[Fis] Information Foundation of the Act--F.Flores & L.deMarcos

[Robert E. Ulanowicz]

Dear Dr. Marcos-Ortega:

Are you aware of the algorithm to remove cycles from a weighted digraph?

<http://people.clas.ufl.edu/ulan/files/Cyclng83.pdf>

It is available as a DOS routine
<http://www.cbl.umces.edu/~ulan/ntwk/network.html> (see NETWRK4.2) or in R
for Windows <https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/enaR/enaR.pdf> (see
enaCycle).

Sincerely,
R. Ulanowicz


P.S. Actually, in ecology, we discovered that cycles actually indicate the
domains of control.

> Hi Jerry,
>
> Thank you for your comments and questions. Also apologies for late
> response but I was on a trip.
>
> As for your question about cycles, actions can certainly be modeled as
> graphs that include cycles. We restricted our characterization to trees
> because:
> a) cycles can imply infinite loops that in our opinion are not appropriate
> to model human actions
> b) even considering cycles a set of actions can still be modeled a as a
> tree, so we consider that loops add unnecessary complexity to the model
>
> Furthermore, we understand the products of cyclic social processes like
> methods and procedures as technologies that embed information. All in all,
> we agree that a characterization of graphs can be useful to quantify
> information embedded in artifacts.
>
> Regards,
>
> Luis de Marcos Ortega
> Dpto Ciencias de la Computación               Computer Science Department
> Universidad de Alcalá                                    University of
> Alcalá
> http://www.uah.es/pdi/luis_demarcos
>
> "Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the
> foolish their lack of understanding." Ambrose G. Bierce.
>
> From: Fis [mailto:fis-bounces at listas.unizar.es] On Behalf Of Jerry LR
> Chandler
> Sent: jueves, 23 de julio de 2015 17:02
> To: FIS Science <fis at listas.unizar.es>
> Subject: Re: [Fis] Information Foundation of the Act--F.Flores &
> L.deMarcos
>
>
> List:
>
> This comment is restricted to the proposed use of mathematical structures
> in context of the social.
>
> The mathematical structure of a tree is restricted by the notion of a
> cycle.
> A tree is readily converted into a cycle by simply adding a new edge
> between leaves or joints.
> The simple logic of a tree is lost by including cyclic relations.
>
> It appears to me that the rhetorical arguments may include inferences
> requiring cycle relations.
>
> What would be the nature of the inferences if the hypotheses allowed for
> cyclic social processes, such as learning on the basis of annual
> agricultural or hunting cycles?
>
> Cheers
>
> Jerry
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Fis mailing list
> Fis at listas.unizar.es
> http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
>