Lewis Works

This open, on-line Newsletter is published weekly, every Friday Afternoon at 4:30 PM PST. It is updated with new announcements and articles each week.

The E-zine of Applied General Systems Science

By Hugh M. Lewis, PhD, MA, general editor

Vol. I, No. 6

03/05/04 Copyright 2004 ©, Hugh M. Lewis.  Facsimiles of this page or parts of this page may be printed and distributed for non-profit research, consulting and educational purposes only, as governed by fair use policy.

On Top

• is based on the meta-systems framework

• is holistic and integrative

• will accommodate any appropriate venture willing to join us

• Note: the mission of Symbiotic Systems is not to invest in ventures, but collaborate with them in a symbiotic way! We are interested in "joining forces" with energetic, dynamic, and persevering entrepreneurs!

• please find our new forum at: http://www.symbioticsystems.org/phpbb/                                                                       
• the web-page for Symbiotic Systems can be found at: http://www.symbioticsystems.org/

We have just updated our Mission Statement with a Preamble, and invite your consideration of this statement in the next section below.

We have been consolidating our senior partner group and it looks very strong. Once we have a full complement of senior founding partners on board, we will be closing ranks and then opening other membership frameworks for participatory involvement, membership and home-based partnership. 

We would still like to invite and openly recruit at least two more people to join us at this time on the senior partner tier. 

We work strictly on a first come, first serve basis, and at this stage we are not being too picky. There are no costs or fees, nor any initial obligations for any working contributions beyond learning more about our framework and systems based approach, and regularly attending the conference call meetings that will be arranged in the forthcoming weeks, in order to assist us in the further planning of the framework that will proceed through until the end of May.

Benefits for joining us are considerable, and will increase as we grow ourselves. This is a true ground floor opportunity, and you will have the chance to directly influence the direction and outcomes of our new company. Inquire with Hugh about becoming a senior founding partner and its benefits.

If are interested even slightly, or you know of anyone who may have such an interest, or who might even remotely benefit from such partnership, you are strongly encouraged to inquire with Hugh

We invite you to submit any kind of information you would like to see published on these pages.

Suggestions, Criticisms, Comments, Advertisements & Feature Article Submissions are most welcome.

All submissions or other materials must be received by me by e-mail attachment no later than Thursday Evening, the day before publication, otherwise they will be posted the following week.

If you would like to submit your own feature article, please inquire.

Mission Statement

The primary mission of Lewis Works is to fundamentally empower all human beings, without regard or reference to their individual or cultural differences, so that they may function in a more constructive and non-violent manner by means of their integration within an applied systems framework that enables them to contextualize and focus their independent developmental efforts toward comprehensive solutions to common problems in resource distribution, environmental adaptation, and social-structural interaction.

• 1. Lewis Works seeks alternative meta-systems based development through applied general systems with the main goals of:

• a. Achieving a mutually stable and harmonic balance between future human systems and earthbound biological systems.

• b. Providing all human beings in unbiased structural or cultural contexts the alternative systems-based frameworks for their individual & social development by means of increased opportunities, productivity, security and resource availability that they would not otherwise have in conventional frameworks.

• c. Developing the infra-structural context and means for the regular extension of human and biological systems beyond the boundaries of the earth.

• 2. Lewis Works is dedicated to achieving a better world for all people and for all life-forms through the implementation and articulation of an applied general systems framework to general and specific problem sets that occur in the adaptive organization of human behavior in a shared natural environment.

• 3. Lewis Works is non-exclusive, open, non-authoritarian, philanthropic and pacifist in orientation.

• 4. Lewis Works pursues a combination of both profit and non-profit programs and projects to the achievement of its main goals.

• 5. Lewis Works protects and promotes universal human rights and human responsibilities throughout its various programs and projects by the systematic pursuit of human development strategies.

• 6. Lewis Works is law abiding and honest in all its dealings and transactions in all contexts, and respects and honors the customs and manners of all peoples and all ethnocultural groupings.

• 7. Lewis Works protects and promotes the confidentiality and legitimate interests of its clients and customers under all circumstances and in all cases.

• 8. Lewis Works seeks to efficiently provide a comprehensive range of profit-based services and related product lines within an open, web-based forum of exchange that is global in scope, regional in character, and local in focus, and that serves as the basis for the development of a structurally open meta-systems based context in the world transcending local, regional and national identities and affiliations.

• 9. Lewis Works seeks to promote non-profit programs in alternative human development for the sake of alleviating human suffering, educating people openly and in an unbiased manner, and promoting pro-social human development.

• 10. Lewis Works seeks to create trans-national meta-cultural orientations in the world through various organizational frameworks that promote open, democratic principles of government, fair-play and the rule of just law, and through the development of anti-structural multi-media based systems that provide humanity a common symbolic context for their meta-cultural integration.

by: Hugh M. Lewis

The digital information revolution has engendered what we can call a new kind of knowledge revolution--this knowledge revolution is altering our collective worldview and shared symbol systems, and is a revolution of transformation of our collective conscious. Eventually it is leading to dramatic changes in our shared cultural and social patterns as well, and most remarkably, to the rise of a new global e-culture that has its own unique and historically unprecedented patterns.

At the outset, I would be the first and the last man on earth to claim that both these revolutions, the information revolution and the knowledge revolution, are based upon, and leading us toward, a systems-based way of thinking and behaving in the world, and we may without equivocation assert the claim that the larger trends of transformation of human reality are part of a general systems revolution, or a general revolution of human systems as these are patterned, articulated and developed on earth.

The main object of this article is to suggest that there is no clear dividing line between human knowledge, as defined phenomenologically in terms of human consciousness and shared awareness, and the digital information systems that modulate and store signals in meaningful patterns and transmit these signals over multiple networks. These different forms of knowledge constitute parts of a large system, a human articulated knowledge system, that depends increasingly upon the digitization of information in external forms. Digital information has come to largely replace the primary functions of print media as the vehicle/medium for the storage and transmission of information. Larger institutional structures and infra-structural systems have come to depend critically upon computer-based informational systems, in a manner that they cannot function properly without them. Increasingly as well, the individual human being is enmeshed in a web of electronically generated and controlled patterns that carry significance for them on many different levels, given rise to a new form of global literacy, e-literacy, that entails the capacity to effectively "read" and manipulate these signal patterns.

E-Culture can be defined as that cultural patterning of human adaptation that is based upon digital information patterning and processes in communication and transmission of information, and in the articulation of behavioral adaptation by human beings. We can say certain things now about E-culture: first, it is global in scope, by definition. It can therefore be said to transcend effectively traditional or ethno-national cultural boundaries and patterns of adaptation that characterized humankind before the rise of widespread e-literacy, and its consequence will be to continuously erode and eliminate, or at least to further "embed" these kinds of constraints in our common, shared adaptation in the world. Secondly, we can say that it is leading to a common equi-final "streamlining" of human civilization in a manner that serves to relativize many differences. Thirdly, it provides a common framework for the sharing of information and adaptive patterning on a global basis, which patterns of sharing will tend in the long run to alter the structural patterns of the distribution of resources on the earth.

Conventional AI practice and theory is based upon a fundamental philosophical dichotomy of the mind-body problem, and separates clearly the problem of natural intelligence from that of artificial intelligence. AI is founded upon a framework of inter-disciplinary science that triangulates between Psychology, Philosophy and Computer Science. Left out of this formula has been the important role played by the knowledge context and the social and cultural construction of knowledge systems, and their modes of articulation in typical behavioral settings. 

At the heart of this issue lies a fundamental interdependency between human learning, cognitive adaptation, and the primarily social environment in which this naturally occurs and becomes normally reinforced. More to the point, human intelligence, by virtue of its complexity and long learning requirements, is intrinsically dependent upon the behavioral/adaptive settings upon which it must be articulated. Piaget recognized this in a fundamental way in terms of his theory of child cognitive development and the requirement of "cognitive/adaptive equilibriation" with the environment that this development depends upon.

The cognitive dependence of humankind upon externalized reference coordinate systems goes back a long time before the advent of computing and digital information technologies. The hyper-development of certain regions of the human brain, as a consequence of extended hominid evolution, in coordination with the development of nerve & muscular structures in the facial-nasal-pharyngeal region and the hands especially, was based upon a certain generalist pattern of cultural-behavioral adaptation that served interests of human survival and reproductive success and that permitted wide-spread adaptive radiation across many different eco-systemic niches.

With the advent of the Age of Computers, the fact and necessity of this interdependency of Human knowledge upon the world in which it is voiced, through which it articulates and functions, and upon which it is referenced, becomes so central and so vital to our everyday patterns of adaptation, that it is no longer so easy to ignore or overlook.

I would make a further claim that in the articulation of knowledge this interdependency cannot be ignored, and that it is increasingly affecting what and how we do things, even on a very personal and individual level of articulation. It is predictable that the information revolution will tend to have greatest effect, and consequence, among younger age sets than upon older generations, and that there will therefore be a very flat pyramid of distribution of e-literacy/e-culture distributed mostly at a very broad base of younger individuals, and narrowed to a short and shallow peak at the other end of the age-developmental continuum. As a further consequence, we can expect a kind of built-in pattern of delayed effect from this process of e-globalization, because of the delay in child development and maturation that is normal to the human societies and increasingly postponed in more developed societies.

In our rising digital, electronic culture, our E-Culture, there is no further strong dichotomization to be had between the medium or the message, between the subject and the thing, between the word and its reference. The way we symbolize the world, how we see it, parse it up, and respond to it, is changing structurally in fundamental ways. Dialectics will increasingly serve the purposes of a more comprehensive and relativistic framework of interaction that does not ignore complexity in problem solving, but embraces it. 

There is therefore a sense of convergence between what may be called by some hermeneuticists the "term" and the "thing" that the symbol represents, where the difference between the two is no longer as clear cut, and much, much more convoluted, than it has been at any previous time in our human cultural development. This is both a good and a potentially very dangerous thing--because on one hand as we develop powerful knowledge tools by which to effectively liberate us from the ages-old constraints of our own ignorance, often culturally constrained, we are also prone to develop, at the same time, new techniques for knowledge manipulation and misinformation, with potentially far more destructive consequences.

What this process of informational development betokens for us is a transformation of our shared consciousness, of our collective worldviews, the symbolisms used to articulate and reinforce our worldview and our sense of order, and the behavioral patterning of response that we will adopt and adapt to in relation to one another. We are discovering new ways of thinking about the world, and in the process the forms of knowledge itself that we value are thereby becoming transformed in turn. I think we are moving away from a mind-set and worldview that implicitly regarded knowledge as a collection of facts, a library of books, a set of recorded archives or records, and more toward a working model of a dynamic, self-maintaining, automated data-base structure--more of a flow-process over a network of alternative pathways. In short, we are taking knowledge and breaking up its traditional paradigmatic structure, and reassigning values and references in a more dynamic way, both from a functional standpoint of increased utility and efficiency value, but also in a symbolic way to apprehend more relevant meaning to our world. Knowledge becomes not so much a collection of data or facts, but a process of knowing and manipulating patterns of information into various assemblages, a "fact" or "bit" of information taking on value and significance depending on what current position and context it occupies. We see this when we update and "defragment" the hard-drives on our computers--we shuffle around the file-systems and references in a way that organizes them, from the computers point of view, rather than from our own. 

We would like to think somewhat hopefully and naively that all this will be for the better, in the long run, and we know it could be, but we also must maintain our reservations that we must always accept the good with the bad.

The Differences Between Knowledge and Information: Part II  The Functional-Structural Isomorphism of Information & Knowledge in Human Systems.

by: Hugh M. Lewis

My previous feature article (part I) emphasized the difference between an information system versus a knowledge system as more a relative degree of contextual relativity of the system, in terms of the qualitative attributes that can be related to knowledge systems, as human forms of symbolic understanding and behavioral response, compared to systematic pattern modulation systems that may refer to functions of communication, transmission, or information, more or less in a synonymous way, and in a way that may be applied as well to an ant or other social insect colony as it might be to a system of human culture or larger animal social organization. There is something intrinsically, qualitatively, quintessentially "human" about knowledge systems that cannot necessarily be said to hold for "information" systems, although we can also identify all possible knowledge systems as a special subset of some larger range of possible information systems. Put another way, while all knowledge systems may be said to be some kind of information system, of one form or function or another, not all information systems may be necessarily said to be knowledge systems per se, unless we want to open our definition of "knowledge" so widely and loosely that it becomes a meaningless concept applicable to everything and thus differentiating of nothing outstanding in particular. 

Information has a further connotation of being "passive" and largely "implicit" to the structural patterning of things--knowledge is thought of in a manner that may be considered more "active" and explicit in figure-ground representation and recognition. We perceive information as a normal part of our on-going experience with reality, but we conceive and apprehend knowledge as something to behold. We see the background scene, but we watch the figures in motion against the background. One implies information, the latter "knowledge" in a more exact way of knowing "something" specific.

In this second, follow up article, I wish to turn the table somewhat by suggesting that what we emphasize as critical differences between information systems on one hand, and knowledge systems on the other hand, may not as significant or important to highlight, as may be the sense of overlap and "convergence" of both types of systems in the modern information revolution. In other words, I would claim that the difference we can draw between a bit of information and a piece of knowledge, is rapidly shrinking and disappearing from plain view, even as we speak or especially as we begin typing into our word processing systems.

From a critical standpoint, we may still make fine distinctions between information on one hand and knowledge in the other--but from the standpoint of the operation of our systems and the adaptive functioning of our daily lives these kinds of difference may make no real difference at all, and instead what is information at one moment may become "vitalized" to become an important piece of "knowledge" in the next, depending upon the context that it is needed, and then as easily and quickly be relegated back to the pile of "information" much like all the junk mail that collects in our waste-baskets each week, or like the documents we write upon in our computers, and then edit and delete at the stroke of a couple of keys.

There was a time when "knowledge" had a sense of permanence and solidity about it, at least from a conventional and implicit point of view, that was like so many thousands of books sitting on library bookshelves or in the basements--like bricks that built the edifice and mansion of human wisdom. There has been a general dissolution of this kind of preconception with the idea that we can fit entire libraries into the palm of our hands, and, perhaps even more importantly, move this kind of information around in great quantity and with great speed at the mere click of a mouse-button.

There is a sense that we, humanity at large, can finally liberate ourselves from the chains of our own ignorance as a consequence of our new systems-based knowledge revolution. We will not even need a university diploma to do so either--for this may be the longest and most invisible kind of chain of all. We no longer need to depend upon our prejudices and our lack of understanding to reinforce a perfect, secure little  world where our own private interests will be protected, even at the expense of other people. We no longer will have any great excuses for what we do and how we do it, and we can no longer rest securely in the comfort of our own tried and true ways and habits of doing things, or in the security of our small, pre-selective groupings.

Consolidation efforts continue on different levels. Progress is slow but steady. We have given the entire web-system a face-lift, and are revamping many top-pages to be easier to access and download, and to be more available, on average, to a more general readership. We have a long way yet to go though.

We continue to keep apologizing for numerous broken links, erroneous links, unfinished sites and dead-ends within the current system, and we are working to resolve this state of affairs as soon as possible.

We went E-commerce on November 1st, 2003.

On February 1st, 2004, we are entering a second period of consolidation. This period should be marked by considerable structural and content development of our web-system, by network development and by further script-based integration of the system. 

During the month of February, we expect to go on-line with several store fronts.

During this same month we hope to go on-line with the following networking frameworks:

• An affiliate program 

• An open membership program

• A home-based business partnership program

• A strategic e-business partnership program

Pending further development and restructuring of the central web-system, we have postponed our advertising campaign by at least one month, and intend to launch this in April rather than March, and this campaign should run until the end of the consolidation period on the first of June, 2004.

We expect to become officially incorporated in June of 2004.

We act both as a reseller for other providers, and we also are increasing the product range that we actually own or buy ourselves wholesale and then resell. We also provide a range of peripheral options through associate/affiliate accounts.

We will soon be adding a comprehensive product service catalog link here.

At this time most of our services and products are web-based Networking & Telecommunication services:

Hosting: We offer free, standard, business driven (coming soon!) and premium quality hosting services.

Domain Registration: Quick-Stop, Bulk and Do-It-Yourself or Tucows Open-SRS (coming soon)

Website Design & Construction: Updateable Websites

Web-system Development & Management: Coming Soon!

Advertising Services: Coming Soon! At this time, submission of Banners & Links are free!

Submission & Consolidation Services: Coming Soon!

ISP Connection Services: Coming Soon!

Telecommunications Services: Lewis-Com: Related Communications Portal: Lewis-Com.Biz

E-Marketing Services: Coming Very Soon!

Network Development Services: Coming Soon!

Integrated Business Services: Lewis Business Net

Secure Payment Gateways: Coming Soon!

We will be offering an increasing array of type of service and product we can make available to our clientele within the consolidation period. This services will include:

• Systems-based Consulting & Troubleshooting
• Systems-based Meta-scientific research & development services
• Systems-based Digital Publication and Production Services
• Systems-based Development Services in a range of areas, including Non-profit, Consolidated Business Services, Education & Human Development, Organization, Production & Engineering

We also recommend our current Link Palette for related links & portals, though most of these are as yet unfinished.

For external topic-organized links, we recommend Hugh's Hot Links

For popular, top-search links, we recommend Haut Lynx

Query us for advertising on our Advertising Pages that are shown throughout our web-system on more than a eleven hundred distinct URLs.

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