The reports listed below can generally be accessed in 3 different formats:-
The PDF format is used to allow ease of reuse of figures and text, quoted with citation.
Publication citations are given where a version of the report has been published. Often material has been edited in publication and the cited version differs to some extent.
Memory minimisation in control with stochastic automata, Brian R Gaines, Electronics Letters, 7(24), 710-711. HTML, PDF.
Stochastic automata have been shown to require less states than deterministic automata in the solution of certain recognition and hypothesis-testing problems. This letter extends the result to a class of control problems involving the regulation of a discrete dynamical system.
The role of randomness in cybernetic systems, Brian R Gaines, Proceedings of Cybernetics Society Conference on Recent Topics in Cybernetics, London 20th September 1974. HTML, PDF.
This paper demonstrates that random phenomena, although most often treated in the context of system malfunction, can play major constructive roles in the philosophy, theory and application of cybernetic systems. A control-theoretic example is given to show that a simple stochastic automaton can solve a regulator problem otherwise requiring a recursive automaton, and insoluble for finite-state automata. An identification-theoretic example is given to show that the assumption of causality in modelling a simple acausal system can lead to models which grow in size, on average, precisely at the rate of acquisition of observations. The significance and applications of these results are discussed and illustrated. Finally, it is suggested that the interpretation of stochastic automata theory in terms of system malfunction is far too restrictive in its stimulation of theoretical developments. A wider view of the role of random phenomena might aid the development of results and techniques which actually deliver what automata theory has always seemed to promise.
Stochastic and fuzzy logics, Brian R Gaines, Electronics Letters 11, 188-189, 1975. HTML, PDF.
It is shown that it is possible to regard stochastic and fuzzy logics as being derived from two different constraints on a probability logic: statistical independence (stochastic) and logical implication (fuzzy). To contrast the merits of the two logics, some published data on a fuzzy-logic controller is reanalysed using stochastic logic and it is shown that no significant difference results in the control policy.
Progress in general systems research, Brian R Gaines, In Klir, G.J., Ed. Applied General Systems Research. pp. 3-28. New York, USA: Plenum Press, 1978. HTML, PDF.
This paper argues that it is the "systems approach" rather than any "general systems theory," real or imagined, attained or sought, that is the coherent theme of general systems research. In this we are as much followers as leaders -- the systems approach permeates modern scientific thought, even that which specifically denies the relevance of general systems theory -- the pioneers predicted and recognized a trend as much as they created and motivated it.
General systems research: quo vadis?, Brian R Gaines, General Systems: Yearbook of the Society for General Systems Research, Vol.24, 1979, pp.1-9. HTML, PDF.
The first section is concerned with what we mean by a system and gives a definition of the term which itself demonstrates some aspects of systems thinking. The following two sections consider the role of social concern and ideology in the systems approach and give a systems model for it. The final sections show the significance of presuppositions in systems thinking and give some indication of recent progress.
Is there a knowledge environment?, Brian R Gaines and Mildred L G Shaw, In Lasker, G., Ed. The Relation Between Major World Problems and Systems Learning. pp. 35-41. Society for General Systems Research, 1983. HTML, PDF.
The analogy between the physical world and that of knowledge enables us to speak of the "knowledge environment" and discuss various environmental problems of great significance. However, analogies can be misleading if they are not based on systemic relationships. In this paper we take the three worlds, physical, mental, and world 3, as defined by Popper, and analyze them in a common systemic framework. In particular we discuss the use of the term "living organism" in relation to the three worlds. We conclude that the metaphor of a knowledge environment does have an underlying systemic model which can be formalized as required. The analysis also applies to the world of subjective experience and gives a common foundation for ecological notions such as pollution in the worlds of biology, the mind and ideas.
Methodology in the large: modeling all there is, Brian R Gaines, Systems Research, 1(2), 91-103, 1984. HTML, PDF.
The human mind has been inventive of a multitude of methodologies to explain observed phenomena, predict possible worlds, determine which ones should be made real, and bring this about. In recent years the computer has enhanced our capability to project the detail of possible worlds and widen our vision of the consequences of our actions. We bring together the physical and human variables, political and economic policies, and constraints of resources, and expect increasing model realism. With advances in computer technology we have begun to see the possibility of large-scale methodologies that eventually cope with all there is. This paper is concerned with placing our endeavours for model realism in the socio-economic sphere within the much broader context of humankind's overall endeavours for model realism. It expresses the main philosophical problems underlying our situation in a parable, and then goes on to sketch some of the solutions proposed for them in the past. It concludes with a model for the role of the computer as a vehicle to explore Popper's World 3, and the use of his notion of three worlds to express the different styles and motivations of schools of modeling and concepts of realism.
Hierarchies of distinctions as generators of system theories, Brian R Gaines & Mildred L G Shaw, In Smith, A.W., Ed. Proceedings of the Society for General Systems Research International Conference. pp. 559-566. California: Intersystems Publications, 1984. HTML, PDF.
This paper generates a variety of general-systems theoretic concepts and a range of systems theories using a minimal set of primitives. The notion of a distinction is taken as primitive and the natural hierarchy of distinctions becomes the primitive structure. A number of system theories are then analysed in terms of these primitives: Zadeh's fuzzy sets theory; Klir's epistemological hierarchy of system modeling; Popper's 3 worlds theory of system types; Pask's conversation theory of system interaction; and Checkland's soft systems theory. A small number of types of distinction are shown to underly these theories and, taken in various combinations, to generate them.
Three world views and system philosophies, Brian R Gaines & Mildred L G Shaw, In Banathy, B.H., Ed. Systems Inquiring: Theory, Philosophy, Methodology. pp. 244-252. Seaside, California: Intersystems Publications, 1985. HTML, PDF.
General systems theory (GST) should be neutral with regard to major philosophical issues in order to be able to encompass all philosophies. This paper develops GST based on the primitive notion of a distinction as a basis for knowledge science and technology. It analyses the development of systems of distinction and how different philosophies arise through different basic distinctions generating world hypotheses. It is suggested that any situation can be analyzed in terms of the distinctions being made, whether they are ascribed to necessity or choice, and the inferences possible between them.
CPCS 25-Mar-2010