The connected lives of ants, brains, cities and software

As Steve Johnson says, it’s amazing how ants have been on the planet since the beginning of time due of their complex organization, hence the reason you need to understand their organization and complexity of their systems, Steve Johnson compares metaphorically community ant, with the DNA , cells and cities.

Hence the main theme, what is emergency? , What is a complex system? and how they work from a micro scale like cells , ants to a macro scale like cities .

In the case of ants, their system is completely based on the information or local system, which is really the strongest point of the swarm logics, such information or events bring together local mass or a complex organizational system, such as ants, they do not really know how big the colony is or situations that occurs far away from them, they simply rely on the information they have on their surroundings, think and act locally but these actions together cause a larger scale global behavior.

If you want to build a complex system from the ground levels, are needed to understand 5 important things.

More is different – in this case is simple compared to the ants , the fewer individuals are the lower the ability to make a job , however the more individuals works will take place more effectively this work.

Ignorance is useful – is something funny but it’s real, it’s easier to build a complex system based on simple elements, rather than creating complex systems with complex elements, the clearest example is the computer, it works with a binary system of ones and zeros , by means of these can create a surprising interface.

Encourage random encounters – it means that occurs arbitrary events that are not planned, these events in a large scale cause different situations providing much experience, as in the case of ants when encountering other external ant.

Look For patterns in the signs – as the name describes, the fact set and follow the patterns or signs that leaves an individual causes a change of information globally.

Pay attention to your neighbors – this is the most important principle in the swarm logic, observe and share the information with your neighbors , without neighboring is like a swarm without logic, something that we must study and apply in large cities .

This is where everything is related, for example the human body, composed of millions of cells are organized to become more complex structure through the exchange of information with their surroundings and neighbors. Our body cells work the same way for a complex system, and here’s where the big cities take place, the changing information is on the sidewalks so for this author is the main and most important tool in the cities.

Sidewalks allow relatively high bandwidth communication between total strangers, and they mix large numbers of individuals in random configuration. They provide the right number of local interactions; they are the gap junctions of the city life.

There are a lot of things that we can learn about this complex organization, but we can’t compare this system like ants or cells, because we are more intelligent than this organism so the social pattern that we form tend to be substantially more complex than those of the ants for example.

Like always the emphasis on free will only matters on the scale of the individual human life, so in the end I think that emergence is the ability to store and retrieve information, to recognize and respond to patterns in human behavior.

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After read this lecture I think that my conception of complex systems changes, because now I can really gauge the size and scale of those systems. Despite the fact that we can´t compare for example between ants and humans, we can learn a lots of things from these micro and macro systems because in the end, for me are perfect systems because through communication and self- organization the transcendence is very impressive, and we could implement this in different ways, since personal level until higher like cities, countries and continents. Like he mentions as well, learn and share information among neighbors to achieve a significant change on a much larger scale.

Maybe my project research will be about how to make a design of a building, respecting the surroundings, connecting the interior with the exterior in order to obtain mutual benefits, like Toyo Ito makes with the surroundings in that case the nature and environment.

(The blog doesnt allow me to upload a picture but these are in the Media library)

The fall of a big structure the “Aoyoma” Hospital by the investors in Japan near of the building which Toyo Ito worked, produced a strong revolution in his mine 40 years ago. He starts to see how the architecture along the time turns in a developers race, the  idea was to build big and high structures without concern of the surroundings, unfortunately in Tokyo like in the most cities of the world the economy market decide about those big projects, big towers of condominiums in the middle of a group of houses. Ito mention that in the past Japan was characterized of integrate architecture and nature; that’s the main idea of almost all the topics of these lectures because all different architects and painters conclude the same idea, we need to return to the origins, but not in the way that all the people today are doing, people are talking about global environmental, ecological, sustainable but rather than being open to the natural environments, they are reinforcing inside and outside boundaries, constructing stable artificial environments and installing devices such as solar cells, the real meaning of back to the origins is to make a relationship not only between the nature and the architecture, the architecture needs to equilibrate the neediness of the city, the environment and the people identity, to respect its cultures and the way of live, and in this case I think that Toyo Ito nowadays wants to transform the architecture in a crossroads between all of these needs.

Therefore Toyo Ito started to study the trees, the shapes, the way it lives and the process in which they relate, because is a perfect structure that has all the elements that really the architecture needs. For example a tree can only survive within a vast number of relationships, it depends of interrelations with the surrounding environment as it grows, and he started to compare the thick branches with a fractal shape.

Toyo Ito summarize the most important topics based in his studies.

1)      Thinking about architecture must be based on relativistic relationships with the environment.

2)      The overall image of a work of architecture should not be unequivocally decided, but begin with loos image that is gradually clarified by repeating various simulations.

3)      While based n simple rules, architecture should be composed with a complex order.

4)      By means of fractal geometry, the outer surface of architecture should produce ambiguous inside/outside boundaries.

5)      Architecture must be open to the environment.

There were some events that made trace on Toyo Ito, his first work the aluminum house which was characterized by big spaces of light, he use a lot of technology so a magazine calls his work like Urbot. The other was the admiration that he had with 5 young architects the most important Kenzo Tange.

And the other the peak 1964 and the threshold of 70´s in which were involved other architects from whom he learned much, Arata Isozaki who said “there is no future for architects” and Kazuo Shinohora the creator of house, his house in white made a lot of impact on Ito, because Kazuo characterized his houses like a Japanese house “Minka”, but in the interior the spaces are so freshness, with a singular pillar in the center dividing two spaces, the wider is with double height hall and the narrow to story bedroom and kitchen.

The other building was the Mediatheque characterized by amazing beauty, abstraction and emptiness.

In conclusion Toyo Ito wants that the new generation of architects return to our primitive standpoints, making us these questions. ¿For whom is architecture made? ¿Why is architecture made? ¿How is architecture made?

Research

Im really interested in this topic to make a research of how we can create a relationship between the architecture and the nature, how can we create a symbiosis?

And I refer with symbiosis the same term like in ecology “Symbiosis”  (from Ancient Greek σύν ”together” and βίωσις ”living“) is close and often long term interaction between two or more different biological species.

How can we make that the two species in this case can live together, how can we make that the nature can have benefits of the architecture and vice versa, Im quite agree with the statement “Return tour primitive standpoints” I think that we need that the nature take its place again, so Im really interesting in research how can make this possible.