Anticipatory Systems

Anticipatory Systems: Philosophical, Mathematical, and Methodological Foundations is a book by Robert Rosen, conceived in the 1970s and published for the first time in 1985. The book describes the way that biological systems anticipate the environment. The book draws from mathematics, in particular category theory, in describing the way systems can anticipate.

Anticipatory systems: Philosophical, mathematical, and methodological foundations

Author	Robert Rosen
Language	English
Subject	Systems biology
Publisher	Pergamon Press
Publication date	1985
Publication place	United Kingdom
Pages	x, 436 pages
ISBN	978-0-08-031158-6
OCLC	11599208

The first five chapters of the book are about modeling: Rosen shows that natural systems, physical things in the world, are modeled by formal systems, which are at their heart mathematical. These formal systems simulate the natural systems. But in order to provide anticipatory knowledge, they must produce predictions ahead of the predicted phenomena.

Publication History

The first edition of Anticipatory Systems was published in 1985 by Pergamon Press. The second edition of Anticipatory Systems was published in 2012 by Springer.

Publication details

The second edition includes a fifty-page prolegomena by Mihai Nadin, as well as contributions by Judith Rosen and John J. Kineman. The book is the 27th volume in the International Federation for Systems Research International Series on Systems Science and Engineering, a series edited by George Klir.

Critical reception

A review by Eric Minch of the first edition called the book "radical and profound".

Related work

Rosen followed this book with a text called Life Itself that discussed the mathematical, scientific, and ethical issues related to generating artificial life.

A. H. Louie, one of Rosen's students, published a tutorial article on the book, explaining, among other things, the mathematical concepts behind the book

Errata for the first edition

• Conjunction and disjunction terms are reversed in the text, pages 60–68, but the mathematical expressions are correct.
• Footnote 8 missing from page 384: probably the reference on 382 should be to footnote 7.
• Pages 327 and 328 are swapped.

Further reading

• Allgood, G.O. (2000). "Mapping function and structure for an anticipatory system: what impact will it have and is it computationally feasible, today?". SMC 2000 conference proceedings: Cybernetics evolving to Systems, Humans, Organizations, and their Complex Interactions. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conferences on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics. Piscataway, New Jersey: IEEE. doi:10.1109/ICSMC.2000.886442. ISBN 978-0-7803-6583-4. ISSN 1062-922X.
• Chrisley, Ron (2002). "Some foundational issues concerning anticipatory systems" (PDF). International Journal of Computing Anticipatory Systems. 11: 3–18.
• Christensen, W. D.; Hooker, C. A. (2000). "Anticipation in autonomous systems: foundations for a theory of embodied agents". International Journal of Computing Anticipatory Systems. 5: 135–154.
• Dubois, Daniel M. (2000). "Review of incursive, hyperincursive and anticipatory systems-foundation of anticipation in electromagnetism". AIP Conference Proceedings. Vol. 517. AIP. pp. 3–30. doi:10.1063/1.1291243.
• Ekdahl, Bertil (2000). "Anticipatory systems as linguistic systems". AIP Conference Proceedings. Vol. 517. AIP. pp. 131–140. doi:10.1063/1.1291252.
• Ekdahl, Bertil; Astor, Eric; Davidsson, Paul (1995). "Towards anticipatory agents". Intelligent Agents. Vol. 890. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. doi:10.1007/3-540-58855-8_12. ISBN 978-3-540-58855-9.
• Ferret, J. (1 June 2010). "Anticipatory systems in physics". Foresight. 12 (3): 30–37. doi:10.1108/14636681011049857. ISSN 1463-6689.
• Fuller, Ted (2017). "Anxious relationships: The unmarked futures for post-normal scenarios in anticipatory systems". Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 124: 41–50. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2016.07.045.
• Gare, Arran (2019). "Biosemiosis and Causation: Defending Biosemiotics Through Rosen's Theoretical Biology; or, Integrating Biosemiotics and Anticipatory Systems Theory" (PDF). Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy. 15 (1): 31–90.
• Kazakov, Rossen; Kunc, Martin (2016). "Foreseeing the Dynamics of Strategy: An Anticipatory Systems Perspective". Systemic Practice and Action Research. 29 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1007/s11213-015-9349-0. ISSN 1094-429X.
• Klir, George J. (2002). "The Role of Anticipation in Intelligent Systems". AIP Conference Proceedings. Vol. 627. AIP. pp. 37–48. doi:10.1063/1.1503666.
• Kljajić, Miroljub (2001). "Contribution to the meaning and understanding of anticipatory systems". AIP Conference Proceedings. Vol. 573. AIP. pp. 400–411. doi:10.1063/1.1388707.
• McQuade, Thomas (April 23, 2019). "Organization, Anticipation, and Closure in Markets and Science". Cosmos + Taxis. 6 (6). SSRN 3394959.
• Miller, Riel; Poli, Roberto (1 June 2010). "Anticipatory systems and the philosophical foundations of futures studies". Foresight. 12 (3). doi:10.1108/fs.2010.27312caa.001. ISSN 1463-6689.
• Minch, Eric (1986). "Anticipatory systems by Robert Rosen". International Journal of General Systems (Book review). 12 (4): 405–409. doi:10.1080/03081078608934946. ISSN 0308-1079.
• Nadin, Mihai (2010). "Anticipation and dynamics: Rosen's anticipation in the perspective of time". International Journal of General Systems. 39 (1): 3–33. Bibcode:2010IJGS...39....3N. doi:10.1080/03081070903453685. ISSN 0308-1079.
• Nadin, Mihai (17 February 2017). "Reporting on anticipatory systems: a subject surviving opportunism and intolerance". International Journal of General Systems. 46 (2): 93–122. Bibcode:2017IJGS...46...93N. doi:10.1080/03081079.2017.1296255. ISSN 0308-1079.
• Poli, Roberto (2010). "An introduction to the ontology of anticipation". Futures. 42 (7): 769–776. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2010.04.028.
• Poli, Roberto (1 June 2010). "The many aspects of anticipation". Foresight. 12 (3): 7–17. doi:10.1108/14636681011049839. ISSN 1463-6689.
• Poli, Roberto. (2009). The complexity of anticipation. Balkan Journal of Philosophy, 1(1), 19-29.
• Rosen, Judith; Kineman, John Jay (3 October 2005). "Anticipatory systems and time: a new look at Rosennean complexity". Systems Research and Behavioral Science. 22 (5): 399–412. doi:10.1002/sres.715.
• Rosen, Judith (8 November 2022). "Robert Rosen's Anticipatory Systems Theory: The Science of Life and Mind". Mathematics. 10 (22): 4172. doi:10.3390/math10224172. ISSN 2227-7390.
• Rosen, Robert (1978). "On anticipatory systems: I. When can a system contain a predictive model of another?". Journal of Social and Biological Systems. 1 (2): 155–162. doi:10.1016/S0140-1750(78)80003-7.
• Rosen, Robert (1978). "On anticipatory systems: II. The nature of the modelling relation between systems". Journal of Social and Biological Systems. 1 (2): 163–180. doi:10.1016/S0140-1750(78)80004-9.
• Rosen, Judith (2009). Robert Rosen's Anticipatory Systems Theory: The Art and Science of Thinking Ahead. Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Meeting of the ISSS - 2009, Brisbane, Australia.
• Rossel, Pierre (1 June 2010). "Making anticipatory systems more robust". Foresight. 12 (3): 72–85. doi:10.1108/14636681011049893. ISSN 1463-6689.
• Rossiter, N.; Heather, M. (2004). "Information systems and the theory of categories: is every model an anticipatory system?" (PDF). International Journal of Computing Anticipatory Systems. 16: 219–231.
• Scolozzi, Rocco; Geneletti, Davide (2017). "The anthroposphere as an anticipatory system: Open questions on steering the climate". Science of the Total Environment. 579: 957–965. Bibcode:2017ScTEn.579..957S. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.10.086. PMID 27884523.
• Staiger, Thomas O.; Kritek, Patricia A.; Blakeney, Erin L.; Zierler, Brenda K.; O’Brien, Kurt; Ehrmantraut, Ross H. (2017). "A Conceptual Framework for Applying the Anticipatory Theory of Complex Systems to Improve Safety and Quality in Healthcare". Anticipation and Medicine. Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-45142-8_2. ISBN 978-3-319-45140-4.
• Staiger, Thomas O. (2016). "Anticipation in Complex Systems: Potential Implications for Improving Safety and Quality in Healthcare". The Value of Systems and Complexity Sciences for Healthcare. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 69–78. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-26221-5_6. ISBN 978-3-319-26219-2.
• Sundresh, T.S. (2000). "Information flow and processing in anticipatory systems". SMC 2000 conference proceedings: Cybernetics evolving to Systems, Humans, Organizations, and their Complex Interactions. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conferences on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics. Piscataway, New Jersey: IEEE. doi:10.1109/ICSMC.2000.885001. ISBN 978-0-7803-6583-4. ISSN 1062-922X.
• Tsoukalas, Lefteri H. (1997). "Neurofuzzy Anticipatory Systems: A New Approach to Intelligent Control". International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools. 06 (3): 365–395. doi:10.1142/S0218213097000207. ISSN 0218-2130.
• Vodonick, John (2017). "Neo-pragmatism: an ethical anticipatory system". European Journal of Futures Research. 5 (1). doi:10.1007/s40309-017-0112-x. ISSN 2195-4194.
• Zamenopoulos, Theodore; Alexiou, Katerina (2007). "Towards an anticipatory view of design". Design Studies. 28 (4): 411–436. doi:10.1016/j.destud.2007.04.001.
• Zamenopoulos, Theodore; Alexiou, Katerina (5 March 2004). Design and anticipation: towards an organisational view of design systems (PDF). Working papers series. Vol. 76. London: Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. ISSN 1467-1298.