Andrew Gordon Speedie Pask (* June 28, 1928 in Derby; † March 28, 1996 London) was an English cybernetician and psychologist who made significant contributions to cybernetics, instructional psychology, experimental epistemology and educational technology. Derby (pronounced "dar-bee" /dˈɑːbɪ/ is a city in the East Midlands of England. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the Structure of Complex systems especially Communication processes control mechanisms and Feedback Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the Structure of Complex systems especially Communication processes control mechanisms and Feedback Educational psychology is the study of how Humans learn in Educational settings the effectiveness of educational interventions the psychology of teaching and the Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge Educational technology (also called learning technology) is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating using and managing
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Pask was born in Derby, England in 1928. Derby (pronounced "dar-bee" /dˈɑːbɪ/ is a city in the East Midlands of England. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland After qualifying precociously as a Mining Engineer at Liverpool Polytechnic, now Liverpool John Moores University, Pask obtained an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge in 1952 and a PhD in Psychology from the University of London in 1964. Liverpool John Moores University is a modern university in Liverpool, England. A Master of Arts ( Latin: Magister Artium) is a Postgraduate academic Master's degree awarded by universities in a large The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the "PhD" redirects here for other uses see PhD (disambiguation. The University of London is a university based primarily in London, England, UK. Whilst Visiting Professor of Educational Technology he obtained the first DSc from the Open University. DSc ScD SD, or DrSc are common abbreviations for the Latin Scientiæ Doctor, meaning Doctor of Science. Open University is also the name of other institutions See Distance education or the Open Universities category for a list From the sixties Pask directed commercial research at System Research Ltd in Richmond, Surrey and his partnership, Pask Associates, near Clapham Common during the eighties and nineties. Richmond Hill in Richmond London, has the only view in England to be protected by an Act of Parliament - the Richmond Ham and Petersham Clapham Common is a triangular area of grassland of about 220 acres (0
Pask held faculty positions at Brunel University, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Mexico, Concordia University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Oregon, and University of Amsterdam. Brunel University is a University situated in West London, England. The University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago. This article is about the flagship campus For other uses and locations of University of Illinois, see University of Illinois (disambiguation The University of The National Autonomous University of Mexico (in Spanish: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México UNAM) is a Public university based Concordia University is a comprehensive Public university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly known as Georgia Tech, or Tech, is a public, Coeducational Research university in The University of Oregon (UO is a public, Coeducational Research university in Eugene Oregon, United States. The University of Amsterdam ( Universiteit van Amsterdam in Dutch) is a comprehensive research University located in the heart of the city of Amsterdam
In 1968 Gordon Pask and his pupil Roy Ascott were elected Associate Member of the Institution of Computer Science, London. Roy Ascott is a British artist and theorist who works with Cybernetics and Telematics. In 1974 he was elected president of the Society for General Systems Research, now the International Society for Systems Science. The International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS is an organization for interdisciplinary collaboration and synthesis of Systems sciences. Pask was chairman of the Cybernetics Society from 1976 to 1979. The Cybernetics Society is the UK national Learned society and professional body promoting pure and applied Cybernetics. He advised the professional cybernetician to proceed in the manner of the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes. [1]
In 1995 he was awarded a ScD from his alma mater, Downing College, Cambridge, and he was a recipient of the Wiener medal from the Cybernetics Society in London. DSc ScD SD, or DrSc are common abbreviations for the Latin Scientiæ Doctor, meaning Doctor of Science. Alma mater is Latin for "nourishing mother" It was used in Ancient Rome as a title for the mother Goddess, and in Medieval Downing College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. The Cybernetics Society is the UK national Learned society and professional body promoting pure and applied Cybernetics. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom.
In 1956 Pask had been married to Elizabeth Poole with whom he had two daughters. He was further active in the theatre and wrote a collection of short stories "Adventures with Professor Flaxman-Low" (narrated extract with notes) as a literary comment on his work. For many years he was Senior Tutor at the Architectural Association in London. Former students Will Alsop Herbert Baker Geoffrey Bawa Ben van Berkel He drew and painted and was a member of the Chelsea Arts Club and the Athenaeum Club. The Chelsea Arts Club was established on March 21 1891 (in Chelsea as a rival to the older Arts Club in Mayfair on the instigation of the artist The Athenaeum Club is a Gentlemen's club standing at 107 Pall Mall, London, England, at the corner of Waterloo Place. [2]
Gordon's primary contribution to cybernetics and systems theory, as well as to numerous other fields, was his emphasis on the personal nature of reality, and on the process of learning as stemming from the consensual agreement of interacting actors in a given environement. Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the Structure of Complex systems especially Communication processes control mechanisms and Feedback Systems theory is an Interdisciplinary field of Science and the study of the nature of Complex systems in Nature, Society, and Life and intelligence lie somewhere in the conflict between closed, unique, construction and open, shared, interaction. Between a specific material fabric, and a general conceptual/functional organization. In fact, his message, still very much mute to the more hardcore computationalist ears in the Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life communities, stresses that only systems striving out of this conflict can be considered to be alive and/or intelligent, and endowed with the potential for open-ended conceptual/functional variety. [3]
Pask's most well known work was the development of
While working with clients in the last years of his life, Gordon Pask produced an axiomatic scheme [5] for his Interactions of Actors Theory, less well-known than his Conversation Theory. "Interactions of Actors (IA), Theory and Some Applications", as the manuscript is entitled, is essentially a concurrent spin calculus applied to the living environment with strict topological constraints. [6] One of the most notable associates of Gordon Pask, Gerard de Zeeuw, was a key contributor to the development of Interactions of Actors theory. Gerard de Zeeuw ( 11 March 1936) is a Dutch Scientist and professor Mathematical modelling of complex social systems at the University
Interactions of Actors Theory (IA) is a process theory[9]. As a means to describe the interdisciplinary nature of his work, Pask would make analogies to physical theories in the classic positivist enterprises of the social sciences. In Academia, Pedagogy, Physical sciences, Earth sciences, Human sciences and Social sciences Positivism is the Philosophy that the only authentic knowledge is knowledge that is based on actual sense experience The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including Anthropology, Communication studies Pask sought to apply the axiomatic properties of agreement or epistemological dependence to produce a "sharp-valued" social science with precision comparable to the results of the hard sciences. It was out of this inclination that he would develop his Interactions of Actors Theory. Pask's concepts produce relations in all media and he regarded IA as a process theory. In his Complementarity Principle (see New Cybernetics (Gordon Pask)) he stated "Processes produce products and all products (finite, bounded, coherent objects) are produced by processes"[10]. See also New Cybernetics New Cybernetics is the term used by Gordon Pask.
Most importantly Pask believed that no two concepts could be the same because of their different histories. He called this the "No Doppelgangers" clause or edict. Andrew Gordon Speedie Pask (* June 28 1928 in Derby; † March 28 1996 London) was an English cybernetician and psychologist who [9] Later he reflected "Time is incommensurable for Actors". [11] He saw these properties as necessary to produce differentiation and innovation or new coherences in physical nature and, indeed, minds.
In 1995 Pask stated what he called his Last Theorem: "Like concepts repel and unlike concepts attract". For ease of application Pask stated the differences and similarities of descriptions (the products of processes) were context and perspective dependent. In the last three years of his life Pask presented models based on Knot theory knots which described minimal persisting concepts. In Mathematics, knot theory is the area of Topology that studies mathematical knots While inspired by knots which appear in daily life in shoelaces KNOT (1450 AM) is a commercial Classic Country music Radio station in Prescott Arizona, broadcasting to the Flagstaff - Prescott He interpreted these as acting as computing elements which exert repulsive forces in order to interact and persist in filling the space. The knots, links and braids of his entailment mesh models of concepts, which could include tangle-like processes seeking "tail-eating" closure, Pask called "tapestries".
His analysis proceeded with like seeming concepts repelling or unfolding but after a sufficient duration of interaction (he called this duration "faith") a pair of similar or like-seeming concepts will always produce a difference and thus an attraction. Amity (availability for interaction), respectability (observability), responsibility (able to respond to stimulus), unity (not uniformity) were necessary properties to produce agreement (or dependence) and agreement-to-disagree (or relative independence) when Actors interact. Concepts could be applied imperatively or permissively when a Petri (see Petri net) condition for synchronous transfer of meaningful information occurred. A Petri net (also known as a place/transition net or P/T net) is one of several Mathematical Modeling languages for the description of discrete Extending his physical analogy Pask associated the interactions of thought generation with radiation : "operations generating thoughts and penetrating conceptual boundaries within participants, excite the concepts bounded as oscillators, which, in ridding themselves of this surplus excitation, produce radiation"[12]
In sum, IA supports the earlier kinematic Conversation Theory work where minimally two concurrent concepts were required to produce a non-trivial third. Radiation, as in Physics, is Energy in the form of waves or moving Subatomic particles emitted by an atom or other body as it changes from a higher energy One distinction separated the similarity and difference of any pair in the minimum triple. However, his formal methods denied the competence of mathematics or digital serial and parallel processes to produce applicable descriptions because of their innate pathologies in locating the infinitesimals of dynamic equilibria (Stafford Beer's "Point of Calm"). Anthony Stafford Beer ( September 25, 1926 - August 23, 2002) was a British Theorist, Consultant and professor He dismissed the digital computer as a kind of kinematic "magic lantern". He saw mechanical models as the future for the concurrent kinetic computers required to describe natural processes. He believed that this implied the need to extend quantum computing to emulate true field concurrency rather than the current von Neumann architecture. A quantum computer is a device for Computation that makes direct use of distinctively Quantum mechanical Phenomena, such as superposition The von Neumann architecture is a design model for a stored-program Digital computer that uses a processing unit and a single separate storage structure
Reviewing IA [11] he said:
Interaction of actors has no specific beginning or end. It goes on forever. Since it does so it has very peculiar properties. Whereas a conversation is mapped (due to a possibility of obtaining a vague kinematic, perhaps picture-frame image, of it, onto Newtonian time, precisely because it has a beginning and end), an interaction, in general, cannot be treated in this manner. Kinematics are inadequate to deal with life: we need kinetics. Even so as in the minimal case of a strict conversation we cannot construct the truth value, metaphor or analogy of A and B. The A, B differences are generalizations about a coalescence of concepts on the part of A and B; their commonality and coherence is the similarity. The difference (reiterated) is the differentiation of A and B (their agreements to disagree, their incoherences). Truth value in this case meaning the coherence between all of the interacting actors.
He added:
It is essential to postulate vectorial times (where components of the vectors are incommensurate) and furthermore times which interact with each other in the manner of Louis Kaufmann's knots and tangles.
In experimental Epistemology Pask, the "philosopher mechanic", produced a tool kit to analyze the basis for knowledge and criticize the teaching and application of knowledge from all fields: the law, social and system sciences to mathematics, physics and biology. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge In establishing the vacuity of invariance Pask was challenged with the invariance of atomic number. See also List of elements by atomic number In Chemistry and Physics, the atomic number (also known as the proton "Ah", he said "the atomic hypothesis". He rejected this instead preferring the infinite nature of the productions of waves.
Pask held that concurrence is a necessary condition for modeling brain functions and he remarked IA was meant to stand AI, Artificial Intelligence, on its head. Pask believed it was the job of cybernetics to compare and contrast. His IA theory showed how to do this. Heinz von Foerster called him a genius[13], "Mr. Heinz von Foerster (Nov 13 1911 Vienna – Oct 2 2002 Pescadero California) was an Austrian American scientist combining Physics and Philosophy Cybernetics", the "cybernetician's cybernetician".
The Hewitt, Bishop and Steiger approach concerns sequential processing and inter-process communication in digital, serial, kinematic computers. In Computer science, the Actor model is a mathematical model of Concurrent computation that treats "actors" as the universal primitives of concurrent It is a parallel or pseudo-concurrent theory as is the theory of concurrency. See Concurrency (computer science). In Computer science, concurrency is a properties of system in which several Computational processes are executing at the same time and potentially interacting In Pask's true field concurrent theory kinetic processes can interrupt (or, indeed, interact with) each other, simply reproducing or producing a new resultant force within a coherence (of concepts) but without buffering delays or priority[14].
"There are no Doppelgangers" is a fundamental theorem, edict or clause of cybernetics due to Gordon Pask in support of his theories of learning and interaction in all media: Conversation Theory and Interactions of Actors Theory. In Mathematics, a theorem is a statement proven on the basis of previously accepted or established statements An edict is an announcement of a Law, often associated with monarchism. In Grammar, a clause is a word or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in some Languages and some types of Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the Structure of Complex systems especially Communication processes control mechanisms and Feedback It accounts for physical differentiation and is Pask's exclusion principle [15]. It states no two products of concurrent interaction can be the same because of their different dynamic contexts and perspectives. No Doppelgangers is necessary to account for the production by interaction and intermodulation (c. Intermodulation or intermodulation distortion ( IMD) or intermod for short f. beats) different, evolving, persisting and coherent forms. In Acoustics, a beat is an Interference between two Sounds of slightly different frequencies, perceived as periodic variations in volume whose Two proofs are presented both due to Pask.
Consider a pair of moving, dynamic participants A and B producing an interaction T. Their separation will vary during T. The duration of T observed from A will be different from the duration of T observed from B [11][16].
Let Ts and Tf be the start and finish times for the transfer of meaningful information.
Where <> stands for "is not equal to" we can write:
|
TsA <> TfB, TsB <> TfB, TsA <> TsB, |
TfA <> TsB TfA <> TsA TfA <> TfB |
Thus
A <> B
Pask remarked [11] :
Conversation is defined as having a beginning and an end and time is vectorial. QED is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase "la '''quod erat demonstrandum'''" which means literally "that which was to be demonstrated" The components of the vector are commensurable (in duration). In Mathematics, two non- Zero Real numbers a and b are said to be commensurable Iff a / b On the other hand actor interaction time is vectorial with components that are incommensurable. In the general case there is no well-defined beginning and interaction goes on indefinitely. As a result the time vector has incommensurable components. Both the quantity and quality differ.
No Doppelgangers applies in both the Conversation Theory's kinematic domain (bounded by beginnings and ends) where times are commensurable and in the eternal kinetic Interactions of Actors domain where times are incommensurable. Conversation Theory is a Cybernetic and Dialectic framework that offers a scientific theory to explain how interactions lead to "construction of knowledge" Andrew Gordon Speedie Pask (* June 28 1928 in Derby; † March 28 1996 London) was an English cybernetician and psychologist who
The second proof [9] is more reminiscent of R.D. Laing [17]: Your concept of your concept is not my concept of your concept- a reproduced concept is not the same as the original concept. Ronald David Laing ( 7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989 was a Scottish Psychiatrist who wrote extensively on Mental illness Pask defined concepts as persisting, countably infinite, recursively packed spin processes (like many cored cable, or skins of an onion) in any medium (stars, liquids, gases, solids, machines and, of course, brains) that produce relations.
Here we prove A(T) <> B(T).
D means "description of" and <Con A(T), D A(T)> reads A's concept of T produces A's description of T, evoking Dirac notation (required for the production of the quanta of thought: the transfer of "set-theoretic tokens", as Pask puts it in 1996[11]). Bra-ket notation is a standard notation for describing Quantum states in the theory of Quantum mechanics composed of angle brackets (chevrons and Vertical
TA = A(T) = <Con A(T), D A(T)>, A's Concept of T,
TB = B(T) = <Con B(T), D B(T)>, B's Concept of T,
or, in general
TZ = Z(T) = <Con Z (T), D Z(T)>,
also, in general
AA = A(A) = <Con A(A), D A(A)>, A's Concept of A,
AB = A(B) = <Con A(B), D A(B)>, A's Concept of B.
and vice versa, or, in general terms
ZZ = Z(Z) = <Con Z(Z), D Z>,
given that for all Z and all T, the concepts
TA = A(T) is not equal to TB = B(T)
and that
AA = A(A) is not equal to BA = B(A) and vice versa, hence, there are no Doppelgangers.
Q. E. D.
Pask attached a piece of string to a bar [18] with three knots in it. Then he attached a piece of elastic to the bar with three knots in it. One observing actor, A, on the string would see the knotted intervals on the other actor as varying as the elastic was stretched and relaxed corresponding to the relative motion of B as seen from A. The knots correspond to the beginning of the experiment then the start and finish of the A/B interaction. Referring to the three intervals, where x, y, z, are the separation distances of the knots from the bar and each other, he noted x > y > z on the string for participant A does not imply x > z for participant B on the elastic. A change of separation between A and B producing Doppler shifts during interaction, recoil or the differences in relativistic proper time for A and B, would account for this for example. The Doppler effect (or Doppler shift) named after Christian Doppler, is the change in Frequency and Wavelength of a Wave for In relativity, proper time is Time measured by a single Clock between events that occur at the same place as the clock On occasion a second knotted string was tied to the bar representing coordinate time. In the Theory of relativity, it is convenient to express results in terms of a Spacetime Coordinate system relative to an implied observer
To set in further context Pask won a prize from Old Dominion University for his Complementarity Principle: "All processes produce products and all products are produced by processes". Old Dominion University (ODU is a large public Research university located in historic Norfolk Virginia. In Physics, complementarity is a basic principle of quantum theory closely identified with the Copenhagen interpretation, and refers to effects such This can be written:
Ap(Con Z(T)) => D Z(T) where => means produces and Ap means the "application of". This can also be written
<Ap(Con Z(T)), D Z(T)>.
Pask distinguishes Imperative (written &Ap or IM) from Permissive Application (written Ap)[19] where information is transferred in the Petri net manner, the token appearing as a hole in a torus producing a Klein bottle containing recursively packed concepts. A Petri net (also known as a place/transition net or P/T net) is one of several Mathematical Modeling languages for the description of discrete In Mathematics, the Klein bottle is a certain non- orientable Surface, i [9]
Pask's "hard" or "repulsive" [9]carapace was a condition he required for the persistence of concepts. Andrew Gordon Speedie Pask (* June 28 1928 in Derby; † March 28 1996 London) was an English cybernetician and psychologist who He endorsed Rescher's Coherence Theory of Truth approach where a set membership criterion of similarity also permitted differences amongst set or coherence members, but he insisted repulsive force was exerted at set and members' coherence boundaries. The meaning of the word truth extends from Honesty, Good faith, and Sincerity in general to agreement with Fact or Reality He said of Spencer Brown's Laws of Form that distinctions must exert repulsive forces. Laws of Form (hereinafter LoF) is a book by G Spencer-Brown, published in 1969 that straddles the boundary between Mathematics and of Laws of Form (hereinafter LoF) is a book by G Spencer-Brown, published in 1969 that straddles the boundary between Mathematics and of This is not accepted by Spencer Brown and others. Without a repulsion, or Newtonian reaction at the boundary, sets, their members or interacting participants would diffuse away forming a "smudge"; Hilbertian marks on paper would not be preserved. Pask, the mechanical philosopher, wanted to apply these ideas to bring a new kind of rigour to cybernetic models.
Pask has written several books and articles. See also New Cybernetics New Cybernetics is the term used by Gordon Pask. Second-order cybernetics, also known as the cybernetics of cybernetics investigates the construction of models of Cybernetic Systems It investigates Cybernetics Self-organization is a process of Attraction and repulsion in which the internal organization of a System, normally an open system, increases Norbert Wiener ( November 26, 1894, Columbia Missouri – March 18, 1964, Stockholm, Sweden) was an American Books, a selection:
Other papers:
Gordon Pask was a rare man. The Independent is a British compact Newspaper published by Tony O'Reilly 's Independent News & Media. He was an original; an eccentric in the best sense; gifted as a scientist, artist, lyricist. His peers in academic life have regularly acknowledged his genius. He had an exceptionally productive career (several books, over two hundred published papers). His many contributions are still being assimilated in psychology, educational technology, cybernetics and systems science.