In this thesis, a philosophy and lexicon for the engineering of biosystems are established. The focus is on a specific class of biosystems ( ecocyborgs) created by combining ecosystems and technological Components. This work is part of the EcoCyborg Project, a highly interdisciplinary research program which concerns the development of a general theory for biosystems engineering, with an emphasis on system autonomy as a design goal. In the short term, the objective is to develop computational models and simulations for use in the study of ecocyborgs as representative instances of substantially autonomous biosystems. Accordingly, in this thesis an explicit conceptual basis is established for the EcoCyborg Project, as well as for biosystems engineering in general. / First, in the body of the thesis, a biosystem is defined as a coherent assemblage of entities that is alive to some degree as a whole. The sole criterion for life is considered to be comportment that is somewhat autopoietic , whereby local interactions among the components combine to Continually renew the overall system. Next, concepts related to autonomy, or the formulation and pursuit of proprietary goals, are elaborated. The degree of autonomy of a system is seen to depend on its consciousness, or ability to reason using a model of itself. Hence, a substantially autonomous system requires an ensemble of information storage and processing devices (mind) of the type and sophistication (intelligence ) appropriate for this. The approach that is taken here to the creation of ecocyborgs with such minds is described, and a specific mental architecture is delineated, comprising functionally semidifferentiated, intermediate-scale components arranged according to a semihierarchical control organization. Finally, the characterization of such systems is scrutinized as an epistemic process in which knowledge is generated by an observer, but in which only a limited degree of objectivity is possible. A paradigm appropriate to the engineering of ecocyborgs is defined as an illustration, and associated archetypal concepts and descriptive procedures (such as measures) are given that are useful in this context. Such tools are required by significantly autonomous ecocyborgs because they must characterize themselves. They are also necessary to observers with scientific and engineering agendas.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.36567 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Clark, O. Grant (Osborne Grant) |
| Contributors | Kok, Robert (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001745273, proquestno: NQ64539, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
Page generated in 0.0017 seconds