Michael Fischer
University of Kent, School of Anthropology and Conservation, Faculty Member
- Computer Science, Anthropology, Business, Digital Humanities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Human Computer Interaction, and 35 moreData Mining, Information Systems, Theatre Studies, Ethnography, Information Science, Area Studies, Social Research Methods and Methodology, Visual Anthropology, Digital Libraries, Complex Systems Science, Gerontology, Environmental Anthropology, Quantum Computing, Ubiquitous Computing, Anthropology of Knowledge, Text Mining, Ethnology, Simulation (Computer Science), Technology (Gerontology), Anthropology of Performance, Ecological Anthropology, Design (Theatre Studies), Sociotechnical Systems, Wearable Computing, Kinship (Anthropology), Anthropology Of Technology (Anthropology), Cognition (Anthropology), Cyberanthropology, Adaptive Hypermedia, Formal Concept Analysis (Data Mining), Intelligent Space, Spatial Memory, Multimedia, Hypermedia, and Environmental Sustainabilityedit
- Michael D. Fischer is an anthropologist who has worked mainly in the Punjab and Swat in Pakistan, and the Cook Island... moreMichael D. Fischer is an anthropologist who has worked mainly in the Punjab and Swat in Pakistan, and the Cook Islands. His major interests are in the representation and structure of indigenous knowledge, cultural informatics, and the interrelationships between ideation and the material contexts within which ideation is expressed.
Fischer is Professor of Anthropological Sciences in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kent and is currently Director of the Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing, the University of Kent at Canterbury.edit
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Research Interests: Information Systems, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Linguistics, Culture, and 15 moreEvolutionary Anthropology, Numerical Analysis, Behavioral Ecology, Computational Mathematics, Kinship care, Kinship, Library and Information Studies, Primate Infant Care, Infant Handling, Dynamic Systems and Control, Information Technology and System Integration, Optimization Technology, Integration Technology of Automation Systems, Fictive Kinship, and Gn
ABSTRACT In this article we explore how multiplexed networked individuated communications are creating new contexts for human behavior within communities, particularly noting the shift from synchronous to asynchronous communication as an... more
ABSTRACT In this article we explore how multiplexed networked individuated communications are creating new contexts for human behavior within communities, particularly noting the shift from synchronous to asynchronous communication as an adaptation.
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Research Interests:
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at Austin. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-165).
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Having read the recent note by Rada and Nigel Dyson-Hudson (CA 27: 530-3I), we would like to support heir attempts to encourage others to use computers in the field, to share our own experiences, and to correct what might be a... more
Having read the recent note by Rada and Nigel Dyson-Hudson (CA 27: 530-3I), we would like to support heir attempts to encourage others to use computers in the field, to share our own experiences, and to correct what might be a misapprehension in the minds of some ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The claim that extant terminologies are optimal solutions in a space of all possible terminologies depends on invalidly assuming any partition of a set of genealogical relations is a possible kinship terminology. Instead, kinship... more
The claim that extant terminologies are optimal solutions in a space of all possible terminologies depends on invalidly assuming any partition of a set of genealogical relations is a possible kinship terminology. Instead, kinship terminologies have a particular type of logical/formal structure that is generative with categories providing for classification that is reciprocal. As a consequence, all terminologies, extant or hypothetical, are optimal solutions in the sense this term is used in the claim made about kinship terminologies.
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Research Interests: Social Change, Anthropology, Intellectual Property, Publishing, Social Sciences, and 11 moreOpen Access, Open Access Publishing, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Scholarly Communication, Academic Libraries, Open Source/Open Access and Libraries, Ethnology, Cultural Anthropology, Scholarly Societies, Social Science, and Professional Organizations
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An anthropological perspective on the impact of Dual, Mixed Reality and 'PolySocial Reality' (PoSR) on Location Awareness and other applications in Smart Environments. We intend to initiate a friendly inter- disciplinary discussion on the... more
An anthropological perspective on the impact of Dual, Mixed Reality and 'PolySocial Reality' (PoSR) on Location Awareness and other applications in Smart Environments. We intend to initiate a friendly inter- disciplinary discussion on the interaction aspects and cultural implications surrounding these new forms of integrated technologies. Anthropologists examine human group behavior in the context of culture. Because the LAMDa workshop is addressing 'group behavior,' we will contribute to the workshop with our understanding of humans, culture and group behavior and to learn from others what type of group behavior is expected as new technologies and their subsequent experiences are created for human use. When we discuss human group behavior, we refer to the definition of a social group: a collection of humans who repeatedly interact within a system.
Humans can, and do switch context between environments and blend traces of one into the other in a socially unconscious manner often seemingly simultaneously. We propose that the cultures and behaviors of humans are increasingly actively permeating Internet and network- based applications, as well as those that are geolocal. With the future Internet of things, Dual Reality and Mixed Reality, the opportunity for humans to extend their own blended reality, as well as to create new ones is unfolding. That said, because humans interact within groups, the multiplexing of their mutual blended realities rapidly creates a PoSR. Sorting out the relationships between realities as well as between synchronous and asynchronous time and geolocal space can create a condition where realities are simultaneous and the idea of 'x' can be perceived as equaling 'not x.' We explore this new type of interoperability between virtual and physical, ideational and material, representations and objects and culture.
Keywords
Time, Space, Asynchronous, Ubiquitous, Pervasive, Dual Reality, Mixed Reality, Blended Reality, Polyreality, PolySocial Reality (PoSR)
Humans can, and do switch context between environments and blend traces of one into the other in a socially unconscious manner often seemingly simultaneously. We propose that the cultures and behaviors of humans are increasingly actively permeating Internet and network- based applications, as well as those that are geolocal. With the future Internet of things, Dual Reality and Mixed Reality, the opportunity for humans to extend their own blended reality, as well as to create new ones is unfolding. That said, because humans interact within groups, the multiplexing of their mutual blended realities rapidly creates a PoSR. Sorting out the relationships between realities as well as between synchronous and asynchronous time and geolocal space can create a condition where realities are simultaneous and the idea of 'x' can be perceived as equaling 'not x.' We explore this new type of interoperability between virtual and physical, ideational and material, representations and objects and culture.
Keywords
Time, Space, Asynchronous, Ubiquitous, Pervasive, Dual Reality, Mixed Reality, Blended Reality, Polyreality, PolySocial Reality (PoSR)
Formalization is typically associated by both supporters and detractors of formal methods with an emphasis on form over content or meaning. However well founded, this association fails to capture why we employ (or not) formal descriptions... more
Formalization is typically associated by both supporters and detractors of formal methods with an emphasis on form over content or meaning. However well founded, this association fails to capture why we employ (or not) formal descriptions of what we are describing.
One problem arises when we try to directly link human thought to human behavior (or vice versa); assuming the process of going from one to the other is complex and idiosyncratic, but direct. In this paper I examine an approach to developing a formal system that helps us represent the relationship between ideational and behavioral aspects of socio-cultural phenomena in a manner that is consistent with, and helps address the connections between, symbolic and materialist approaches.
People embedded in cultural processes demonstrate remarkable powers of creation, transformation, stability and regulation. Culture gives agents the power to hyper-adapt: not only can they achieve local minima and maxima, they modify or create the conditions for new adaptations. Culture transcends material and behavioral contexts. Cultural solutions are instantiated in material and behavioral terms, but are based in large part on ‘invented’ symbolic constructions of the interaction space and its elements. We will present an example of how a symbolic system 'drives' the material organization of human groups, explore how symbolic systems act over material domains as a general case, and examine some of the implications of this for multi-agent modelling as a theory-building process.
One problem arises when we try to directly link human thought to human behavior (or vice versa); assuming the process of going from one to the other is complex and idiosyncratic, but direct. In this paper I examine an approach to developing a formal system that helps us represent the relationship between ideational and behavioral aspects of socio-cultural phenomena in a manner that is consistent with, and helps address the connections between, symbolic and materialist approaches.
People embedded in cultural processes demonstrate remarkable powers of creation, transformation, stability and regulation. Culture gives agents the power to hyper-adapt: not only can they achieve local minima and maxima, they modify or create the conditions for new adaptations. Culture transcends material and behavioral contexts. Cultural solutions are instantiated in material and behavioral terms, but are based in large part on ‘invented’ symbolic constructions of the interaction space and its elements. We will present an example of how a symbolic system 'drives' the material organization of human groups, explore how symbolic systems act over material domains as a general case, and examine some of the implications of this for multi-agent modelling as a theory-building process.