Embodiment, planning and design: A SIRN approach

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Embodiment, Planning and Design

– A SIRN approach

Juval Portugali* and Egbert Stolk**

17th_{Herbstakademie
–
Heidelberg,
Germany
–
October
3,
2012}

** Department of Urbanism, DelH University of Technology, DelH, Netherlands, e.h.stolk@tudelH.nl

* ESLab (Environmental simulaOon lab) and Department of Geography, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, juval@post.tau.ac.il; visiOng professor Dept. of Urbanism TU DelH.

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The talk

• _{SIRN
–
an
introducOon
(or
reminder)}

• _{SIRN
in
relaOon
to
classical
and
embodied
cogniOon}

• _{On
the
producOon
of
arOfacts}

• _{Design
and
planning
as
two
types
of
Mental
Time}

Travel

• _{Designing
large
scale
arOﬁcial
environments}

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SIRN

synergeOc inter-‐representaOon nets

(Haken and Portugali 1996)

A reminder

Many cog)itive processes, evolve as an interaction

bet4een inter)al and ex7er)al representations.

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The Bull by Picasso and

The Kiss by Brancusi

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Serial reproducOon by Bartle`

Bartle`, F. C. 1932/1961. Remembering : a study in experimental and social psychology, Cambridge, The University press.

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Cog)itively simple tasks

that can be performed by working memory by a single cogniOve act such as the

mulOplicaOon 2x3=6

.

Cog)itively complicated tasks

cannot be performed by by a single cogniOve act such as the

mulOplicaOon (e.g. 257x389=99,973)

We solve these tasks by IRN

Cog)itively complex tasks

refer to crea8ve cogniOve

tasks (wriOng, painOng, designing ..)

Here too the process

proceeds by IRN, but with one important addiOon – it

involves emerging

**proper*es**

. It is here where synerge@cs (and complexity theories in general) comes in and the process becomes

SIRN

.

Examining the above we can make a

disOncOon between:

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By emerging properOes we mean:

EmoOons such as… The AHA! Experience*

* Thagard, P. & Stewart, T. C. 2011. The AHA! Experience: CreaOvity Through Emergent Binding in Neural Networks. Cogni8ve Science, 35, 1-‐11.

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(S)IRN: the play between internal and external

representaOon becomes possible due to

Humans’ representaOon capabiliOes

REPRESENTATION

INTERNAL EXTERNAL

Brain

Vocal Visual ...Haptic Mimetic ...Lexical Tools ...Cities Bodily Artificial

Information Processing Approach B-B

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Using Humans’ representaOon capabiliOes

we humans

(1) solve

_{cog)itively complicated tasks}

by means of the process of

IRN (Inter RepresentaOon Nets)

(2) solve

_{cog)itively complex tasks}

by means of Humans’ creaOve capabiliOes and

the process of SIRN (SynergeOc IRN)

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The general SIRN model

(Haken and Portugali 1996)

INPUT information (often incomplete) ORDER PARAMETERS

as alternative decisions OUTPUT in the form of decision, behavior, action

behavior & action in the world: bodily, artifactual information in the brain information reproduced/

constructed in the brain

INTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS

EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS

INPUT OUTPUT

information in the world: bodily, artifactual INTERNAL Cognitive map EXTERNAL City INTERNAL Cognitive map EXTERNAL Action in city out feedback agent out in in

Adding external inputs and outputs

Looking at Haken’s (1991/2004) ‘synergetic computer’ from the side, as indicated by the arrow.

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The three SIRN Submodels

1. Intrapersonal, 2. interpersonal, 3. simultaneous

(Haken and Portugali 1996)

out in out in out in out in out in out in INTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS out in out in out in out in out in out in INTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS

AGENT 1 AGENT 2 AGENT 3

AGENT 1 AGENT 2 AGENT 3 AGENT 4 AGENT 5 AGENT ...

EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS Common reservoir

External collective memory

1

2

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The intrapersonal

out in out in out in out in out in out in INTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS 1

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The interpersonal (sequenOal)

out in out in out in out in out in out in INTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS

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The interpersonal (“duet”)

out in out in out in out in out in out in INTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS

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The simultaneous (mediated) collecOve

EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS Common reservoir

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SIRN in relaOon to classical and embodied

cogniOon

An extension to the embodied cogni@on view

Whereas embodied cogniOon suggests acOon-‐percepOon, SIRN

suggests acOon-‐percepOon-‐producOon. That is to say, that similarly to

‘acOon’, the producOon of arOfacts is part of cogniOon.

Q: On what basis?

Classical Embodied SIRN

perception perception action perception action

production

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A: On the basis of the claim that humans diﬀer from

animals (among other things) in the following:

Humans produce ar@facts

Ar@facts=Culture=Choice

Henri Bergeson (1911/1954)

in Crea8ve Evolu8on, page 139:

“ … say not homo sapiens but homo faber”

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The birds made this nest out of

arOﬁcial materials; is it an arOfact?

Dawkins: the nest is the bird’s extended phenotype and

in this respect it is part of nature

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Beavers’ engineering

Termites’ architecture

The same with the beavers, termites ….

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We humans have choices: nature tells us to build

arOﬁcial shelters but not how to build them

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Nature tells us to build arOﬁcial collecOve shelters

but we built/build ciOes

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The homo sapience sapience

(HSS) Known also as the

homo faber (Bergeson) is

covered by arOfacts and is

living in arOfacts = in

ar@ﬁcial environments such

as a city

The produc@on of ar@facts

is unique to humans

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… and this is so with large arOfacts such as buildings and whole ciOes

This is so with small arOfacts…

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On the one hand, the city is a major means of adaptaOon

to changing environmental condiOons

The art of building dykes

Without dykes and dams the Netherlands would not exist. The ﬁrst dykes were built about 1,000 years ago by monks. Now thousands of kilometers of dykes, many dams and several storm surge barriers protect the Netherlands against ﬂooding. Building dykes and dams is an art which is

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On the other: the city is an environment to its many urban

agents – a complex, self-‐organizing, arOﬁcial environment

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Q: How do people produce arOfacts?

A1: By means of their representation capabilities (SIRN) and,

A2: By means of their chronesthetic, planning,

and desig) capabilities

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Chronesthesia, or mental @me travel (MTT):

the brain’s ability to think about the past, present, and future

Lars Nyberg; Reza Habib, Alice S. N. Kim, Brian Levine, and Endel Tulving, Proceedings of the Na8onal Academy of Sciences

.

“…. certain regions in the leH lateral parietal cortex, leH frontal cortex, and cerebellum, as well as the thalamus, were acOvated diﬀerently when the subjects thought about the past and future compared with the present. Notably, brain ac8vity was very similar for

thinking about all of the non-‐present 8mes (the imagined past, real past, and imagined future).

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The producOon of arOfacts

(by planning/design)

is related to the property that:

1. The human memory is chronesthe@c and

construc@ve, enabling construcOve mental @me travel (MTT) to the past as well as to

the future

1. Planning and design are direct

manifestaOons of MTT as well as humans’

ability/need to construct ar@facts

(implemented by a SIRN process)

3. Humans are, therefore, natural planners

and designers

Cog)itive planning is an established domain

in cog)itive science; cog)itive desig) is a new

ﬁeld of stPdy.

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Designing and planning as two

types of Mental Time Travel

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The Time Machine in Our Mind

Based on: Stocker, K. 2012. The Time Machine in Our Mind. Cogni8ve Science, pp.1-‐36.

proximal now future past medial now future past distal now future past past now

now future pastnow futurenow

retrospective prospective

now future

past now futurepast

internal position external position

mental leap

perspectival location

perspectival distance

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Thinking about a distant past/future triggers

abstract thinking

Construal Level Theory (Trope and Liberman, 2010) describes the relaOon between psychological distance and the extent to which people’s thinking is abstract or

concrete.

In general, the idea is that distant objects are thought of to be

more abstRact, and close objects as being more concrete.

The psychological distance is inﬂuenced by diﬀerent types of distances,

_{like distance in time}

(recent or distant past/fPtPre)

, distance in space, social distances, distance in familiarity, etc. The types of distances have strong relaOonships; aﬀect and are aﬀected by the degree

of abstracOon; and aﬀect predicOons, preferences and acOons.

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Planning and design as two types of

Mental Time Travel

While a plan oﬅen evolves Vom the concrete here-‐and-‐now and

becomes abstRact as it “time tRavels” to the fPtPre, a desig) oﬅen star7s

as an abstRact fPtPre and evolves/”tRavels” back in time to the concrete

here-‐and-‐now.

Merging MTT, CLT and some basic noOons about planning and

design results in the following diagrams:

mental leap

cognitive designing

cognitive planning now

future concrete

abstract

now future

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Planning and design evolve as SIRN processes

Similarly to other cogniOve tasks that require sequenOal

cogniOve processing, planning and design too evolves as an

ongoing play between internal and external representaOons.

Remember the three SIRN submodels:

• Intrapersonal sequenOal submodel

• Interpersonal sequenOal submodel

• Interpersonal simultaneous submodel

An example from the domain of Urban Design shows:

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In general, urban design arOfacts:

• are much larger than the human body;

• are experienced from the inside by moving the body;

• can never be experienced completely.

In the example, one of the challenges was to incorXorate the

human scale in the desig) process of a large scale ar7ifact.

Designing large scale arOﬁcial environments

Portugali & Stolk (In preparaOon) A SIRN view on design thinking – an Urban Design perspecOve; ClassiﬁcaOon based on: Freundschuh & Egenhofer (1997) Human ConcepOons of Spaces: ImplicaOons for Geographic InformaOon Systems. Transac8ons in GIS, 2, 361-‐375.

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An intrapersonal sequenOal design process…

‘Tradi@onal’ intrapersonal sequen@al design process

• The designer externalizes the design ideas by means of sketches (paper/pencil) and computer drawings, ‘reﬂecOon in acOon’;

• Some abstract noOons are used as a starOng point in the design process.

• EmoOonally driven: design ﬁxaOon (frustraOon), eureka-‐moment (AHA! Experience), sense of beauty and coherence as an important moOvaOon.

time design process order-parameter: polder structure order-parameter: superimposition of the topographical grid design fixation eureka-moment mental leap cognitive designing now future concrete abstract out in out in out in out in out in out in INTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS 1

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‘New’ hybrid intra-‐ interpersonal design process

• The designer uses a simulaOon model to test the

response of the city, introducing an interpersonal

design process;

• The interplay between the simulaOon model, tradiOonal sketching/drawing results in a hybrid intra-‐/interpersonal design process.

… + a hybrid intra-‐/interpersonal design process…

EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS

Common reservoir

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… resulOng in a concrete design proposal

Traveling ‘back in @me’ from abstract to concrete

• The abstract noOons from the beginning of the process are transformed to concrete ‘tangible’ design proposals;

• The hybrid intra-‐/interpersonal design model

supported the design process: the response of the city is taken into account and ‘humanized’ the spaces. mental leap cognitive designing now future concrete abstract

Embodiment, planning and design: A SIRN approach