IS group

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The IS group[[1]] is an informal group of cognitive scientists, computer scientists, and others with related interests, centered in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in the early 1980s, this group meets periodically to discuss emerging issues in science, technology and culture. These meetings have helped to influence research directions and interests and foster collaborations among affiliated individuals at leading universities and research institutes in the United States including Boston University, Haskins Laboratories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Connecticut, Washington and Lee University, Yale University and others. Recently, a website [2] was launched that documents the group's activities and will begin to archive the many topics the group has considered over the past 20 years.

Contents 1 Background 2 Activities 3 Scientists and others associated with IS group 4 External links

[edit] Background

The history of the development of science and technology often depends heavily on the complex networks comprised of the diverse membership and interests embodied and enabled by informal, and poorly documented, groups like this and many others, such as Edge Foundation and the The Reality Club. Recent publications, such as Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street tycoon and the secret palace of science[3], by Jennet Conant, and The Jasons: the secret history of science's postwar elite[4], by Ann Finkbeiner, have begun to explore the way in which such informal institutions have helped to shape scientific development. (Note that the research facility created in Tuxedo Park was started by Alfred Lee Loomis who was instrumental in funding the development of radar and other technologies. Loomis' model for his labs was influenced by Caryl Haskins, mentioned in the Tuxedo Park book, who founded Haskins Laboratories. The free-wheeling intellectual climate at Haskins led, in part, to the founding of the IS group.)

[edit] Activities

For the past two decades, the topics that have been discussed in the IS group have helped to inspire collaborative research among a number of individuals across a wide variety of institutions. The group was founded in the early 1980s by Philip Rubin[5], presently CEO and a senior scientist at Haskins Laboratories and a Professor Adjunct at Yale University, and Elliot Saltzman[6], presently, Professor at Boston University. Saltzman recalls that some of the first meetings of the group were held to discuss the early Aerial Press versions of The Dynamics of Human Behavior, by Ralph Abraham[7] and Christopher Shaw and work on the history of locomotion [8] including that of the Russian scientist Nikolai Bernstein.

The group is now coordinated by Rubin, Saltzman, Mark Tiede[9] of Haskins and MIT, and Simon D. Levy[10] of Washington and Lee University. Originally influenced by the work of J. Doyne Farmer, Stuart Kauffman, Norman Packard and others at the Santa Fe Institute and by the psychological research of J. J. Gibson, and his disciples, such as Michael Turvey[11], Robert Shaw, William Mace[12], Ed Reed[13], and others, collaborations among the group's members have led to numerous publications in areas such as psychology, linguistics, and motor control. Over the years, the group has tried to encourage a free-wheeling approach to cutting-edge issues and topics, including artificial life, biology, evolution, linguistics, nonlinear dynamics, genetic algorithms, robotics, neural networks, emergence, chaos, complexity, consciousness, cognitive science, embodiment, transhumanism, ecological psychology, etc. Where and when possible these issues are translated back into research projects. Originally centered at Haskins Laboratories, participation has included psychologists, linguists, computer scientists, physicians, engineers, and independent scientists and scholars, from around the world, including Boston University, Brandeis University, Haskins Laboratories, MIT, University of Connecticut, Washington and Lee University, and Yale University. There is no formal membership in the group.

[edit] Scientists and others associated with IS group

• Catherine Browman[14], Research Scientist, Haskins Laboratories
• Richard Crane[15], Director, Technology & Planning, Haskins Laboratories
• Louis Goldstein[16], chair of linguistics, Yale University
• John Hogden[17], modeling, algorithms & informatics, Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Bonnie Kaplan[18], Yale Informatics[19], head of Science, Technology, Utopian Visions working group, Yale University
• Simon Levy[20], computer scientist, Washington and Lee University
• Ken Pugh[21], cognitive neuroscientist, Yale Reading Center, Yale University
• Robert Remez[22], psychologist, Barnard College, Columbia University
• Philip Rubin[23], CEO, Haskins Laboratories, professor adjunct, Yale
• Elliot Saltzman[24], psychologist, Boston University
• Christine Shadle[25], engineer, senior scientist, Haskins Laboratories
• Christina Spiesel[26], artist, law professor, New York Law School
• Sydney Spiesel[27], physician, NPR and Slate magazine medical expert
• Mark Tiede, linguist, MIT[28] and Haskins Laboratories[29]
• Guy Van Orden[30], psychologist, former head of psychology at NSF
• Eric Vatikiotis-Bateson[31], linguist, University of British Columbia
• Douglas Whalen, President, Endangered Language Fund[32], NSF program officer[33]
• Steve Witham[34], independent computer consultant, Boston

[edit] External links

• IS reading group website
• Haskins Laboratories info on IS group
• Simon Levy home page
• Philip Rubin home page
• Elliot Saltzman home page
• Mark Tiede home page