Tag: Dynamical systems

Juarrero, Dynamics in Action, Chapter 14

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Juarrero, A. (1999). Narrative explanation and the dynamics of action (Chapter 14). Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System (pp. 217–244). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. (You may find it helpful to review the reviews I wrote of Chapter 9 and Chapter 13 of this book before tackling the current chapter. Not that those earlier reviews are great, but this material was a hard slog even with that orientation; I would not attempt it without.) In Chapter 14, Juarrero proposes hermeneutics as the appropriate model for explaining the dynamical systems of human intention and action.  She recaps the Read More …

Juarrero, Dynamics in Action, Chapter 13

Posted onAuthorBrian Larson1 Comment

Juarrero, A. (1999). Threading an agent’s control loop through the environment (Chapter 13). Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System (pp. 195–213). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. This chapter can be summed up with the question, “How do we decide to do what we intend to do?” (p. 196). Juarerro rules out AI systems that work through the entire solution space (relies too much on processing with “brute speed); and expert systems where all the relevant rules and contingencies have to be programmed into the system in advance. The first question is whether intentions are meanings in the Read More …

Juarrero, Dynamics in Action, Chapter 9

Posted onAuthorBrian Larson1 Comment

This is the first of three chapters of Juarrero’s book about which I’ve written summaries/reviews. The first two (Chapters 9 and 13) really just open the doors to the last (Chapter 14), which I find interesting for my own work. Juarrero, A. (1999). Constraints as causes: the intersection of information theory and complex systems dynamics (Chapter 9). Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System (pp. 131–150). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. In Chapter 9 of Dynamics in Action, Juarrero sets out to analyze the “interlevel causality of dynamical systems—as the workings of constraint” (p. 131). One of her Read More …