Evolution of

Complex
Systems
Lecture 9: Technological
systems

Peter Andras / Bruce Charlton

peter.andras@ncl.ac.uk
Objectives
 Writing,book, libraries
 Simple and complicated machines
 Roads, vehicles, transportation
systems
 Computers
 Electronic communication systems

2
Writing - origins
 Symbols written on stone, leather,
paper
 Communication actions changing
the environment in a way that can
be preserved (e.g., carving
symbols into stone, painting
symbols on silk)
 Objective: storage and
preservation of spoken language
3
Extending the reference
space
 Stored spoken language extends the
reference space for human
communications
 Writing preserves the communications
making possible unaltered reference to
them over a long time period
 Note: interpretation of written
communication may change by
referring to a context made of a new set
of other communications 4
Grammar
 Rules of written language
 Restrain the continuations of
written communications
 Provides a set of communications
(statements of grammatical rules)
that add meaning to written
communications

5
Books
 Large amounts of written
communications – texts
 Have a systematically organized
internal referencing structure (i.e.,
sentences refer to other sentences,
chapters, sections)
 Have an external referencing structure
(i.e., formal references to other books,
texts)
6
Libraries
 Collection of books
 Systematically organized
collections
 Provide structure to help
referencing books

7
Is this a system ?
 Is the objective of written
communications to produce more
written communications ?
 Are written communications
reproducing themselves ?
 Is there a specialist language of
written communications ?

8
Communications
 Communication units: humans,
books and texts (extensions of
humans, who create the
communications contained in
them)
 Text communications: meaning
depends on the referential context,
determining the expectations
about the communications 9
Referencing
 Grammar
 Book structure
 Library structure

10
Communication density
boundary
 Texts refer to texts or to human
communications (e.g.,
experimental measurements)
 Human communications refer to
texts regularly (e.g., articles in
tabloids)
 No clear density boundary in
general
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Reproduction
 Reproduction of written
communications happens in the
context of society

12
Writing, books and
libraries
 Written communications are part
of the society (the system of
human communications)
 Texts, books, libraries provide rule
sets (institutional framework) for
human communications adding
meaning to them and providing
long term preservation of them
13
Simple machines
 E.g.,guns
 Mechanical components organized
in well determined manner that
allows systematic interaction
between them

14
Complicated machines
 E.g.,cars
 A large set of mechanical,
chemical, electronic and other
components organized in a
systematic manner, allowing them
to produce a complicated
beahviour

15
Machines
 Machines are products of human
communications
 Human communications act upon
the environment, a well
determined sequence of such
actions leads to the formation of
machine components and the
assembly of them as machines
16
Machine communications
 Machines can produce behaviours (i.e.,
changing constellation of their
components)
 Such behaviours may be perceived by
humans as communications, which have
attached meaning by referring to other
communications that determine
expectations about machine
communications
 E.g., the blinking side lights of a car 17
Machine grammars
 The communication leading to the
production of machines and
communication produced by
machines have sharp continuation
distributions
 Simple communication grammars

18
Are the machines systems
?
 Do they have a communication
density boundary ?
 Do they reproduce themselves as
communication systems ?
 Do they have a specialist language
defining their system ?

19
Communications
 There are communications between
machines (e.g., automated assembly
lines)
 There are many communications
between humans and machines
 Usually machine communications need
human communications for longer
maintenance of generation of new
communications
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Referencing boundary
 There is no clear referencing
density boundary between
machine-machine and machine-
human communications
 Such boundaries may exist for a
short time period and for a
physically restricted set of
machines (e.g., automated
factories needing relatively rare 21
Reproduction
 Machines are reproduced by the
intervention of human communications
and by referencing human
communications
 Self-reproducing robots: refer to a finite
set of human communications (original
design), AI is not able to provide them a
self-expanding communication system
that could guarantee longer term
survival and reproduction in an infinitely
complex and varying environment
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Machines and society
 Machines are products of human
communications and can be seen
as preserved forms of these
communications
 They produce behaviours that can
be seen by humans as
communications, and these
communications integrate into the
society 23
Roads
 Roman roads constituted a
significant component of Roman
expansion and of the empire
 German and US road system

24
Roads and
communications
 Roads are the product of human
communications constituting
actions upon the environment
 They provide signals for humans
(e.g., road directions) and help the
expansion of human
communications

25
Postal systems
 Transportationon roads of written
human communications and other
human artefacts
 Thurn and Taxis in mid 19th century
 Stamps, standard procedures

26
Transportation systems
 Rail, ship, airplane
 Transport humans, written
communications, artefacts,
machines
 Facilitate the expansion of the
system of human communications

27
Language
 Road signs
 Stamps
 Standard procedures

28
Are they systems ?
 Isthere a communication density
boundary ?
 Do they reproduce ?
 Do they have a defining
language ?

29
Roads, transportation and
society
 Communicate with humans and
facilitate human communications
 No clear density boundary,
reproduction involves humans

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Computers
 50s room size machines
 70s cupboard / wardrobe size
machines
 90s briefcase size machines
 Computer behaviour: screen
display, printing, writing on the
disc, reading key pressing patterns
31
Software
 Computer programs written by
humans or other computer
programs
 Instruct the computer to perform
behaviours

32
Programming languages
 Special communication language
with a grammar
 Several generations:
 Machine language
 Structured programming languages

 Object oriented languages

 Component based languages

33
Software systems
 Many programs interacting and
communicating with each other
 E.g., Windows, Linux

34
Realisation of software
systems
 Instructions and data
 Processor, memory, disk
 Bits, flip-flops

35
Are the software systems
real systems ?
 Do they have a referencing density
boundary ?
 Do they reproduce ?
 Do they have a defining
language ?

36
Communications
 Communications produced by humans
or computers are stored as programs
and data
 Such communications are received by a
computer that produces corresponding
behaviour
 Computer behaviour is perceived by
humans or the computer and provides
reference for further human or
computer communications 37
Software systems and
society – 1
 There is no clear referencing density
boundary
 Large software systems have a dense
internal referencing structure, but they
refer ultimately to human
communications (e.g., some programs
written by humans)
 Reproduction needs most times human
intervention, although there are to
some extent self-expanding software 38
systems
Software systems and
society – 2
 Software systems and computers are
extensions of the society and they
facilitate the reproduction of the society
 Software systems capture a relatively
small part of the environment (the part
described by their human creators) and
they lack the automate expansion to
capture more
 Reflexive software systems may
represent a new level, but so far they
are in a very experimental stage 39
Telegraph and telephone
 Telegraph: 19th century
 Telephone: 20th century
 Machine systems providing
transportation for human
communications over large
physical distances

40
Radio and TV
 Electronic
communication systems
allowing broadcasting of human
communications

41
Fax, e-mail and data
communications
 Advanced forms of electronic
communications
 Allow transmission of a wide range
of human communications

42
Mobile telephony
 1G – 70-80s
 2G – 90s
 3G – after 2000

43
Specialist language
 Specialsignals transmitted
between machines
 Machines communicate with
humans and transmit human
communications

44
Referencing
 Most of the references are to
human communications
 Exceptions: computer networks,
Internet – many references to
computer communications, but at
the base level they refer to human
communications

45
System nature
 No clear referencing boundary
 Extension of the human society

46
Technological systems
 Extensions of the human society
 Help the expansion of the human
society, by preserving and reproducing
human communications and by
transmitting them over long physical
and temporal distances
 To reproduce themselves they need to
refer to human communications
 They capture relatively small part of the
environmental complexity
47
Summary
 Writing, books, libraries
 Machines and machine systems
 Transportation systems
 Computers and software systems
 Electronic communication systems
 Technological systems are
extensions of the human society
helping its expansion 48
Q&A – 1
1. Is it true that the continuation rules of
written language have the same
distributions as the continuation rules
of spoken language ?
2. Is it true that the structure of a library
adds meaning to the communications
contained in the books of the library ?
3. Is it true that communications
between the components of a modern
car constitute a communication
system ? 49
Q&A – 2
4. Is it true that roads are similar to
machines that help the expansion of the
society system ?
5. Is it true that the railways constitute a
system with its own specific language ?
6. Is it true that many communications
between the components of the MS
Office suit refer to communications
between components of the MS Office
suit ? Does this make the MS Office suit
a communication system ? 50
Q&A – 3
7. Is it true that Internet web-sites refer
most frequently to other Internet web-
sites ? Does this make the Internet a
sub-system of the society ?
8. Is it true that mobile phone systems
constitute a sub-system of the society ?
9. Is it true that technological systems are
extensions of the society helping the
expansion of it ?
51