SENSOR 1)
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Any element or subsystem in a system which picks up some kind of information.
In natural systems, the sensors are, of course the sensorial organs, attuned to some specific kinds of inputs as for example visible light or sound waves.
We have learned however, to amplify considerably the range of our perceptions by creating numerous and very varied artificial devices that are able to pick up many inputs to which our biological sensors remain insensible, either because the possible effects are too weak or too small, or in inaccessible ranges (as for example herzian waves or X-rays).
These devices are equipped with appropriate optical, mechanical or electronic sensors.
P. CARIANI remembers that "In the late1950's Gordon PASK constructed several electrochemical devices having emergent sensory capabilities. These control systems possessed the ability to adaptively construct their own sensors, thereby choosing the relationship between their internal states and the world at large… PASK's devices have far-reaching implications for artificial intelligence, self-constructing devices, theories of observers and epistemically-autonomous agents, theories of functional emergence, machine creativity, and the limits of contemporary machine learning paradigms" (1993, p.19).
It could be added that no autopoietic system can be conceived that should not have been able at its beginings to construct its own emerging self-organized sensors.
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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