Kristo Ivanov's
RESEARCH
http://www8.informatik.umu.se/~kivanov/Research.html
https://ia800107.us.archive.org/14/items/Research_201802/Research.html
(In this second link to the Internet-archive the links to the research reports
do not work, but the reports themselves with adjusted titles are found
separately in the Internet-archive)
(Updated 220801-1430)
I have adopted a "heavy" style of writing, especially with many links
to references. It is a style that has become progressively heavier after my
retirement in 2002, my increasing age, and the cessation of academically
"compulsory" publications in standardized forms. It reflects my
concern for leaving a maximal heritage to other researchers who want to
question and build upon my text and dig deep into its issues, decreasing their
risk of incurring into the hopelessness of unending sterile
debates that are triggered by non-shared background
knowledge and did motivate me to write an essay on information and debate. The linked references replace the typical endnotes
and reference lists that are more laboriously edited on the web. They are
intended only for those who feel need for them in order to foster their
possible future related work, being able to resist the temptation to interrupt
their first reading by clicking the links just for curiosity.
Besides regular bibliographic references I make
extensive albeit not exclusive use of Wikipedia-references,
especially in Internet-links, because of their comprehensiveness and easy
overview in terms of standardized layout. This is done with full knowledge and
evaluation of their possible shortcomings, obviously
including those surveyed by other sources than Wikipedia itself, as suggested
in my own analysis in Wikipedia Democracy and Wikicracy.
I renounce to further laborious elaborations
of my texts that would improve their readability. In view of the foreseen
impending end of my active life and ultimately of my life itself, I hope that
most keen readers prefer, as I did in reading my most valued mentors, content
over form.
On occasion of my retirement I intended to carry out
in full scale my research that had been neglected because of managerial duties
at my university, and to summarize my experiences and reflections in one or
several publications. The more I studied and reflected upon my experiences, the
more I got convinced that the main problem was not the lack of debates, books,
publications, experiences, reflections, but rather the lack of wish, will,
courage, that is "lack of time" to select readings,
to read, to think, or to understand in depth and to act upon knowledge that is
still valid and already available. Therefore, psychologically I may be writing in the spirit of Dixi et salvavi animam meam [I have
spoken and saved my soul] a quote that is attributed to Karl Marx's ending of
his critique of the Gotha program, while its meaning is inspired by the Bible (Ezekiel 33:9).
(ENDNOTE: As a technicality I mention that some of the
links in my essays may not work because most of the essays that were originally
stored in my homepage at Umeå university were later copied and the copies
transferred to archive.org (here and here) with my hope of
obtaining their longer survival. This was done in view that my homepage at the
university may ultimately be deleted upon my death. Some links in my texts
were, however, originally identified and coded as referring to other essays of
mine that were and, for the time being, are found in my homepage at the
university. Such link may work in the version that so long is archived at the
university’s homepage as indicated now at the top of most documents. The other
way round: some of the links are now referring to essays in archive.org, and
will not work if archive.org deletes them. In the future, as a last resort,
most of the records including their original links may be read out in a dump of
.html and .docx documents deposited at the Umeå university’s research
archive. )
------------
CONTENTS
|
First of all: in order to search by subject or
keyword |
List of research texts:
For the period after 2002: Position statement and
letter of intent
(LATEST ON THE TOP)
37) The Russia-NATO-Ukraine information crisis
36) Information on: Christianism or Atheism
35) Quantum physics, psychology & computers
34) Climate and apocalyptic global
warming?
33) The meaning of human-computer
interaction
32) Computerized logic acrobatics - From Kant's philosophy
31) Conscience and truth
30)
Information and theology for computer applications
29) Computers as embodied
mathematics and logic
28)
Reason and values exemplified in gender issues [Manuscript]
27) Systems and cooperative networks
- From theory to practice
26) Reason and evaluative emotion
25)
Information as debate, or peer review and publication
24) Reflections on a 20 years'
jubilee 2014
23) Wikipedia democracy, and
wikicracy
22) Information and Psychology. The
illusion of communication
21) Research summary on the 80th
birthday
20) Research summary on the 75th
birthday
19) The Illusion of
state-individualistic ethics
18) Ethics in technology and
theology of the flesh
17) Trends in philosophy of
technology
16) Research portrait
15) Quality control of information
14) Wikileaks, information and
systems: The case Julian Assange
13) Ethics of research and the
"Lucifer effect"
12) Privacy and security: Integrity
of information and communication
11) Wikileaks - Freedom of
expression
10) Political correctness
9) Essence of computers &
presuppositions of support
8) Interview (june 2008)
7) Interview (october 2007)
6) Research summary on the 70th
birthday
5) Ongoing work
4) Whither computers and systems?
Confessions of a 2008-emeritus
3) Experimental realism vs.
empirical idealism
2) Computer science and gnosticism
1) Short summary of local
achievements
Period 1972-2002
- selection
(1) Quality-control of information (PhD
dissertation)
(2) The systems approach to Design, and
Inquiring Information Systems
(3) Ethics and Politics of Design and
Systems Cultures
(4) Aesthetics and Ethics of Multimedia
Research and Computers' Cultural Nature
(5) Computer-supported Human Science or
Humanistic Computing Science
(6) Critical Systems Thinking and Information
Technology
(7) Hypersystems: Computer supported
self-learning social systems
(8) Computer-human
interaction as continuous system reconstruction
(9) Belief and Reason
(10) The Search for a Theory of
Hypermedia
(11) Presuppositions
in Information Systems Design: From Systems to Networks
(12) East and West of Information Systems
(13) Platonic Information Technology.
Reading Plato
(14) Reason and Gender - Logic and values. See the text [pdf -scanned]
(15) Management
of Information Infrastructure
(15-19) Miscellaneous
Position statement and overview for the period after September
2002
POSITION STATEMENT AND LETTER OF INTENT. After the promotion to professor emeritus, effective October 2002, and
the definitive dismissal of compulsive publishing so common in an increasingly
industrialized academic research, my work follows a particular position
statement and "letter of intent". This work tries to respect Matthew
12:36 ("There is not a thoughtless word that comes from men's lips but
they will have to account for it on the day of judgment") and is
exemplified by the following (in inverse chronological order, latest additions
at the top).
A disclaimer: with increasing age, psychologically I may be writing in the
spirit of "Dixi et salvavi animam meam" ["I have spoken and
saved my soul"] a quote that is attributed to Karl Marx's ending of his
critique of the Gotha program, while its meaning is extracted from the Bible (Ezekiel 33:9). Besides regular
bibliographic references I make extensive albeit not exclusive use of Wikipedia-references,
especially in Internet-links, because of their comprehensiveness and easy
overview in terms of standardized layout. This is done with full knowledge and
evaluation of their possible shortcomings, obviously including those surveyed by other sources than Wikipedia
itself, as suggested in my own analysis in Wikipedia Democracy and Wikicracy.
------------
37) THE
RUSSIA-NATO-UKRAINE INFORMATION CRISIS. Most of these initial lines were
initially written as an insert in my blog on 21 February 2022 while the world press is
reporting on the so called crisis in the relation of Russia to NATO
regarding Ukraine. The
volume of my text grew up to the point that it could not belong properly to a
blog, requiring a separate essay.
36) INFORMATION
ON: CHRISTIANISM OR ATHEISM.
This document contains my foreword and two papers written in Swedish by two authors, both of them academically
educated and trained in technology and natural science. Instead of only keeping
their convictions and debates for themselves, each one of them analyzes and
problematizes the information about facts
and reasons that led them to their respective conviction.
35) QUANTUM
PHYSICS, PSYCHOLOGY & COMPUTERS. A core of my late professional activity is to
understand the guidelines for the ongoing computerization of society on the
basis of its consequences. In studying the essence of computerization I see its
relations to the process of increase mathematization and logic structuration of
science. Here I reflect upon what can be learnt from what has happened to
modern physics as seen from its increased mathematization in quantum mechanics.
34) CLIMATE & APOCALYPTIC GLOBAL
WARMING?. - By the year 2018-2019 climate change and global warming had come to be
considered by the world's mass and social media as well as by "big
science" and in the political discourse as being the main and most urgent
problem of mankind because of apocalyptic visions about the future of
humanity. I do oppose the "moralistic" tone with which the
supposedly established truth of global warming os presented as if it were
no longer debatable, classifying dissidents as conspiracy theorists or worse.
33) THE MEANING
OF HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION. This is a
report on reflections upon experiences of on-line computer interactions,
relating them to insights into the core meaning of computers, computation and
computerization as advanced mainly in earlier texts on Computers as embodied mathematics
and logic, and Computerization as logic acrobatics.The
conclusion is that perceived advances in the HCI-field tend to be sterile,
socially and politically crippled patchwork because they do not acknowledge the
nature of the relation between embodied logic as a human mental construct, and
mental faculties of the human psyche.
32) COMPUTERIZED LOGIC ACROBATICS - FROM
KANT'S PHILOSOPHY. This is "work in
progress" found in my institutional homepage at Umeå university - an
attempt to explore the late origins of "mathematical-logical
acrobatics" in science in general, and in the informational computer field
in particular. Such acrobatics stands for the belief that ultimate truth
represented by science must basically, if not exclusively, be framed in
mathematical-logical form, and kept in separation from metaphysical or
religious considerations.
31) CONSCIENCE AND TRUTH. This
item is my introduction to an essay by former cardinal and later pope Benedict
XVI Joseph Ratzinger discussing what I perceive as
being the limits of rationality in terms of the relation between authority and
conscience including personal convictions about scientific truth.
(30) INFORMATION AND
THEOLOGY FOR COMPUTER APPPLICATIONS. With
increasing frequency I have been concluding my writings about bases of computer
applications with references to religious aspects that in an academic context
become rather theological questions. In doing so I feel uncomfortable since I am painfully aware of
living in a societal and academic context where there is a generally sharp
distinction and division between science and religion, as summarized in the
concept of scientism. Therefore I wish to present an apologetic
explanation of my position.
29) COMPUTERS
AS EMBODIED MATHEMATICS AND LOGIC. In my search
for an understanding of the "essence" of computation in order to
better grasp the intellectual impact of information technology I decided to
look into controversies about the foundations of mathematics and logic as bases
of formalisms that are embodied in computers. The work extends over the years
2015-2017.
28) REASON
AND VALUES EXEMPLIFIED IN GENDER ISSUES. [pdf-format,
in Swedish.] This is a scanned manuscript (353 pages) written between 1977 and
1979 prior to my appointment as full professor with pressing obligations and
scarcity of time that stopped this kind of research. It analyzes the difference
between a supposedly masculine thought supposedly embodied in technology and
computers, and a corresponding feminine thought with emphasis on values and
emotions. In such a context the whole is related to the item 26 below. This
paper is related to my later research up to Information and psychology, and Computers as embodied mathematics
and logic. In literary, non academic context, cf. my
blog-texts on the SCUM-manifest, and
the #MeToo-movement. Historical
background of the issue is found in less and more controversial works such as
Franz von Baader's Filosofia Erotica (selection
and Italian translation from his Sämtliche
Werke), Otto
Weininger's Sex and character,
Julius Evola's The metaphysics of sex,
Karl-Olov Arnstberg's PK-Samhället [The
Politically Correct Society] esp. pp. 375-443, and (in French) Olivier
Rey's Que
faire des différences? [What to make of the
differences?], as well as Homme-femme: heureuse différence ou
guerre des sexes? [Man-woman: happy differences
or war of the sexes? Conference video.]
27) SYSTEMS
AND COOPERATIVE NETWORKS. This is a
response (written in Portuguese) to the invitation to hold the opening keynote
address at the Tenth Brazilian Conference on Systems, 28-30 October 2014, at
the Faculty of Economics and Administration of the University of S. Paulo FEA RP
(Ribeirão Preto) on the theme "Systems and cooperative networks:
from theory to practice". The talk is presented in
the form of key points with references that summarize reflections about the
past and the desirable future of efforts in the area.
26) REASON AND EVALUATIVE EMOTION. There are
occasions in life when we are supposed to combine what appears to be reason
with emotions, the more so when it is a question of reason about right or wrong,
and valuations of what it is morally good and bad. Until further notice I leave
consciously aside definitional problems of many involved terms including reason
and emotion that are usually the object of a problematic meta-ethics. In my
attempts to frame this combination, relevant for both my life and my
professional concern for the deeper meaning of computer-human interaction
(logical thinking reason – valuational emotive feeling), I was attracted since
some decades ago to the psychology of Carl Jung as well as to Christian
thought. In the essay prefaced here I expose one path that led me this choice
on the basis of particular events in my life as they appear in a diary I wrote,
stretching during a critical period from March 1980 to August 1981. (Cf. item
28 above.)
25) INFORMATION
AS DEBATE, OR PEER REVIEW AND PUBLICATION. The
more I studied and reflected, the more I got convinced that the main problem
was not the lack of debates, books, publications, experiences, reflections, but
rather the lack of wish, will, courage, that is "lack of time" , to select
readings, to read, to think, or to understand in depth and to act upon
knowledge that is still valid and already available. This paper studies the
sterility of many debates, including those implicit in the publication of
findings and opinions.
24) REFLECTIONS ON A 20 YEARS JUBILEE 2014. I
was invited by my department from where I retired in 2002 to write a maximum of
360 words on occasion of its 20 years' jubilee in 2014. Starting as the only
professor at the department and as its head for many years I was responsible
for the build-up of its research and graduate education. I had a vision of
fostering a systems approach in the spirit of prof. West Churchman at the
University of California, Berkeley. I tell how I met a series of unforeseen
challenges driven by fast changes in technology while I was critical of the
ongoing "industrial" reorganization of universities.
23) WIKIPEDIA DEMOCRACY, AND WIKICRACY. This article is
critical of Wikipedia in that it illustrates some of its aspects and problems
when considered as an information systems, with its edits and editors seen in context.
The argument is focused on a case study of edits of a Wikipedia page, and
presupposes some prior knowledge of the workings of Wikipedia as specified in
relevant links.
22) INFORMATION
AND PSYCHOLOGY. This essay (earlier title: The
Illusion of Communicative Information) illustrates on the basis of analytical
psychology what kind of issues may be found at the basis of difficulties of
communication and exchange of information, or in debates and arguments as background
to certain forms of feminist rationality and of abuse of phenomenology.
21) RESEARCH SUMMARY ON THE 80TH
BIRTHDAY. This is a summary of reflections upon my work on
occasion of my 80th birthday. I wish to share these thoughts with others with
similar destiny who in those words may find solace in their research work and
own ways to self-evaluation.
20) RESEARCH
SUMMARY ON THE 75TH BIRTHDAY. On occasion of
my 70th birthday in October 2007, and as a response to inquiries about research
results, thoughts and feelings, both professional and personal, I presented the
first part of the this text in the form of a few relevant excerpts from The
Ecclesiastes. Under the subsequent years I did complete the text with some
pertinent additions that are now gathered into this more comprehensive
"Research Summary on the 75th Birthday" in October 2012.
19) THE ILLUSION OF STATE-INDIVIDUALISTIC ETHICS (TECHNOLOGICAL AGNOSTICISM) or
"IS THE SWEDE A HUMAN BEING?"
This text (October 2012) is a review of the academically ambitious book Är Svensken Människa? (Is
the Swede a Human Being?) by Henrik Berggren and Lars Trägårdh. It is a
statement and an explanation of Swedish national identity and character as
expressed in its social code and in the particularities of its legal system,
and therefore it also conditions the criteria by which researchers seek and get
their funds, and consequently conduct more or less "agnostically"
their research. My purpose is, once again, to understand and expose the process
by which much if not most ongoing technological research ignores ethical and
political issues.
18) ETHICS IN TECHNOLOGY, AND THEOLOGY OF THE FLESH.
This research (April-July 2012) is a development of the section Flesh and theology without God of
my review Trends in Philosophy of Technology
(item 17 below) of Daniel Cérézuelle's book (in French) on Technology
and the Flesh. The emphasis in on criticism of the application of
Martin Heidegger's phenomenological thought as it contributes to the neglect of
ethics. The text was removed from the rest of the review because of its volume.
For a proper reading and understanding it should be read within the context of
the review where it originated.
17) TRENDS IN PHILOSOPHY OF TECHNOLOGY. A
summary and review in English of an ambitious and complex French book by Daniel Cérézuelle on
philosophy of technology, including information and communication technology.
The review includes links to other relevant research including my own, as well
as links to material that furthers research in this area. It includes also
comments on the particular phenomenological approach, the "philosophy of
the body", its relation to postmodernism and aestheticist design, and
possible loss of the ethical dimension because of theological shortcomings.
16) RESEARCHER'S PORTRAIT (in Swedish). An interview at
Umeå university's department of Informatics was edited with the purpose of
portraying my "state fo the art" around March 2012, and was included
in the "portrait gallery" of the deparment's researchers.
15) QUALITY CONTROL OF INFORMATION.
Because of continuously renewed interest for my PhD dissertation on Quality-Control
of Information, with relevance as part of the history of wikis, I
revised its presentation on my homepage especially dedicated to this work.
14) WIKILEAKS, INFORMATION, AND SYSTEMS.
This research (June 2011) is an analysis of an article in TIME Magazine on
"WikiLeak's War on secrecy"
(printed in vol. 176, No. 24, December 13, 2010, pp. 20-27) in terms of my
doctoral dissertation Quality-control
of Information (1972) and its summary with extensions in my book Systemutveckling och Rättssäkerhet (1986,
in Swedish, title to be translated as Systems
Development and Rule of Law, in pdf-format
66MB). The purpose is to foster the application of a particular theoretical
approach and conceptualization of information and systems to issues where such
information displays its greatest complexity because of its technological,
social, and political context. The analysis will proceed by interpolating my
own text in italics within the text of the article.
13) ETHICS OF RESEARCH
AND "THE LUCIFER EFFECT" By means
of a critical review of Philip Zimbardo's book The Lucifer effect: How good people turn evil (2007)
I wish to show how ethical concerns can unintendendly be explained away. This
study is part of my ongoing research in understanding and offsetting what I
perceive to be a systematic neglect of the ultimate purpose of research and of
university education, including graduate education in the areas I know.
12) PRIVACY AND SECURITY: INTEGRITY OF INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATION. Because of ongoing perceptions of problems
in the development and use of digital "social media" and integrated
data bases, both governmental and private, I have been requested to make
available some earlier research (in Swedish) which appears to be still highly
relevant and stand at the basis of my main book on privacy vs. security, that
is Systemutveckling och
Rättssäkerhet (1986, in Swedish, title to be translated as Systems Development and Rule of Law, in
pdf-format 66MB). A related research report where my co-author's meritorious
contribution was to edit my - at the time particularly poor - Swedish language
was published as (my translation of the title into English, here in pdf-format,
17 MB) Public Informations Systems' Effects on Public administration and
Society (1974, earlier version reported to the Swedish
Governmental Committee on the Coordination of Data, Ds Fi 1973:10, sect. 5.3 -
5.6). My text was later incorporated as the second half, chapter 5, of the
co-authored book with the title ADB-System
och Kommunikation (also 1974, ISBN 91-7206-057-3, here in
pdf-format, 5 MB) a title which corresponds in English to, Automatic Data Processing Systems
and Communication. Please note the possibility of
fragmentary translations from Swedish by means of the tools offered at tradukka.com.
11) WIKILEAKS - FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION. The
events involving Wikileaks and its main
spokesman and editor-in-chief Julian Assange, actualize my research initiated
in the 1980's and prompt me, with the permission of the publisher, to make
available the original research results cast in the popular form of a book of
mine published in 1986 but still valid and whose Swedish title translates into English
as Systems Development and Rule of Law.
(pdf-format 65 MB, ISBN 91-7152-404-5). It is written in Swedish language with
the original title "Systemutveckling och Rättssäkerhet", but it is to
some extent readable in English with the help of translation services such as
in their simplest form tradukka.com. The
core of the "political information theory" supporting the relevant
parts of the book is, however, available in English language as published in my
doctoral dissertation with the title Quality Control of Information: On the Concept of
Accuracy in Data Banks and Management Information Systems. Directly
or indirectly it covers issues of whistleblowing, freedom of expression
(freedom of speech), power vs. truth, privacy, and political correctness as
outlined in item no. 10 below.
10) POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. As a follow-up
of my point (5) below on "Ongoing work" I published on 31 December
2010 a review of Howard Schwartz's book Society against itself: Political
correctness and organizational self-destruction
(London: Karnac Books, 2010). This is the latest version of the revised
original manuscript which includes live links and some additional text is to be
found linked to my home page. Swedish readers can appreciate the actuality of related
issues by comparing with the Swedish revival in a theater play of Valerie Solanas'
tragic "SCUM Manifesto", its eulogy in a review by
one main newspaper, and the consequent isolated debate. For
the rest, as a hint of some of my concerns which direct my ongoing work please
see my weblog-BLOG with
entries in English and Swedish languages. (Cf. item 28 above.)
(9) ESSENCE OF COMPUTERS & PRESUPPOSITIONS OF SUPPORT.
Research program and work from 1989-1991 reviewed in November 2008. I wish to
make available to colleagues and researchers an amount of references to printed
material that was stored and systematized mainly during the years 1989-1991 in
view of a comprehensive research program on the "essence" of
computers and presuppositions of computer support. The research was not pursued
and concluded because of managerial duties which did not leave room for the
effort, but the material can be useful for others and it is presented in its
pristine form of drafts.(Please note that the headers' addresses and phones are
superseeded by those in my main homepage.)
1 Introduction and Summary (pdf)
2 A mathematical-information
perspective (pdf)
3 A logical-psychological perspective (pdf)
4 Statistical data processing
perspectives (pdf)
5 Softare systems perspective (pdf)
6 A
computer-organizational perspective (pdf)
7 A musical perspective (pdf)
8 An "applied research"
perspective (pdf)
9 A cultural criticism perspective (pdf)
10 Complete reference list - tentative (pdf)
Addendum to item 8, on Applied
Research
(8) INTERVIEW (June 2008, pdf, in Swedish). On occasion of
a short and quite informal interview at the Umeå Center för Interaction
Technology I had the opportunity to restate some historical facts about
informatics and myself, and to renew some frank and modest opinions about my
ongoing and future work, in view of the present status of academia and its
apparent development.
(7) INTERVIEW (October 2007, pdf, in Swedish).
Popular summary (in Swedish - in pdf-format) of my reflections including
research and heritage, on occasion of my 70th birthday as captured in an
interview published by the newspaper Västerbottens-Kuriren
19 October 2007.
(6) RESEARCH SUMMARY ON THE 70TH BIRTHDAY. On
occasion of my 70th birthday in october 2007, and as a response to inquiries
about research results, thoughts and feelings, both professional and personal,
I presented the following short summary based on a few relevant excerpts from
The Ecclesiastes. It can also work as a handbook for professors emeriti in
general, and as a guide for progressive closing of life's balance-sheet.
(5) ONGOING WORK -
see also above item No.10 - in areas of interest which are partly documented or
outlined in the form of blog-like notes deals with cultural criticism of
present trends in Swedish intellectual life within the context of Western thinking,
on the basis of experiences and reflections from the field of informatics and
"information", as well as from thoughts about "theological
aesthetics". Scandinavian readers may appreciate that such concerns are similar to
those expressed, for instance, in the following works:
a) Stjernfelt, F., & Thomsen, S. U. (2007). Kritik av den negativa uppbyggligheten
[Critique of the negative edification]. Stockholm: Ruin Förlag. (Danish orig.
Kritik af den negative opbyggelighed. Published by Borgen/Vindrose,
2005.)
b) Arnstberg,
K.-O. (2007). Svenska tabun [Swedish tabus]. Stockholm:
Carlssons
(4) WHITHER
COMPUTERS AND SYSTEMS? CONFESSIONS OF A 2006-EMERITUS. This
is a version of the essay published on occasion of the 40th jubileum (years
1966-2006) of the department which eventually came to be named "computer and systems sciences"
(in Swedish, "data- och systemvetenskap") at Stockholm University and
the Royal Institute of Technology. It was an opportunity to expand and
complement some of my earlier memories and thoughts (among others "A subsystem in the design of informatics:
Recalling an archetypal engineer", also in pdf-format, published
1995) about the field's disciplines and people. I am grateful for having been
invited to contribute in writing to this celebration, which also allowed me to
express some constructive apprehension about the future of the disciplinary
development.
(3) EXPERIMENTAL REALISM VS. EMPIRICAL IDEALISM. An
attempt to problematize the apparent phenomenological (and/or
post-phenomenological) turn of some of the research at the department at the
end of 2003 and beginning of 2004 is summarized in a draft with the title
"Experimental realism and empirical idealism in informatics: A virtual
interview of Don Ihde, and West Churchman" (2004, also in pdf-format,
110KB). Earlier initial tendencies in this direction as inspired by the work of
sociologist Karl Weick were considered cursorily in the notes for a series of
seminars on "Dialectical
systems design and beyond" (years 2000-2002).
Conception of technologies in general och information-communication artifacts
in particular, inspired by the work of Churchman, were presented as "Contributions of systems thinking to
the understanding and use of information technology: Infrastructure, change,
and bricolage", with additional notes referring to the phenomenology of M.
Merleau-Ponty, including the problem of embodiment as in M.
Johnson's "the body in the mind", and G. Lakoff & M. Johnson's
"philosophy in the flesh".
(2) COMPUTER SCIENCE AND GNOSTICISM. The
engagement, in March 2003, as faculty opponent for the act of disputation of a
doctoral dissertation at the department of computer science of the Lund
Institute of Technology, Lund university. The extended bibliographic data of
the object and stream of this research are as follows:
---
Persson, Erik (2002). Shadows of cavernous shades:
Charting the chiaroscuro of realistic computing.
Lund: Lund University, Dept. of Computer Science. (Doctoral diss. No. 20, 2003,
LU-CS-DISS:2003:1, ISSN 1650-1268, ISBN 91-628-5512-3, xiv+727 pp.) It is
published in A4-format, with a bibliography of 4448 entries, and 2877 notes!
Available in pdf-format 13 MB
(plus its "errata"and faculty opponent's disputation notes with
its table of contents at the end,) pending the copyrighted author's permission
and download instructions. See especially chap. 4 on "Realistic
computing" relating to virtual reality and visualization, and chap. 5 on
"Science, metaphysics and computing". The author summarized some of
his thoughts in (pdf-download) "Cybergnosticism Triumphant?",
in The Ellul Forum, Issue 43, Spring 2009, 3-11.
---
Cf. the account of this doctoral disputation by Anders Fagerström "Gud-vetenskapen slutade 2-1"
[God-science ended 2-1] in Sydsvenska Dagbladet, p. C11. 9 March 2003.
Review by Christian Braw "Tro, tvivel och vetenskap"
["Faith, doubt and science"], Svenska Dagbladet 22 July 2003,
"Under strecket", restricted access at a link at Svenska Dagbladet's web
address <http://www.svd.se/understrecket>, accessed 25
July 2003. An Interview with the author was
published in Dagen, 25 April 2003. Reflections on interviews with people
involved in the dissertations's disputation process were edited by Britta
Collberg in "Avhandlingar som rör om"
[Stirring doctoral dissertations] in Lund university's journal LUM, Vol.
36, No. 8, 2003, pp. iii-vi (part of the pdf-document linked here).
The dissertations's "Addenda et corrigenda" (in English), including
errata for the text of dissertation, 7 pages, are also obtainable from the author.
(1) SHORT SUMMARY OF LOCAL ACHIEVEMENTS, (in
Swedish), celebrative talk held on occasion of the promotion to professor
emeritus on October 1st, 2002. The local professorial activities are
contextualized in a preliminary version (in Swedish, pdf-format, 11 MB) of the history of the department of
Informatics with my prefatory note. Both texts were written by my
late colleague, asst. prof. Kenneth Nilsson.
Period up to September 2002
Disciplinary studies and basic research in informatics
and systems science. Selected texts.
For the period after September 2002 please see the special section above.
(1) First of all, the doctoral dissertation on Quality-Control of Information
(1972) later followed by my book based on it (1986, in Swedish, pdf-format, 66
MB) System Development and Rule of Law. Its
subject matter has been shown to retain its timeliness and importance as
exemplified by many reports in books and mass media since 1972.
(2) The Systems Approach to Design, and Inquiring Information Systems:
Scandinavian experiences and proposed research program,
(2001, as abstracted in the publication in Information Systems Frontiers, vol
3, No 1; see also a pre-publication
version). It is supplemented by the materials for an ongoing
series of research seminars, on
(3) Ethics and Politics of Design
and System Cultures for an ongoing (2001) critical review of latest
tendencies in informatic theorizing about "design" as contrasted to
systems thinking, and related to postromantic and postmodern tendencies
(pre-Socratic sophistry and post-Kantian aestheticizing on the basis of the
Third Critique, of "Judgment", and philosophies of Fichte, Schelling,
Nietzsche, Bergson, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Lyotard). It also includes the
rationale for earlier research projects on
(4) Aesthetics and Ethics of Multimedia
Research, and Computers' Cultural Nature: Motivations for use, and basis for
design and evaluations (1996, Statements of research
intentions and projects). The build-up of this position during the last years
is documented in the following selected papers, chronologically:
(5) Computer-supported Human Science or
Humanistic Computing Science (1991, 370KB).
Efforts for improving the development and use of computer systems make use of a
social and a humanistic view of computer support. This essay is dedicated to
exploring how the term "humanistic" should be understood in this
context of systems development.
(6) Critical Systems Thinking and
Information Technology (1991, J. of Applied Systems
Analysis, Vol. 18, 39-55). This paper presents a summary of some features of
soft systems methodology—SSM, and of critical systems thinking—CST as they have
been experienced from the point of view of the field of applications of
information technology. It highlights the manner in which CST completes SSM in
the context of the design of computer support in the form of HYPERSYSTEMS, and
evidences some problematic aspects of the two approaches that push the
practitioner into philosophical issues.
(7) Hypersystems: A base for
specification of computer-supported self-learning social systems
(pre-publication version, 1990, rev. 2004). A specific personal contribution
and extension of the dialectical social systems theory, close to the aim of
"critical systems thinking" and "critical systems
heuristics"), is represented (before the final twist towards politics,
ethics, and theology). In C. M. Reigeluth & B. H. Banathy & J. R. Olson
(Eds.), Comprehensive systems design: A new educational
technology (pp. 381-407). New York: Springer-Verlag, 1993. Some
of these thoughts are detailed further in a publication written later but
published earlier, i.e.
(8) Computer-human interaction as
continuous system reconstruction. In M. Bazewicz
(Ed.), Information Systems' Architecture and Technology ISAT '92 (pp. 37-49).
Wroclaw: Politechnika Wroclawska, 1992. The attempt to develop dialectical
systems theory by reviewing its basis in politics, and, further, in ethics and
theology, is represented by works that follow.
(9) Belief and Reason
(1993, 270KB). Commented selections on presuppositions of participatory
cooperative argumentative design and change). The prime reason for writing this
paper is my dissatisfaction, not to say deep concern, for what I perceive to be
poor results of much research and product development that goes on under the
label of systems development, computer supported cooperative work and
electronic messaging. This must be seen in the personal context of my own
struggle and failures.
(10) The Search for a Theory of Hypermedia [multimedia]
(1995). In Proceedings of the Information Systems Research Seminar in
Scandinavia IRIS'18 (pp. 283-293). (Gothenburg Studies in Informatics, Report
7). An earlier version was presented at the international Workshop on Social
Contexts of Hypermedia, Umeå, February 17-18, 1995.
(11) Presuppositions in information
systems design: From systems to networks and contexts.
Accounting, Management and Information Technology, renamed Information &
Organization, 6, issues 1-2, pp. 99-114.(1996, 1000 KB, in PDF-format, link to
on-line web-access. And link
to pre-print draft of research report. This is a
commentary to "Exploring the intellectual
structures of information systems development: A social action theoretic
analysis", paper by R. Hirschheim, H.K. Klein, and K.
Lyytinen. In Accounting, Management and Information Technologies, (renamed
Information & Organization), 6, 1996, pp. 1-64.
(12) East and West of Information Systems. Or
Strategies and Design for Information Technology: Eastern or neo-romantic
wholes, and the return to Western systems. (1997/1998, 100 KB). This paper
introduces a French work on ancient Chinese strategy, as a way of understanding
some of the difficulties of the Westerns approach to information-technology
(IT) design and strategy. The work integrates two elements into a complex
structure: first, a notion of efficacy that is parallel to the Western one used
in evaluating the applications of computer technology, and second, certain well
integrated notions that are similar or parallel to other fragmented, isolated,
and ephemeral notions introduced by later Western research on IT-strategy.
(13) Platonic information
technology. Reading Plato: Cultural influences and philosophical reflection on
information and technology, (2000, Proc. of ISTAS 2000, IEEE
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Symposium on Technology and
Society, 6-8 September 2000, Rome; link to publisher. For a pre-publication version, click
here). This essay is an edited selection from a longer
ongoing study, Platonic
Information Technology (2000-2001, 300 KB, also in PDF-format, including Table of Contents) a
reader with reference to edited excerpts of Plato's collected works, that was
intended to be followed later by a similar project on Aristotelian Information
Technology.
(14) Conflict between logic and values
exemplified in gender issues [Draft, in pdf]. See item 28 above.
Related to my later research up to Information and psychology, and Computers as embodied mathematics
and logic. In literary, non academic context, cf. my
blog-texts on the SCUM-manifest, and
the #MeToo-movement. Historical
background of the issue is found in less and more controversial works such as
Franz von Baader's Filosofia Erotica (selection
and Italian translation from his Sämtliche
Werke), Otto
Weininger's Sex and character,
Julius Evola's The metaphysics of sex,
Karl-Olov Arnstberg's PK-Samhället [The
Politically Correct Society] esp. pp. 375-443, and (in French) Olivier
Rey's Que
faire des différences? [What to make of the
differences?], as well as Homme-femme: heureuse différence ou
guerre des sexes? [Man-woman: happy differences
or war of the sexes? Conference video.]
(15) Management
of information infrastructure. It has been
remarked when dealing with management of so called information infrastructure
that infrastructure is particularly resistant to the most frequent managerial
interventions. What is also at stake in this kind of issue is also the question
of what is to be intended by terms such as infrastructure and management. I
will review an overview of this area (Ciborra, & Hanseth, 1998) in order to
highlight the type of knowledge that tends to be ignored and that would be
helpful for research aimed at improving the present situation. In what follows
I will use the same headings proposed by the mentioned overview. I will
conclude with some thoughts concerning the most fruitful direction for further
research on the management of infrastructures.
,
MISCELLANEOUS:
A pervasive theoretical and methodological inspiration for these concerns
with respect to informatics including computer science has long been
(16) C. West Churchman
(supplementary personal documentation and photos here) in his work on
the philosophy and practice of science, in particular systems science, at the
(17) University of
California-Berkeley, as represented mainly by The Design of Inquiring
Systems (1971) and by former
Ethics and Sustainability
Forum at the university's College of Natural Resources. In order to
put into evidence the relevance of this work for design in general and
information systems or IT-artefacts in particular, including its relevance for
other research and education going on in the department, please see the link to
(18) Index to The Design of Inquiring Systems
(2002, 130 KB, an earlier version also in PDF-format). Among the entries there will be found also names of
the staff of the department as associated to key words and issues that
characterize their areas of interest.
(19) Speech held September 27th 2002
on occasion of prof. Kristo Ivanov's promotion to emeritus (in
Swedish), effective October 1st 2002, by Kenneth Nilsson, head of the
department of Informatics, Umeå University: This is a short selective selective
summary of the local, departmental research and education effort based on more
than 40 years' working life, and partly portrayed in a draft of the local history of informatics (in
Swedish).
(20) Preface to Kenneth Nilsson's paper (in Swedish, pdf format)
on the History
of the discipline of Informatics at Umeå University.