Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Machine as Metaphor and Tool

  • Book
  • © 1993

Overview

Editors:
  1. Hermann Haken

    1. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    View editor publications

    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Anders Karlqvist

    1. Swedish Polar Research, Stockholm, Sweden

    View editor publications

    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  3. Uno Svedin

    1. The Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research (FRN), Stockholm, Sweden

    View editor publications

    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-IX
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Anders Karlqvist, Uno Svedin
    Pages 1-8

  3. The Brain’s Software: The Natural Languages and Poetic Information Processing

    • S. Ryan Johansson
    Pages 9-43

  4. The Mechanization of Time

    • Lennart Lundmark
    Pages 45-65

  5. The Three-Dimensional Text: Computers, Writing and Performance

    • Julian Hilton
    Pages 67-75

  6. Misled by Metaphors: Two Tools that Don’t Always Work

    • Alexander K. Dewdney
    Pages 77-86

  7. Bionics Revisited

    • Robert Rosen
    Pages 87-100

  8. Mathematical Machines

    • Paul Henry
    Pages 101-122

  9. Are Synergetic Systems (Including Brains) Machines

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 123-137

  10. From Clocks to Chaos: Humanizing the Mechanistic World-View

    • Stephen Toulmin
    Pages 139-153

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 155-165
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

The chapters in this book centre around one main theme, the concept of the machine and its use as metaphor in a variety of contexts. This concept is deeply rooted in western culture and is frequently used to interpret complex systems in nature and society. With the advent of electronic computers, the machine metaphor applied to thinking and the brain has becOIne even more pertinent. The idea of a machine has changed over time. In this book these transformations are made trans­ parent, various aspects of the machine metaphor are discussed and limitations and pitfalls of the metaphor are elaborated. The chapters are written in a non-technical fashion and are accessible to a large readership of scientists and also laymen interested in the scientific per­ spectives and logical foundations of the machine concept that has been so influential in western thinking. The idea of the book has its origin in a workshop held at the Sci­ entific Station in Abisko, Sweden, in May 1990, where several of the present authors participated. The meeting was organized and spon­ sored by the Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Re­ search (FRN). Since 1983, the FRN has actively promoted a series of such annual events at Abisko, all of which have been devoted to the exploration of various aspects of complex systems and their evolution.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Hermann Haken

  • Swedish Polar Research, Stockholm, Sweden

    Anders Karlqvist

  • The Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research (FRN), Stockholm, Sweden

    Uno Svedin

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Machine as Metaphor and Tool

  • Editors: Hermann Haken, Anders Karlqvist, Uno Svedin

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77711-0

  • Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1993

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-642-77713-4Published: 16 December 2011

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-642-77711-0Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 165

  • Topics: Physics, general, Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, multidisciplinary

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation