Mihai Nadin

Bio: Mihai Nadin is an academic researcher from University of Texas at Dallas. The author has contributed to research in topics: Anticipation (artificial intelligence) & Semiotics. The author has an hindex of 19, co-authored 91 publications receiving 1040 citations. Previous affiliations of Mihai Nadin include University of Wuppertal & University of California, Berkeley.

Interface design: A semiotic paradigm

Abstract: Design principles are semiotic by nature. To design means to structure systems of signs in such a way as to make possible the achievement of human goals: communication (as a form of social interaction), engineering (as a form of applied technical rationality), business (as a form of shared efficiency), architecture, art, education, etcetera. Design comes about in an environment traditionally called culture, currently identified as artificial (through a rather romantic distinction between natural and artificial), and acts as a bridge between scientific and humanistic praxes. A long this line of thinking, Simon (1982) stated, ‘Engineering, medicine, business, architecture, and painting are concerned not with the necessary but with the contingent not with how things are but how things might be in short, with design’. The object of semiotics is sign systems and their functioning within culture. For a long time (and for reasons whose presentation is beyond the scope of this article), one type of sign the symbol has been considered representative of all signs in human culture: ‘for most of us . . . the significant part of the environment consists mostly of strings of artifacts called “symbols” that we receive through eyes and ears in the form of written and spoken language and that we pour out into the environment as I am now doing by mouth or hand’ (Simon 1982). Actually, we perceive signs through all our senses, and we generate signs that address the same. The fact that some of these signs (visual, auditory) are more important should not prevent us from considering any other sign that can be used for representation, communication, and communication functions. But before dealing with these basic functions, we have to settle upon one of the many definitions of sign that have been advanced in the field of semiotics, and then apply it as consistently as possible. The definitions fall into two basic categories: 1. Adoption of one kind of sign usually pertaining to verbal language as a paradigm, with the understanding that every other sign is structurally equivalent. Artificial intelligence researchers are quite comfortable with this model. The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure advanced

Anticipation and dynamics: Rosen's anticipation in the perspective of time

Abstract: Anticipation relates to the perception of change. Therefore, dynamics is the context for defining anticipation processes. Since preoccupation with change is as old as science itself, anticipation-related questions go back to the first attempts to explain why and how things change. However, as a specific concept, anticipation insinuates itself in the language of science in the writings of Whitehead, Burgers, Bennett, Feynman, Svoboda, Rosen, Nadin and Dubois, i.e. since 1929. While Robert Rosen’s work is the main focus of this article, an attempt is made to advance a perspective for the broad field of studies that developed around the notion of anticipation. Of particular interest are the circumstances of epistemological and gnoseological significance, leading to the articulation of the early hypotheses regarding anticipatory processes. Of no less interest to the scientific community are questions pertinent to complexity, adaptivity, purposiveness, time and computability as they relate to our understanding of anticipation.

The civilization of illiteracy

Abstract: In order to set before you, at the very beginning, the matter that I address here, allow me to bring to your attention a poem written by Victor Hugo over a century ago (1872).

Stereo matching via selective multiple windows

Abstract: Window-based correlation algorithms are widely used for stereo matching due to their computational efficiency as compared to global algorithms. In this paper, a multiple window correlation algorithm for stereo matching is presented which addresses the problems associated with a fixed window size. The developed algo- rithm differs from the previous multiple window algorithms by intro- ducing a reliability test to select the most reliable window among multiple windows of increasing sizes. This ensures that at least one window is large enough to cover a region of adequate intensity variations while at the same time small enough to cover a constant depth region. A recursive computation procedure is also used to allow a computationally efficient implementation of the algorithm. The outcome obtained from a standard set of images with known disparity maps shows that the generated disparity maps are more accurate as compared to two popular stereo matching local algorithms. © 2007 SPIE and IS&T. DOI: 10.1117/1.2711817

Semiotics, advertising and marketing

Abstract: In the summer of 1986 the first International Conference on Marketing and Semiotics was held at Northwestern University. It was sponsored jointly by J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern and the Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies at Indiana University. The three‐day conference underscored the fact that although the vocabulary for the two disciplines might be different, there was much commonality between Semiotics and Marketing.

"relative State" Formulation of Quantum Mechanics

Abstract: The task of quantizing general relativity raises serious questions about the meaning of the present formulation and interpretation of quantum mechanics when applied to so fundamental a structure as the space-time geometry itself. This paper seeks to clarify the foundations of quantum mechanics. It presents a reformulation of quantum theory in a form believed suitable for application to general relativity. The aim is not to deny or contradict the conventional formulation of quantum theory, which has demonstrated its usefulness in an overwhelming variety of problems, but rather to supply a new, more general and complete formulation, from which the conventional interpretation can be deduced. The relationship of this new formulation to the older formulation is therefore that of a metatheory to a theory, that is, it is an underlying theory in which the nature and consistency, as well as the realm of applicability, of the older theory can be investigated and clarified.

教育中的建构主义 = Constructivism in Education

Abstract: Contents: J. Gale, Preface. Part I:Radical Constructivism and Social Constructionism. E. von Glasersfeld, A Constructivist Approach to Teaching. K.J. Gergen, Social Construction and the Educational Process. J. Shotter, In Dialogue: Social Constructionism and Radical Constructivism. J. Richards, Construct[ion/iv]ism: Pick One of the Above. Part II:Information-Processing Constructivism and Cybernetic Systems. F. Steier, From Universing to Conversing: An Ecological Constructionist Approach to Learning and Multiple Description. R.J. Spiro, P.J. Feltovich, M.J. Jacobson, R.L. Coulson, Cognitive Flexibility, Constructivism, and Hypertext: Random Access Instruction for Advanced Knowledge Acquisition in Ill-Structured Domains. K. Tomm, Response to Chapters by Spiro et al. and Steier. P.W. Thompson, Constructivism, Cybernetics, and Information Processing: Implications for Technologies of Research on Learning. Part III:Social Constructivism and Sociocultural Approaches. H. Bauersfeld, The Structuring of the Structures: Development and Function of Mathematizing as a Social Practice. J.V. Wertsch, C. Toma, Discourse and Learning in the Classroom: A Sociocultural Approach. C. Konold, Social and Cultural Dimensions of Knowledge and Classroom Teaching. J. Confrey, How Compatible Are Radical Constructivism, Sociocultural Approaches, and Social Constructivism? Analysis and Synthesis I: Alternative Epistemologies. M.H. Bickhard, World Mirroring Versus World Making: There's Gotta Be a Better Way. Part IV:Alternative Epistemologies in Language, Mathematics, and Science Education. R. Duit, The Constructivist View: A Fashionable and Fruitful Paradigm for Science Education Research and Practice. G.B. Saxe, From the Field to the Classroom: Studies in Mathematical Understanding. N.N. Spivey, Written Discourse: A Constructivist Perspective. T. Wood, From Alternative Epistemologies to Practice in Education: Rethinking What It Means to Teach and Learn. E. Ackermann, Construction and Transference of Meaning Through Form. D. Rubin, Constructivism, Sexual Harassment, and Presupposition: A (Very) Loose Response to Duit, Saxe, and Spivey. Part V:Alternative Epistemologies in Clinical, Mathematics, and Science Education. E. von Glasersfeld, Sensory Experience, Abstraction, and Teaching. R. Driver, Constructivist Approaches to Science Teaching. T. Wood, P. Cobb, E. Yackel, Reflections on Learning and Teaching Mathematics in Elementary School. P. Lewin, The Social Already Inhabits the Epistemic: A Discussion of Driver Wood, Cobb, and Yackel and von Glasersfeld. J. Becker, M. Varelas, Assisting Construction: The Role of the Teacher in Assisting the Learner's Construction of Preexisting Cultural Knowledge. E.H. Auerswald, Shifting Paradigms: A Self-Reflective Critique. Analysis and Synthesis II: Epsitemologies in Education. P. Ernest, The One and the Many. Analysis and Synthesis III: Retrospective Comments and Future Prospects. L.P. Steffe, Alternative Epistemologies: An Educator's Perspective. J. Gale, Epilogue.