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digest 2006-03-17 #001.txt
litsci-l-digest Friday, March 17 2006 Volume 01 : Number
144
In this issue:
SUB 06--Gaia Theory, Earth System Science
SUB 06 From Page to Stage: Exprloring Medicine through the
Humanities
SLSA 06 Panel: Need one more presenter
RE: SUB 06--Evolution and Economics
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Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 08:34:18 -0600
From: "Clarke, Bruce"
Subject: SUB 06--Gaia Theory, Earth System Science
Abstract/Panel call for the SLSA meeting in New York City, November =
9-12, 2006
=20
Are other people working in this area? If you are interested in putting
=
a panel together on Gaia Theory/Earth System Science, in their own right
=
or as coordinated with other aspects of science or culture, please =
contact me at bruce.clarke@ttu.edu.
=20
The Cybernetics of Gaia
=20
Lynn Margulis is associated with at least two seminal developments in =
postmodern science, symbiogenesis and Gaia theory. The primary author of
=
serial endosymbiosis theory (SET), Margulis is also the key American =
collaborator of James Lovelock, the primary author of Gaia theory. In =
this paper I explore how cybernetic discourse informs Lovelock's =
science, and forms a link to Margulis. Lovelock's Gaia: A New Look at =
Life on Earth devotes a chapter to classical cybernetic control theory,
=
positive and negative feedbacks, detailing Gaian mechanisms as =
homeostatic regulatory systems; a quarter century later, Gaia theory has
=
been mainstreamed as Earth System Science. Margulis' biological =
innovations sprang initially from her work in cytoplasmic systems (such
=
as mitochondria and chloroplasts), and her writings have incorporated =
the concept of autopoiesis, Maturana and Varela's second-order =
cybernetic description of cellular systematics, in a significant way. =
Putting the cybernetics of Gaia together with the systems theory that =
informs Margulis's accounts of evolution and speciation yields a =
"geophysiological" synthesis that scales from the cell to the biosphere.
=
=20
Keywords: Gaia theory, biology, cybernetics, autopoiesis, evolution
=20
- --Professor Bruce Clarke
1st VP, Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA)
Program Chair, SLSA 2006
http://www.dactyl.org/SLSA.htm =20
nyc.slsa2006@gmail.com=20
=20
Department of English
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX 79409-3091
http://www.faculty.english.ttu.edu/clarke/
bruce.clarke@ttu.edu
office: 806 742-2500 x274
fax: 806 742-0989
cell: 806 928-9486
- -
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------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 10:22:17 -0500
From: "Robert Bonk"
Subject: SUB 06 From Page to Stage: Exprloring Medicine through the
Humanities
From Page to Stage:
Exploring Medicine through the Humanities
=20
Both a science and an art, medicine reflects more about a =
society than simply our technological paradigms. By exploring medicine
=
through the humanities, students can discover mirrors within societies =
that reflect the many facets of medicine-especially the dichotomies of =
life-death, health-illness, and provider-patient. To provide this =
viewpoint, I developed an undergraduate course at Widener University =
that targets Honors students with an interest in medicine and related =
healthcare fields. A key element of the original course focused on a =
public session of staged readings directed by a local theater expert =
(funding provided through an internal grant). In this first offering, =
students' evaluations documented the value they perceived from exploring
=
and appreciating medicine through literature. A key aspect was the =
session of staged readings: anecdotally, many students commented on how
=
assuming the roles of patients, providers, and caregivers brought the =
literature to life. Given this success, I expanded the original course
=
to encompass more multifaceted genres-history, philosophy, film, and the
=
fine arts now complement the original poetry, prose, and drama. But the
=
heart of this course remains a public forum that will continue to =
elevate 'from page to stage' the humanistic aspects of medicine.
=20
Keywords: Drama-Humanities-Literature-Medicine-Staged Readings
=20
Robert J. Bonk, PhD
Assistant Professor of Professional Writing
Faculty Secretary
Widener University
One University Place
Chester, PA 19013-5792
610-499-4265
robert.j.bonk@widener.edu
http://www2.widener.edu/~rjb0306/
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------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 13:12:23 -0500
From: Kevin LaGrandeur
Subject: SLSA 06 Panel: Need one more presenter
Hi, all:
I need one more presenter for the following panel for SLSA 2006 before I
can
send it. Anyone interested? Please send me a proposal ASAP. My email
address is below.
-
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- ----------------------------------------
PANEL PROPOSAL FOR SLSA 2006
"THE PREHISTORY OF THE ROBOT IN WESTERN CULTURE"
*PANEL ABSTRACT*:
Kevin LaGrandeur, Dept of English, NYIT, Panel Organizer and Chair
The robot was prefigured in various ways in Western culture well before
the
age of computers, or even the age of industry. There were some
automatic
mechanisms designed in antiquity by proto-engineers such as Philon of
Byzantium, who is mentioned by Vitruvius in the 1st Century B.C.E. and
by
Heron of Alexandria in around 50 C.E. as having made automatic theaters
with
puppets powered by water or steam. Heron himself is famous for his
treatises on hydraulic and steam-powered automata. But automata,
especially
mechanical humanoids, became very popular in the Middle Ages with the
advent
of clockwork. Artisans, particularly clockmakers, began to produce
marvelous automatic figurines, literature began to depict artificial
humans
and animals, and scholarly treatises by natural philosophers even
proclaimed
methods for creating living humanoids. In the Renaissance, all of these
trends increased, as real automata also began to appear in formal
gardens
and in court for the amusement of the wealthy and powerful, and
artificially
made humans and animals appeared in the scientific and imaginative
literature of the time.
The presentations given as part of this panel will explore the various
aspects and implications of the proto-robots and artificial entities
that
appear early in Western culture.
KEYWORDS: Robots-Artificial Servants-Art-Literature-History-Culture
Dr. Kevin LaGrandeur
Associate Professor of English
NYIT
klagrand@nyit.edu
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 13:54:27 -0600
From: "john bruni"
Subject: RE: SUB 06--Evolution and Economics
Abstract/Panel call for the SLSA meeting in New York City, November
9-12,
2006
If anyone has similar or related interests and would like to form a
panel,
please contact me at john.bruni@sdsmt.edu
Going with the Flow: Evolution and Economics
In What Is Life? and Acquiring Genomes, Lynn Margulis and Dorion
Sagan??s
study of globally connected biological systems has yielded many riches,
especially in their use of the concept of autopoiesis, which joins them
to
the leading edge work of systems theory. I wish to explore how their
argument may prove to be an important starting point for understanding
the
key role that thermodynamic processes, like entropy, play as a guide for
evolution. Specifically, if the direction of biological life is seen as
shaped by the principle of gradient reduction, how is the supposed
primacy
of natural selection affected? And, moreover, what are the
possibilities
for using a model of evolution, informed by thermodynamics, to examine
economic ?¨flows?Æ (global patterns of the diffusion of capital) without
succumbing to a reductive vision of the world as a deterministic
machine?
To address such questions, I want to look at U.S. writers?? depictions
of how
an emerging globalization informs evolutionary narratives in the early
twentieth century.
Key words: biology, autopoiesis, evolution, U.S. literature, economics
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------------------------------
End of litsci-l-digest V1 #144
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