Some Aspects of Synergetics. From Laser Light to Cognition

Abstract

While the study of the selforganized formation of spatial, temporal or even functional structures has a long history in individual scientific disciplines, ranging from physics over medicine till economy, the goal of synergetics is to unearth the underlying principles of selforganization. The explicit example of a physical device, the laser, allows the development and illustration of general concepts such as order parameters, the slaving principle and circular causality. I show how these concepts and the related mathematical approach can be applied to brain processes connected with visual perception. At the level of order parameters, hysteresis in perception and ambivalent figures are dealt with. A bridge between this phenomenological level and that of real neurons is provided by the Synergetic Computer based on the analogy between pattern formation and pattern recognition. A more recently established link with information theory is outlined,—including a brief discussion of Shannon-, pragmatic and semantic information.