EXOSOMATIC INFORMATION 1)
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The information created and eventually re trieved by living systems in, and from their environment.
This concept has been developed by S. GOONATILAKE (1992, p.83-117): "While almost all memories are internal in the brain of animals, external memory markers are sometimes used as cues for the internal functioning of the brain. Sometimes such "memories" are consciously created and externalized in the world outside the brain. Sometimes the external memories can be manipulated" (p.83).
The marking of territories by animals is already a form of exosomatic information. There is also a close relation with stigmergy. In human societies, exosomatic information became an "explosive" process. Men rely heavily on a growing number of non-biological external clues and devices to sustain their evermore complex organizations. Moreover, as noted by GOONATILAKE, exosomatic processes can now be manipulated and are even seemingly acquiring a kind of autonomous activity, through spontaneous self-organization, particularly in information networks (p.120).
Categories
- 1) General information
- 2) Methodology or model
- 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
- 4) Human sciences
- 5) Discipline oriented
Publisher
Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).
To cite this page, please use the following information:
Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]
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