The Machine as Metaphor and Tool
Springer Berlin (Hersteller)
978-3-540-55816-3 (ISBN)
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Written in non-technical language and addressing scientists and laymen alike, this study discusses various aspects of the machine metaphor - one deeply rooted in Western culture - describing the provoking and problematic role that machines play in disciplines of the natural sciences.
The machine metaphor is deeply rooted in Western culture. Complex systems in nature and society are often interpreted in such terms. With the advent of electronic computers, the machine metaphor applied to thinking and to the brain has become even more pertinent. The idea of a machine has itself changed over time. In this book, these transformations are made evident, various aspects of the machine metaphor are discussed and limitations and pitfalls of the metaphor are elaborated. The chapters are written in a non-technical fashion and are accessible to scientists and laymen interested in the scientific perspectives and logical foundations of the machine concept that has been so influential in Western thinking.
Hermann Haken is Professor of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Stuttgart. He is known as the founder of synergetics. His research has been in nonlinear optics (in particular laser physics), solid state physics, statistical physics, and group theory. After the implementation of the first laser in 1960, Professor Haken developed his institute to an international center for laser theory. The interpretation of the laser principles as self organization of non equilibrium systems paved the way to the development of synergetics, of which Haken is recognized as the founder. Hermann Haken has been visiting professor or guest scientist in England, France, Japan, USA, Russia, and China. He is the author of some 23 textbooks and monographs that cover an impressive number of topics from laser physics to synergetics, and editor of a book series in synergetics. For his pathbreaking work and his influence on academic research, he has been awarded many-times. Among others, he is member of the Order "Pour le merite" and received the Max Planck Medal in 1990.
Summary of the Contents:
Introduction.- The Economist, the Machine and the Network: Continuities and Changes in the Economics of Technology Evolution and Diffusion.- Misled by Metaphors - Two Tools that Don't Always Work; The Brain's Software: 'The Computer' as Metaphor and Metonyme in the Figurative Processing of Cultural Information.- The Mechanization of Time.- Bionics Revisited.- From Clocks to Chaos - Humanizing the Mechanistic World View.- The Three Dimensional Text: Computers, Writing and Performance.- Complex Systems, Synergetics and the Concept of a Machine.
| Zusatzinfo | 18 figs. |
|---|---|
| Sprache | englisch |
| Gewicht | 288 g |
| Einbandart | gebunden |
| Schlagworte | Maschine • Mensch |
| ISBN-10 | 3-540-55816-0 / 3540558160 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-540-55816-3 / 9783540558163 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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