, we are blind to the causes. We don’t see what next steps are adequate. (We don’t want to keep talking about ‘solutions’ any more, seeing that we want to go beyond thinking in terms of ‘problems’.) Yet we could create approaches to issues such as urbanity, sophistication, modes of living, friendliness, inspiration, openness, concentration, creativity, liveliness, differentiation, narratives, styles and fashions, beyond individual parameters. A new way of looking at things in a new environment of information makes these creative potentials available to us. We are calling this ‘Non-Turing- Computing’.
This module offers practical exercises in meta- logical order systems and gives an introduction to the corresponding thought processes. Self- organising maps, reaction diffusion diagrams, JAVA, Eclipse.