The Carousel of Time: Theory of Knowledge and Acceleration of Time

✍ Scribed by Ancori, Bernard

• Publisher: Wiley-Iste; Iste Ltd
• Year: 2020
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 309
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Based around the image of a carousel, this book uses epistemological theory to tackle the paradoxical acceleration and deceleration of time that is experienced by many. The consequence of this paradox is the observance of the past, present and future coinciding, where acceleration is combined with perfect immobility. The Carousel of Time proposes a model that focuses on a complex network of individual actors, and their relation to the analysis, structure and evolution of our socio-cognitive space?time. The first part of the book, Foundations, presents the key bases of this model, as well as the notions that must be understood and integrated. The book then analyzes the concept of Space, defining the parameters of the networks boundaries, and finishes with an exploration of Time. This third part links the temporality of the network to its spatial characteristics and studies its evolution.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Half-Title Page......Page 3
Dedication......Page 4
Title Page......Page 5
Copyright Page......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Foreword......Page 11
Acknowledgments......Page 17
Introduction......Page 19
PART 1: Foundations......Page 29
1. Information, Communication and Learning......Page 31
1.1. Claude Shannon’s model......Page 32
1.1.1. Ralph Vinton Hartley, Claude Shannon’s forerunner......Page 33
1.1.2. Claude Shannon’s formula and the two fundamental theorems of telegraphic communication......Page 34
1.1.3. The eight main characteristics of the Shannonian theory of communication......Page 37
1.2.1. The immanent mind and the Batesonian definition of information......Page 39
1.2.2. The Batesonian categorization of learning......Page 41
1.2.3. The eight main characteristics of Batesonian communication theory......Page 44
2.1. Self-organization and information creation......Page 51
2.2.1. Order from noise versus organizational noise......Page 59
2.2.2. Complexity and complication......Page 61
2.2.3. Meaning of information in a hierarchical system......Page 64
3. Human Memory as a Self-organized Natural System......Page 69
3.1.1. The theory of functional localization......Page 70
3.1.2. Against functional localization......Page 73
3.2. Neural Darwinism and inventive memory......Page 75
4. Hypotheses Linked to the Model......Page 91
4.1. Six hypotheses relating to the structure of the network......Page 92
4.2. Eight hypotheses relating to the evolution of the network......Page 98
4.2.1. Assumptions related to inter-individual communication......Page 99
4.2.2. Hypotheses related to intra-individual cognition......Page 102
PART 2: Space......Page 109
5. Scope, Dimensions, Measurements and Mobilizations......Page 111
5.1. Inter-individual communication and learning......Page 113
5.2. Categorization and learning......Page 120
5.2.1. The creative analogy of weak novelty: the example of Planck’s formula......Page 123
5.2.2. The creative analogy of radical novelty: Gregory Bateson’s “grass syllogism”......Page 129
6. Provisional Regionalization and Final Homogenization......Page 141
6.1. Formation of clusters of actors and regionalization of the network space......Page 142
6.2. Instability and erasure of regions within the network......Page 152
6.3. Evolution of information production at the level of the global network and at the level of each cluster of actors......Page 160
PART 3: Time......Page 169
7. Propensities to Communicate, the Specious Present and Time as Such, the Point of View from Everywhere and the Ancestrality’s Paradox......Page 171
7.1. Propensities to communicate and the specious present......Page 172
7.2. Subjective time, objective time and time as such......Page 179
7.3. A point of view from nowhere or a point of view from everywhere?......Page 184
7.4. On an alleged “ancestrality’s paradox”......Page 189
8. Déjà-vu and the Specious Present......Page 199
8.1. A history of interpretations of the déjà-vu phenomenon......Page 200
8.2. Déjà-vu and the specious present: an interpretation......Page 207
9. The Acceleration of Time, Presentism and Entropy......Page 215
9.1. Historical time, irreversibility and end of time......Page 216
9.2.1. A psychological interpretation of the acceleration of time......Page 221
9.2.2. A socio-historical interpretation of the acceleration of time......Page 225
9.3. Irreversibility of time and entropy of the network......Page 230
9.3.1. A brief presentation of the genesis of the entropy concept......Page 231
9.3.2. The entropy law21 and network trajectory......Page 233
9.3.3. Entropy theory and trajectory of the complex socio-cognitive network of individual actors......Page 237
10. Temporal Disruptions......Page 241
10.1. The translation of beliefs......Page 244
10.2. Revisions of beliefs and the possible worlds semantics......Page 247
10.3. The weak transformation of beliefs: learning and normal science......Page 250
10.4. The radical transformation of beliefs: learning and scientific revolution......Page 254
Conclusion......Page 263
References......Page 277
Index......Page 297
Other titles from iSTE in Interdisciplinarity, Science and Humanities......Page 303
EULA......Page 307