The Dynamics of Exchanges and References among Scientific Texts, and the Autopoiesis of Discursive Knowledge; preprint version

[David E. Wojick]

Dear Loet,

Where does the natural world that science studies fit into this 
system? New specialties develop because of the way the world is, not 
because science wants them. That is, new discoveries lead to new 
lines of inquiry that attract new communities. Where these 
discoveries occur and what the new trajectories are is not up to the 
scientists, rather it is in a sense up to nature. This is why the 
dynamics are unpredictable; we really do not know where we are going. 
Reality is thus the control mechanism, the ultimate feedback loop.

This suggests that the best model for scientific dynamics might be 
swarming (in pursuit of understanding), not self organization. But I 
freely admit I am not familiar with the community of thought you are 
drawing upon in this essay, except for a few of your prior writings. 
So I may simply have misunderstood.

My best regards,

David Wojick


<http://www.leydesdorff.net/autopoiesis/index.htm>The Dynamics of 
Exchanges and References among Scientific Texts,

<http://www.leydesdorff.net/autopoiesis/index.htm>and the Autopoiesis 
of Discursive Knowledge

<http://www.leydesdorff.net/autopoiesis/autopoiesis.pdf><click here for pdf>

Abstract

Discursive knowledge emerges as codification in flows of 
communication. The flows of communication are constrained and enabled 
by networks of communications as their historical manifestations at 
each moment of time. New publications modify the existing networks by 
changing the distributions of attributes and relations in document 
sets, while the networks are self-referentially updated along 
trajectories. Codification operates reflexively: the network 
structures are reconstructed from the perspective of hindsight. 
Codification along different axes differentiates discursive knowledge 
into specialties. These intellectual control structures are 
constructed bottom-up, but feed top-down back upon the production of 
new knowledge. However, the forward dynamics of diffusion in the 
development of the communication networks along trajectories differs 
from the feedback mechanisms of control. Analysis of the development 
of scientific communication in terms of evolving scientific 
literatures provides us with a model which makes these evolutionary 
processes amenable to measurement.

Diana Lucio Arias & Loet Leydesdorff

Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands

** apologies for cross-postings




-- 

"David E. Wojick, Ph.D., PE" <WojickD at osti.gov>
Senior Consultant for Innovation
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
US Department of Energy
http://www.osti.gov/innovation/
391 Flickertail Lane, Star Tannery, VA 22654 USA

http://www.bydesign.com/powervision/resume.html provides my bio and 
past client list.
http://www.bydesign.com/powervision/Mathematics_Philosophy_Science/ 
presents some of my own research on information structure and 
dynamics.
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