Plastic can be as glossy as glass but, unlike glass, it is
hydrophobic – it repels water. If water does not flow
smoothly over the surface, the mirroring chemicals will not
deposit evenly. There are two ways to overcome this problem:
You can flood the surface with so much water (or
mirroring chemicals) that the beads merge into a smooth
sheet. This technique works best using our mirror bath technique where the object
to be mirrored is submerged in the chemicals. It is only
practical for small objects.
You can use a wetting agent (a type of surfactant) to
break the surface tension on the plastic before you apply
the mirroring chemicals. There are many types of plastic
and each type has its own chemistry and surface
characteristics.
We have tested our Wetting
Agent on some types of acrylic, polycarbonate and
polyurethane. We have not tested it on all types of
plastic. You should test it on a sample of your substrate
to confirm that it works. See Cleaning and Polishing for
more information on wetting agents.
Physical space is the extension surrounding a point
My presentation of a general theory of living systems will employ two sorts of spaces in which they may exist, physical or geographical space and conceptual or abstracted spaces
Physical or geographical space
Euclidean space
distance
moving
maximum speed
objects moving in such space cannot pass through one another
friction
The characteristics and constraints of physical space affect the action of all concrete systems, living and nonliving.
information can flow worldwide almost instantly
Physical space is a common space
Most people learn that physical space exists, which is not true of many spaces
They can give the location of objects in it
Conceptual or abstracted spaces
Peck order
Social class space
Social distance
Political distance
life space
semantic space
Sociometric space
A space of time costs of various modes of transportation
space of frequency of trade relations among nations.
A space of frequency of intermarriage among ethnic groups.
These conceptual and abstracted spaces do not have the same characteristics and are not subject to the same constraints as physical space
Social and some biological scientists find conceptual or abstracted spaces useful because they recognize that physical space is not a major determinant of certain processes in the living systems they study
interpersonal relations
one cannot measure comparable processes at different levels of systems, to confirm or disconfirm cross-level hypotheses, unless one can measure different levels of systems or dimensions in the same spaces or in different spaces with known transformations among them
It must be possible, moreover, to make such measurements precisely enough to demonstrate whether or not there is a formal identity across levels
fundamental "fourth dimension" of the physical space-time continuum
is the particular instant at which a structure exists or a process occurs
or the measured or measurable period over which a structure endures or a process continues.
durations
speeds
rates
accelerations
irreversible unidirectionality of time
thermodynamics
negentropy
"time's arrow."
Matter and energy
Matter is anything which has mass (m) and occupies physical space.
Energy (E) is defined in physics as the ability to do work.
kinetic energy
potential energy
rest mass energy
Mass and energy are equivalent
Living systems need specific types of matter-energy in adequate amounts
Energy for the processes of living systems is derived from the breakdown of molecules
Any change of state of matter-energy or its movement over space, from one point to another, I shall call action.
It is one form of process.
information (H)
Transmission of Information
Meaning is the significance of information to a system which processes it: it constitutes a change in that system's processes elicited by the information, often resulting from associations made to it on previous experience with it
Information is a simpler concept: the degrees of freedom that exist in a given situation to choose among signals, symbols, messages, or patterns to be transmitted.
The set of all these possible categories (the alphabet) is called the ensemble or repertoire
.) The unit is the binary digit, or bit of information
. The amount of information is measured as the logarithm to the base 2 of the number of alternate patterns
Signals convey information to the receiving system only if they do not duplicate information already in the receiver. As Gabor says:
[The information of a message can] be defined as the 'minimum number of binary decisions which enable the receiver to construct the message, on the basis of the data already available to him.'
meaning cannot be precisely measured
Information is the negative of uncertainty.
information is the amount of formal patterning or complexity in any system.
The term marker was used by von Neumann to refer to those observable bundles, units, or changes of matter-energy whose patterning bears or conveys the informational symbols from the ensemble or repertoire.
If a marker can assume n different states of which only one is present at any given time, it can represent at most log2n bits of information. The marker may be static, as in a book or in a computer's memory
Communication of almost every sort requires that the marker move in space, from the transmitting system to the receiving system, and this movement follows the same physical laws as the movement of any other sort of matter-energy. The advance of communication technology over the years has been in the direction of decreasing the matter-energy costs of storing and transmitting the markers which bear information.
There are, therefore, important practical matter-energy constraints upon the information processing of all living systems exerted by the nature of the matter-energy which composes their markers.
organization is based upon the interrelations among parts.
If two parts are interrelated either quantitatively or qualitatively, knowledge of the state of one must yield some information about the state of the other. Information measures can demonstrate when such relationships exist
The disorder, disorganization, lack of patterning, or randomness of organization of a system is known as its entropy (S)
the statistical measure for the negative of entropy is the same as that for information
entropy becomes a measure of the probability
Increase of entropy was thus interpreted as the passage of a system from less probable to more probable states.
according to the second law, a system tends to increase in entropy over time, it must tend to decrease in negentropy or information.
therefore no principle of the conservation of information
The total information can be decreased in any system without increasing it elsewhere
but it cannot be increased without decreasing it elsewhere
. Making one or more copies of a given informational pattern does not increase information overall, though it may increase the information in the system which receives the copied information.
transforms information into negative entropy
smallest possible amount of energy used in observing one bit of information
calculations of the amount of information accumulated by living systems throughout growth.
the concept of Prigogine that in an open system (that is one in which both matter and energy can be exchanged with the environment) the rate of entropy production within the system, which is always positive, is minimized when the system is in a steady state.
in systems with internal feedbacks, internal entropy production is not always minimized when the system is in a stationary state. In other words, feedback couplings between the system parameters may cause marked changes in the rate of development of entropy. Thus it may be concluded that the "information flow" which is essential for this feedback markedly alters energy utilization and the rate of development of entropy, at least in some such special cases which involve feedback control. While the explanation of this is not clear, it suggests an important relationship between information and entropy
amount of energy actually required to transmit the information in the channel is a minute part of the total energy in the system, the "housekeeping energy" being by far the largest part of it
In recent years systems theorists have been fascinated by the new ways to study and measure information flows, but matter-energy flows are equally important. Systems theory is more than information theory, since it must also deal with energetics - such matters as
the flow of raw materials through societies
Only a minute fraction of the energy used by most living systems is employed for information processing
I have noted above that the movement of matter-energy over space, action, is one form of process. Another form of process is information processing or communication, which is the change of information from one state to another or its movement from one point to another over space
Communications, while being processed, are often shifted from one matter-energy state to another, from one sort of marker to another
transformations go on in living systems
One basic reason why communication is of fundamental importance is that informational patterns can be processed over space and the local matter-energy at the receiving point can be organized to conform to, or comply with, this information
the delivery of "flowers by telegraph."
Matter-energy and information always flow together
Information is always borne on a marker
. Conversely there is no regular movement in a system unless there is a difference in potential between two points, which is negative entropy or information
If the receiver responds primarily to the material or energic aspect, I shall call it, for brevity, a matter-energy transmission; if the response is primarily to the information, I shall call it an information transmission
Moreover, just as living systems must have specific forms of matter-energy, so they must have specific patterns of information
example
example
develop normally
have appropriate information inputs in infancy
pairs of antonyms
one member of which is associated with the concept of information (H)
the other member of which is associated with its negative, entropy (S)
System
A system is a set of interacting units with relationships among them
.The word "set" implies that the units have some common properties. These common properties are essential if the units are to interact or have relationships. The state of each unit is constrained by, conditioned by, or dependent on the state of other units. The units are coupled. Moreover, there is at least one measure of the sum of its units which is larger than the sum of that measure of its units.
Conceptual system
Units
terms
Relationships
a set of pairs of units, each pair being ordered in a similar way
expressed by words
or by logical or mathematical symbols
operations
The conceptual systems of science
observer
selects
particular sets to study
Variable
Each member of such a set becomes a variable of the observer's conceptual system
conceptual system may be loose or precise, simple or elaborate
Indicator
an instrument or technique used to measure fluctuations of variables in concrete systems
Function
a correspondence between two variables, x and y, such that for each value of x there is a definite value of y, and no two y's have the same x, and this correspondence is: determined by some rule
Any function is a simple conceptual system
Parameter
An independent variable through functions of which other functions may be expressed
The state of a conceptual system
the set of values on some scale, numerical or otherwise, which its variables have at a given instant
Formal identity
variables
varies comparably to a variable in another system
If these comparable variations are so similar that they can be expressed by the same function, a formal identity exists between the two systems
Relationships between conceptual and other sorts of systems
Science advances as the formal identity or isomorphism increases between a theoretical conceptual system and objective findings about concrete or abstracted systems
A conceptual system may be purely logical or mathematical, or its terms and relationships may be intended to have some sort of formal identity or isomorphism with units and relationships empirically determinable by some operation carried out by an observer
Concrete system
a nonrandom accumulation of matter-energy, in a region in physical space-time, which is organized into interacting interrelated subsystems or components.
Units
are also concrete systems
Relationships
spatial
temporal
spatiotemporal
causal
Both units and relationships in concrete systems are empirically determinable by some operation carried out by an observer
patterns of relationships or processes
The observer of a concrete system
distinguishes a concrete system from unorganized entities in its environment by the following criteria
physical proximity of its units
similarity of its units
common fate of its units
distinct or recognizable patterning of its units.
Their boundaries are discovered by empirical operations available to the general scientific community rather than set conceptually by a single observer
Variable of a concrete system
Any property of a unit or relationship within a system which can be recognized by an observer
which can potentially change over time, and whose change can potentially be measured by specific operations, is a variable of a concrete system
Examples
number of its subsystems or components, its size, its rate of movement in space, its rate of growth, the number of bits of information it can process per second, or the intensity of a sound to which it responds
A variable is intrasystemic
not to be confused with intersystemic variations which may be observed among individual systems, types, or levels.
The state of a concrete system
its structure
represented by the set of values on some scale which its variables have at that instant
Open system
Most concrete systems have boundaries which are at least partially permeable, permitting sizable magnitudes of at least certain sorts of matter-energy or information transmissions to pass them. Such a system is an open system. In open systems entropy may increase, remain in steady state, or decrease.
Closed system
impermeable boundaries through which no matter-energy or information transmissions of any sort can occur is a closed system
special case
No actual concrete system is completely closed
In closed systems, entropy generally increases, exceptions being when certain reversible processes are carried on which do not increase it. It can never decrease.
Nonliving system
the general case of concrete systems, of which living systems are a very special case. Nonliving systems need not have the same critical subsystems as living systems, though they often have some of them
Living system
a special subset of the set of all possible concrete systems
They all have the following characteristics:
open systems
inputs
throughputs
outputs
of various sorts of matter-energy and information.
maintain a steady state of negentropy even though entropic changes occur in them as they do everywhere else
by taking in inputs
higher in complexity or organization or negentropy
than their outputs
The difference permits them to restore their own energy and repair breakdowns in their own organized structure.
In living systems many substances are produced as well as broken down
To do this such systems must be open and have continual inputs of matter-energy and information
entropy will always increase in walled-off living systems
They have more than a certain minimum degree of complexity
They either contain genetic material composed of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
or have a charter
blueprint
program
of their structure and process from the moment of their origin
may also include nonliving components.
They have a decider, the essential critical sub-system which controls the entire system, causing its subsystems and components to interact. Without such interaction under decider control there is no system.
other specific critical sub-systems or they have symbiotic or parasitic relationships with other living or nonliving systems
Their subsystems are integrated together to form actively self-regulating, developing, unitary systems with purposes and goals
They can exist only in a certain environment
change in their environment
produces stresses
Totipotential system
capable of carrying out all critical subsystem processes necessary for life is totipotential
Partipotential system
does not itself carry out all critical subsystem processes is partipotential
A partipotential system must interact with other systems that can carry out the processes which it does not, or it will not survive
The Exchange fime is a symbiotic system to SENSORICA
Fully functioning system
when it
Partially functioning system
it must do its own deciding, or it is not a system
Abstracted system
Units
relationships abstracted or selected by an observer in the light of his interests, theoretical viewpoint, or philosophical bias.
Some relationships may be empirically determinable by some operation carried out by the observer, but others are not, being only his concepts
Relationships
The relationships mentioned above are observed to inhere and interact in concrete, usually living, systems
these concrete systems are the relationships of abstracted systems.
The verbal usages of theoretical statements concerning abstracted systems are often the reverse of those concerning concrete systems
An abstracted system differs from an abstraction, which is a concept
representing a class of phenomena all of which are considered to have some similar "class characteristic." The members of such a class are not thought to interact or be interrelated, as are the relationships in an abstracted system
Abstracted systems are much more common in social science theory than in natural science.
are oriented toward relationships rather than toward the concrete systems
spatial arrangements are not usually emphasized
their physical limits often do not coincide spatially with the boundaries of any concrete system, although they may.
important difference between the physical and biological hierarchies, on the one hand, and social hierarchies, on the other
Most physical and biological hierarchies are described in spatial terms
we propose to identify social hierarchies not by observing who lives close to whom but by observing who interacts with whom
intensity of interaction
in most biological and physical systems relatively intense interaction implies relative spatial propinquity
To the extent that interactions are channeled through specialized communications and transportation systems, spatial propinquity becomes less determinative of structure.
On the other hand, the society is an aggregate of social subsystems, and as a limiting case it is that social system which comprises all the roles of all the individuals who participate.
What Ruesch calls the social system is something concrete in space-time, observable and presumably measurable by techniques like those of natural science
To Parsons the system is abstracted from this, being the set of relationships which are the form of organization. To him the important units are classes of input-output relationships of subsystems rather than the subsystems themselves
system is a system of relationship in action, it is neither a physical organism nor an object of physical perception
evolution
differentiation
growth
from earlier and simpler forms and functions
capacities for specializations and gradients
[action] is not concerned with the internal structure of processes of the organism, but is concerned with the organism as a unit in a set of relationships and the other terms of that relationship, which he calls situation
Abstracted versus concrete systems
One fundamental distinction between abstracted and concrete systems is that the boundaries of abstracted systems may at times be conceptually established at regions which cut through the units and relationships in the physical space occupied by concrete systems, but the boundaries of these latter systems are always set at regions which include within them all the units and internal relationships of each system
A science of abstracted systems certainly is possible and under some conditions may be useful.
If the diverse fields of science are to be unified, it would be helpful if all disciplines were oriented either to concrete or to abstracted systems.
It is of paramount importance for scientists to distinguish clearly between them
the development of marketing is sensible to its environment and is hence already self-limiting itself according to the previously mentioned legal and social framework
neuromarketing
explore new inner dynamics of marketing, new directions in the field of possibilities offered by the current organology and its articulations between techniques and social organization in order to influence and shape marketing as an associative force – in opposition to its current dissociative force – in the larger psychic, social and technic organology
Fighting the attention and desire resource shortage: stoping to use advertisement?
The question is rather here to think the moderation of the psychopower
empower transindividuation, i.e. to make sure that an economic activity creates more possibilities of individuation than it tend to destroy by attempting to capture attention and canalize motivation in a funnel. Empower transindividuation would imply to empowering actors of their own lifestyle, winning back the savoir-vivre prescribing production
Should marketing stop using psychopower?
marketing ethics guidelines
transactions are more likely to be morally defensible if both parties enter it freely and fully informed
the goal of marketing should be to increase the likelihood and frequency of free and informed transactions in the marketplace
putting freedom as a criteria of morality
the industrial use of pycho- and neuropower tend to fall under the category of barriers to freedom
neurotechniques – to capture the attention
psychotechniques – to attempt to create motivation
Most people think commercials are a small price to pay for these benefits
advertising
denying the schemes of addiction and the fact that we are becoming through the objects of attentions
right to avoid attention capture by advertising
progress made in cognitive sciences proving that
reward system being abnormally stimulated
Advertisements exploit
vulnerability and reinforce their overconsumption behaviors
“if food advertising on TV were banned, significant reductions in the prevalence of childhood obesity are possible.” (Veerman et al. 2009)
What is at stake falls to be much more complex than the sole Freedom of Speech invoked for the advertiser
liberty of non-reception
would mean to guaranty every citizen the right to choose where and when he wants to access the advertising information
Change in the industrial and commercial paradigm
Economy of contribution and peer production
An economy of contribution means that users of a service are contributing to the production of these services.
example
is open-source software that are contributively build by potentially hundreds of developers organized in communities
minimize the gap between the producer and consumer
blur the frontier between professionals and amateurs
The Copernican revolution of the Vendor Relationship Management paradigm
change in the commercial paradigm, described as an Intention Economy i.e. the opposite of the Attention Economy
consumers are charged to express and discuss their intention
with businesses rather than the usual paradigm in which businesses where fighting for a piece of canalized motivation
Implementing such a system would nevertheless imply that marketing departments dispose of a system in which they could value their supplies and where they could be easily found by customers. Doc Searls promotes his answer to this issue: the Vendor Relationship Management system.
the belief that free customers are more valuable than captive ones — to themselves, to vendors, and to the larger economy.
To be free
1. Customers must enter relationships with vendors as independent actors.
2. Customers must be the points of integration for their own data.
3. Customers must have control of data they generate and gather. This means they must be able to share data selectively and voluntarily.
4. Customers must be able to assert their own terms of engagement.
5. Customers must be free to express their demands and intentions outside of any one company’s control.
This is a profoundly game-changing approach
big data that is the rush for consumers’ information potentially leading to the same dead-end of attention destruction and affective saturation than the former offline paradigm
VRM system working as a marketplace
the goal of marketing should be to increase the likelihood and frequency of free and informed transactions in the marketplace
less imperfect and less biased information in a cultural context overvaluing transparency, and a bigger atomicity due to the hereafter introduced trend for re-localized peer production.
3.2.2.3 VRM and externalization of the socialization process
Promoting the end of advertisement
means to find a new way to make the information circulate, what was the primary goal of advertisement
Until there is no alternative to massive advertisement campaign for the information circulation, it is indeed hard to ask entrepreneurs and managers to get rid of those successors of propaganda: such a transition process necessarily imply adaptation costs from the producer and the consumer side, and possible competitive disadvantage against competitors still maximizing profit through advertisement means
But the internet transformation of the general organology offers new way to think information circuits and potentially constitute an opportunity to externalize the socialization process of products that is to empower citizen-consumers organized in communities
Empowering groups of citizen doesn’t annihilate the risks of mis-use or counterproductive interest-taker behaviors but a well-designed system of trust between peers could minimize this risk by creating a dependency to what social capital other peers give you, as it is happening in the sharing economy: the credibility of a contributive peer would be guaranteed through what the P2P Foundation calls Feedback systems and peer-police
a strong structuration of products characteristics, allowing customers to personalize their choices according to their desire and constraints: such a “VRM+” system
Marketing would then be the art of being as high as possible in this ranking, as it is happening in SEO for search engines, but in this context of criteria explosion, marketing would then be the disciple of listening to customers’ wishes and aspiration needing an attention, in order to kick in the production or to adapt the following series.
3.2.2.4 Toward a possible equi-power
Such a system would tremendously re-configure the balance of power and tend toward a form of equi-power i.e. a social organization in which abuses of a “big” would be the potential object of a ranking sanction by the peers
self-regulative function
a form of economic Darwinism would let to conscious organization the right to curve their path toward a durable configuration in accordance with the social ecosystem.
the idea of equi-power is a form of homogenization of the social matter, in which the distortions in the balance of power would be compensated by the gathering of small forces sharing a common interest
Such a sanction systems, if successfully implemented, would make value-destructing businesses progressively decline and hopefully bankrupt,
long-term valuable strategic choice
long term satisfyingly high ranking
It would be utopic to think that the “being cool” marketing
would disappear, but marketers would have to make those two objectives compose together.
This social capital contagion is nevertheless a tool that would need to be controlled in its form of violence by extensive testings and iterations with forms of protections for the smallest peers, that is to say to keep this form of social violence to institutionalized, classic forms of businesses, clearly beyond the line of what should be acceptable in the global village.
the goal is here to create an artificial form of majority that is a self-censuring responsible behavior of corporations
Surgeons have developed new minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques and instruments so that procedures that would previously have required a large incision can now be performed through a tiny 10mm cut.
University of Western Ontario and Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics (CSTAR) in London, Ontario
The researchers used a torque sensor to measure the force of the palpations.
Using tactile MIS sensing instruments under robotic control reduces the maximum force applied to the tissue by over 35% compared to a human controlling the same instrument. Accuracy in detecting the tumours was also far greater with the robot - between 59 and 90% depending on the robot control method used for palpation.
If developed further, the authors suggest that this type of instrument would particularly benefit surgeons performing lung tumour resection, where tissue often shifts significantly.
Tactus Scientific Dans la catégorie « Innovations technologique et technique »
Et sur ces 12 projets, 7 entrepreneurs sont passés par le SAJE, nous tenions à féliciter particulièrement les entrepreneurs de Tactus Scientific, U Love green, La bête à pain, Corner Cast Construction, Eau Matelo inc, Société orignal et Intangible gouvernance.
Le CEAS collabore étroitement avec un large réseau de Hautes Ecoles et d'Universités. Ensemble, ils imaginent des techniques à même d'offrir des perspectives d'avenir aux familles, microentreprises et collectivités publiques du continent africain. Cette particularité a permis à l'ONG de capitaliser et de mettre à disposition des technologies appropriées. Dans une démarche open-source, elle souhaite mettre ces innovations à disposition de ceux qui pourraient les exploiter.
Church, artists, businesses and consumers all contributed to the great rebirth of culture
largely driven by the church and government institutions which we don’t necessarily want to recreate, right?
So how do we achieve the same effect?
The answer is sacred content.
I adopt what I believe in, and if the content is sacred, then it is beyond question.
An authority has determined these are sacred and therefore worthy
The Authority establishes a values framework, a ruling hierarchy directs and stewards the sacred content, and a host of intermediaries that carry it out to the faithful consumers.
We now have a strong distrust of authority, which has lost all legitimacy:
All around us there’s a collapse of the legitimacy of authorities, with much cynicism from the population. There’s never been a greater need for sacred content that can be trusted and deemed legitimate. How to achieve it without authorities? This is where we have to pivot our minds. We have to replace the dynamics of its creation within the authority with something else. This slide suggests an alternative:
We can create a values framework using collaborative culture techniques like community mythology projects. Out of these come sacred content that is legitimate because we created it according to shared values and a collective conscience. We have to put in place processes and rituals to establish, enshrine and communicate it.