neuroergonomics and sociogenesis, lectures part2

Neuroergonomics and sociogenesis

Internationa Society of BiourbanismSummer School 2014

www.biourbanism.org - info@biourbanism.org

International Society of Biourbanism - Summer School 2014

Biourbanism and sociogenesis

Stefano Serafinistefano.serafini@biourbanism.org

Lecture 03

A city has a physical and a social structure.

The two are connected through complexities who in turn refer to a systemic vectoriality.

Social life is not a structure, but a process that turns out in a system.It’s invisible because it’s aboutmeaning, goals, and intentionality.

INVISIBILEM RESPICE FINEM

Social (and economical) ties

Fields of attraction/repulsion

Relations and systems

Processes

CultureStructures

DESIGN DESIGN

The «invisible» becomes «visible» through its effects

The system acts through a processthat in turn brings in a structure

Comparaggio fellowship

Not «just a ritual»It’s about overcoming the ties of blood for sharing, helping each other, and surviving.Between peers of a community who share a common space

• Ties• Desires• Ideals• Interests

• Builtenvironment

• Infrastructures• Resources

• Natural environment

• Climate• Flora and Fauna

• History• Religion• Art• Customs

Social structure

Physicalstructure

Social structure

Physicalstructure

HUMAN BODY

Such an urban system is resilient, stable, dynamic, and self-organizing.

It can be broken by heteronomy – whenself-determinationgets parasitized.

But… what is autonomy?

BIOLOGICAL SELF-ORGANIZATION.PROCESSES, NOT FEATURES.

Hi, I’m a starling

I’m sociable, I like insectsand fruits but I can eatmore or less whatever. Ilike cities because theyare warm, and I can learnhuman and artificialsounds and repeat them.I hang out a lot.

Flocks of starlings above Rome

Competence without comprehension

Duncan J. Watts & Steven H. Strogatz

Collective dynamics of 'small-world' networks

Nature 393 440-442 (4 June 1998)

Could a machine think?

Paul e Patricia Churchland: yes, it canJohn Searle: no, because syntax ≠ semantics

What is self?

Questioning if God is alive and if we can define water alive

What is life?

Erwin SchrödingerWhat is Life? Cambridge University Press 1944

ORDO AB CHAOMACRO

Mutations need stability

« ...living matter, while not eluding the "laws of physics" as established up to date, is likely to involve "other laws of physics" hithertounknown, which however, once theyhave been revealed, will form just as integral a part of science as the former. »

Isolated systems go towardsdisorder, according to the second law of thermodynamics

Living systems (who are veryordered) seem to contradictsuch a principle – but theyare NOT isolated

Increase of order in living systems is balanced by an increase of disorder in the environment.

The Osaka Group for the Study ofDynamical Structures

Evolution withoutdesign

Antonio Lima-de-Faria

Evolution without Selection.Form and Function by Autoevolution

Elsevier 1988

Wings appear suddenly in genera and species with no direct geneticrelationship – pterosaur, bat, bird, insect, flying fish – according to a biologicalperiodicity of forms, as in Mendeleev’s table of elements.

The spandrels ofSan Marco

Examples of “free-rider” characters(“spandrels”)

• Insects’ wings• Bacterial digestion of sugars• Noise of heart beat• …they are everywhere!

• Forms and functions of genetically-not-correlated organisms follow identicalpatterns.

• Such patterns are the result of naturallaws, and show up earlier than the gene.

• Here they are, “constraints”.

Why pigs have no wings?

The old «central dogma» of molecular biology:

has just stop working

RNA PROTEINSU n i v o c a l a n d l i n e a r d i r e c t i o n

P H I S I C A L C O N S T R A I N T S / E N V I R O N M E N T

TRANSPOSONS

FENOTYPES

Think of it in terms of design

P2P urbanismParticipatory processesEvidence based designBio-climatic designSelf-building practicesSpontaneous design

...the designer as a catalyzer

> Biourbanism

What has totally changed in the last twentyyears is not urbanism only, but rather the veryconcept of what an “organism” is.

Four modern fathers of Biology of Form:

Nikolaj Vavilov(Russia)

D’Arcy Thompson (UK)

Antonio Lima-de-Faria (Sweden)

Giuseppe Sermonti (Italy)

DISCLAIMER!We are not dealing with a kind of

INTELLIGENT DESIGN vs LUCKY SCRIBBLE

rather we are dealing withLAWS OF FORM vs SELECTIONISM

A substantial difference, as

• First opposition occurs among twometaphysical programs, which are

equivalent from an epistemological pointof view;

• Second one accurs among a nomological-empirical view, and a historical one about

Life Sciences.

• The so called Intelligent Design is a cultural reactionagainst Evolution’s invasiveness in metaphysics andtheodicy.

• It’s not science, whatever some Authors belonging tosuch a movement can say.

• Nevertheless, it has an intellectual dignity.• It belongs to a “biblical/darwinian horizon”.

• The LUCKY SCRIBBLE (Life by chance andnecessity – Ch. Darwin, J. Monod) is a culturalreaction against Religion’s invasiveness inscience and cosmology.

• It’s not science, whatever some Authorsbelonging to such a movement can say.

• Nevertheless, it has an intellectual dignity.• It belongs to a “biblical/darwinian horizon”.

Darwin or Bible? More a common horizon than a radical

opposition

• Darwin admittedly got inspired by reverendMalthus, who believed God to use hunger anddiseases to prod humankind’s evolution.

• Darwin put Natural Selection in the place ofsuch a coruscating deity.

GenesisGenesis 1, 11, 1--2727

ComposedComposed probablyprobably duringduring the 5th the 5th centurycentury BC, BC, whenwhen naturalisticnaturalistic prepre--socraticsocratic philosophyphilosophy waswas

flourishingflourishing in in IoniaIonia, , notnot so far so far awayaway fromfromMiddleMiddle--EastEast coastscoasts.

In the beginning God created the heaven and In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, then plants, then acquatic animals,the earth, then plants, then acquatic animals,

thenthen birdsbirds, , thenthen otherother more more complexcomplex animalsanimals, , and and finallyfinally man.man.

Other experimental questions

• Evo-devo• Epigenetics• Horizontal transfer of genetic heritage

(transposons)• Physical constraints• Internal constraints• Systems Biology• Etc.

Michael J. Denton, Craig J. Marshall and Michael Legge, “The Protein Folds as Platonic Forms: New Support for the Pre-Darwinian Conception of Evolution by Natural Law”, J. theor. Biol. (2002) 219, 325–342

Johan Gielis, "A generic geometric transformation that unifies a wide range ofnatural and abstract shapes", American Journal of Botany 90 (2003) 3: 333–338

Johan Gielis, the superformula

Antonio Lima-de-Faria

Molecular Geometry of Body Pattern in Birds

Springer 2012

• Charles Darwin (1809-1882): Gradual and linear selection of adaptivecharacters

background: NEWTON MECHANICS (linear dynamics of bodies)

• Julian Huxley (1887-1975): Neodarwinism or Modern Synthesis, selectionby recombination of mendelian characters

background: STATISTICAL MECHANICS (Boltzman’s dynamics of gases)

• René Thom (1923-2002): Epigenomics, Systems Biology, Laws of Form

background: PHYSICS OF COMPLEXITY (non-linear dynamics of complexsystems)

The Constructal Law"For a finite-size system to persist in time (to live), it must evolve in such a way that it provides easier access to the imposed currents that flow through it”

Bejan, A & Lorente, S. (2011). “The constructal law and the evolution of design in nature” Physics of Life Reviews, Vol. 8, No. 3: 209-240

International Society of Biourbanism - Summer School 2014Design by flow

Self-organization is not mechanicism

Animal behaviour, natural structures, even social mass behaviour speak of self-organization.

Psychobiology considers this as a sign of mechanical determinism (reductionist program).

This is Social engineering, or the Totalitarian dream.

Sociogenesis is about listening

Spontaneous order theory about social realities tells us nothing about our freedom.

Nature is not a God to be followed and obeyed, but rather a relation between us and our surroundings,

including other human beings.

«I love Herbert Simon's definition of design as the transformation “from existing states to preferred ones.” That definition raises more questions than answers – but they are the right questions! Who is doing the preferring? How do they (we) know what is existing? What methods do we use to make the transformations? How do we know if they are working? What do we do if they are not? What are the necessary social and political conditions of that process? These are all very important questions that usually get too little attention.»

Michael Mehaffyinterview with Michela Ventin, DesignDecode, June 2014

BIOURBANISM AND

NEUROERGONOMICS

Biourbanism

The first definition of the term “biourbanism” has been given in2010 by the philosopher and psychologist Stefano Serafini (ISB),the bio-statistician and complexity scientist Alessandro Giuliani(Italian NIH), the architects Antonio Caperna and Alessia Cerqua(Roma Tre University), and the mathematician and urban theoristNikos A. Salingaros (University of Texas at San Antonio).

See: www.biourbanism.org/biourbanism-definition/

Biourbanism means considering the city as a livingorganism, and study it within the frame of IntegratedSystems Sciences and the last advancements of LifeSciences, mainly:

Laws of form and Self-organization in evolution (S. Kauffman, A. Lima-de-Faria)

Epigenetics

Systems Biology

Constructal Law (A. Bejan)

Different Authorshave alreadyconsidered the city to be like anorganism at the beginning of the 20th century, e.g. the biologist and urbanistPatrick Geddes

Nevertheless the concept of organism was strongly biased by a functionalist view , making it very close to a machine.

1516, Venezia

La Serenissimadecrees that alljews stay in the

same area of the city, called «geti»

in venexian.

The «Gheto» weresecured everynight so that

nobody could exit.

Shenzen, Cina, 1988

Shenzen, Cina, 1996

Shenzen, Cina, 2009

Urban-dwellers suffer from higher rates of

schizophrenia, depression and other mental health problems, compared to

people who live in quieter places.

Researches show that people who were brought up in cities had higher levels of activity in a region of the brain called the perigenualanterior cingulate cortex (pACC), which regulates the amygdala

In people and animals, hyperactivity in the amygdalahas been linked to anxiety problems and other mental health disorders

Human brain in the coronal orientation. Amygdala is shown in dark red.

«Tell me your address, and I’ll tell you howlong you are going to live»

(Richard Jackson, MD)

“Being lonely increases the risk of everything from heartattacks to dementia, depression and death, whereaspeople who are satisfied with their social lives sleepbetter, age more slowly and respond better to vaccines.The effect is so strong that curing loneliness is as goodfor your health as giving up smoking.”

John Cacioppo (Psychologist, University of Chicago)

mind/body/functions/forms

It there exists a zoning about humans

We are not a brain in a tank

Motor system, perception, connection to the environment are based on the body, in the sense it forms a wired system, fully connected to what is going on inside and outside us.

The embodied mind

as opposed to cognitivism

TOTE, or living as a flow chart

• Test• Operate• Test• Exit

TOTE is from behaviourism

The embodied mind

as opposed

to dualism

The embodied mind

Try understanding a joke whilst in a depressed frown position of your lips muscles.

No Artificial Intelligence without a body: senses, motor skills, and physical connected system.

(Rodney Brooks)

We even recognize words, through embodied perception: our vocal muscles “repeat” the movements by which spoken words are made.

(Alvin Liberman)

Soul AND body?

….just soul?

…or just body?

«mind & body» as vectoriality

Organization Morphological structuringDirection

which is takete, which is maluma?

Mirror neurons

Nikos Salingaros

What is sustainability?

Design must deal with energy- and environment-saving technical solutions, but also with functional and restorative connections to the human neurophysiological system.

Psychology, medicine, and pedagogy show how space design can nurture or damage

our well-being.

HEALING PLACES (Jackson)

EVIDENCE BASED DESIGN (Ulrich)

BIOPHILIA (Wilson, Kaplan)

MIMESIS (Plato, Girard, Winnicott)

FIFTEEN PROPERTIES (Alexander)

Neuroergonomics is a discipline that merges neuroscience and ergonomics in order to match design with human biological and psycho-neuro-immunological wellness. It measures the real psycho-physical effects regardless of fashion, ideology, culture, or current use.It stems from evidence-based design.

• Neurosciences• Ergonomics• Evidence based design

neurosciences

Nervous systemEndocrine systemImmune system

Psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology (PNEI)

ergonomics

Environmental psychology

Coehrence to an underlying order

BEAUTY FUNCTION(or DELIGHT)

Perceptual system Reality

Care for context

• Abstraction, like language, is very helpful

• But it takes out «fleshy» and «accidental» information

• It disconnects from the dynamicinformation flowing through oursenses/body

How difficult is it to skip abstracton?

Coming back to flesh

• Senses• Feelings• Concreteness• Connection• Real needs as experienced, not talked• Humility

Drawing comes before language

Bridging nature & culture

Drawing is an extension of body movement.

- «first brain» (corpus reticulatum, basal ganglia) physiological motions and reaction

- «second brain» (amygdala) emotions, consciousness, coordination and motion

- «third brain» (neocortex) language, judgement, abstraction

- Feelings- Reaction through space (movement)- Abstraction/interpretation through signs

The «sentimento» of Mr. Giovanni Gabrielli, 1789

Monsignor Tomati and Monsignor Ossoli have an issueabout the boundaries of theirvineyards.

Observation

Not artificial nor fixed boundaryNo roadNo hedgeNo ditch«No other clue of asimilarnature»No different vineyard growth in height

First clue: a wall of stone between twoareas, one pebbly, another one with veryfew pebbles.

Second clue: oaks until the slope

Third clue: a naturalslope

Architects and urban planner usually think of space in terms of syntax – tectonics and functions. But of any discourse what really matters beside the way of saying it, is its meaning – what it says.

Every semantics deals with a meaning. There is a meaning

if there is a receiver. The “meaning of meaning” lies in

the body of the one who understands it, in its reaction – in the performative effect

that it triggers.Thus, space is performative.

What the urban space around you is saying to you? What is the performative action it induces in your body?

The message of a spoiled train station square after you come back from your commute to the big city can be retrieved by the emotions and thoughts you may feel and think almost every time you land out the train.

Exercise: try decoding the message coming from the square.

Forget syntax (bad, good, functional, dumb, beautiful, ugly) and focus on semantics by listening to what you feel and think almost automatically as a reaction to the place.

Don’t think – feel. Don’t judge – report.

Optimism/pessimismExpansion/reductionHappiness/SadnessHope/DespairInfinity/Limits

Eternity/Running out of timeMeaning/ MeaninglessConnection/DisconnectionLove/Hatred

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