Ervin Laszlo, widely regarded as the founder of systems philosophy and general evolution theory, introduces the foundations of a genuine unified theory of the world in this pioneering treatise on the new sciences. In contrast to other unified theories that center mainly on physics, Laszlo's embraces quantum, cosmos, life, as well as consciousness. He delineates the principles of a new physics of universal connectivity and puts forth the corresponding metaphysics, discussing the implications for such philosophical issues as the nature of matter and mind, freedom and morality, and design versus evolution. This landmark book lays the groundwork for the non-materialist and non-reductionist yet rigorous paradigm that is likely to signal the next revolution in science: the "paradigm of universal connectivity."

Systems-level neuronal mechanisms that coordinate the temporally, anatomically, and functionally distributed neuronal activity into coherent cognitive operations in the human brain have remained poorly understood. In humans, neuronal oscillations and synchronization can be recorded non-invasively with electro- and magnetoencephalography (EEG and MEG) that have excellent temporal resolution and an adequate spatial resolution when combined with source-reconstruction methods. In this book, leading authors in the field describe how recent methodological advances have paved the way to several major breakthroughs in the observations of large-scale synchrony from human non-invasive MEG data. This volume also presents the caveats influencing analyses of synchronization. These include the non-homogeneous sensitivity of MEG to superficial cortical sources, and, most importantly, the multitude of consequences of linear mixing. Linear mixing is an immense confounder in the sensor-level analyses of synchronization, but is also present at the source level. Approaches that can be used to avoid or compensate for these issues are then discussed. Thereafter, several authors take up a number of the functional roles that large-scale synchronization has in cognition. The authors assess how the spatio–temporal and –spectral organization and strength of both local and large-scale synchronized networks are associated with conscious sensory perception, visual working memory functions, and attention. These chapters summarize several lines of research showing how the strength of local and inter-areal oscillations in both cortical and subcortical brain structures is correlated with cognitive functions. Together these data suggest that synchronized neuronal oscillations may be a systems-level neuronal mechanism underlying the coordination of distributed processing in human cognition. In line with this argument, other authors go on to describe how oscillations and synchronization are altered in clinical populations, complementing the data presented on healthy subjects. Importantly, this book includes chapters from authors using many different approaches to the analyses of neuronal oscillations, ranging from local oscillatory activities to the usage of graph theoretical tools in the analyses of synchronization. In this way the present volume provides a comprehensive view on the analyses and functional significance of neuronal oscillations in humans. This book is aimed at doctoral and post-doctoral students as well as research scientists in the fields of cognitive neuroscience, psychology, medicine, and neurosciences.

This study analyses the fifty year evolution of Ervin Laszlo’s contribution to science and philosophy. It records the major turning points in his thinking and discusses who and what influenced this evolution and with what result. Laszlo’s search for answers to questions such as man’s relationship to nature and the cosmos, and the nature of underlying factors of evolution which connect all things were not satisfied by working only on the basis of the General Evolutionary Systems Theory. Wittgenstein said “In every serious philosophical question uncertainty extends to the very roots of the problem. We must always be prepared to learn something totally new.” Laszlo did discover something entirely new – the theory of the information field – after immersing himself in a range of areas of study such as cosmology, consciousness studies, quantum physics, metaphysics and various Eastern traditions. The integration of his earlier works with his more recent studies lies behind his explanation of the existence of the Akashic Field. The Akashic Field is a term that refers to an interactive universe communicating in a subtle manner, which connects everything with every other thing everywhere. This is a pure information field where communication takes place without the need for the transportation of physical energy; thus interaction can occur instantaneously regardless of distance and time. Coherence and consciousness are the bases of Laszlo’s Akashic field. He proposed a ‘system theoretic paradigm’, which focuses on a general understanding of the cosmos and the implications for entities such as human beings. This entails the observation and explanation of human and cosmic evolution as viewed in unity or inter-connectedness where macro and micro are essentially interlinked. Laszlo’s philosophical work extends to sociology when describing concurrent worldwide issues closely related to the existence of the Akashic Field. His humanist ideals are evidenced by his efforts to help humans understand the context and causes for their recent challenges and the possibilities that may lie ahead. Ervin Laszlo’s half-century of exceptional philosophical work gives us the most coherent picture of the nature of the world to date.

The Handbook of Geometric Constraint Systems Principles is an entry point to the currently used principal mathematical and computational tools and techniques of the geometric constraint system (GCS). It functions as a single source containing the core principles and results, accessible to both beginners and experts. The handbook provides a guide for students learning basic concepts, as well as experts looking to pinpoint specific results or approaches in the broad landscape. As such, the editors created this handbook to serve as a useful tool for navigating the varied concepts, approaches and results found in GCS research. Key Features: A comprehensive reference handbook authored by top researchers Includes fundamentals and techniques from multiple perspectives that span several research communities Provides recent results and a graded program of open problems and conjectures Can be used for senior undergraduate or graduate topics course introduction to the area Detailed list of figures and tables About the Editors: Meera Sitharam is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Florida’s Department of Computer & Information Science and Engineering. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Audrey St. John is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Mount Holyoke College, who received her Ph. D. from UMass Amherst. Jessica Sidman is a Professor of Mathematics on the John S. Kennedy Foundation at Mount Holyoke College. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

The June 1993 conference was organized to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Czech mathematician Edward Cech. The main topics of the conference were the most recent results in the stable and unstable homotopy theory. Among the topics in 22 refereed papers: on finiteness of subgroups of self-homotopy equivalences; the Chen groups of the pure braid group; Morava's change of rings theorem; the Boardman homomorphism; and a comparison criterion for certain loop spaces. No index. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

A journey from Burning Man to the Akashic Field that suggest how 5-MeO-DMT triggers the human capacity for higher knowledge through direct contact with the zero-point field • Examines Bufo alvarius toad venom, which contains the potent natural psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT, and explores its entheogenic use • Proposes a new connection between the findings of modern physics and the knowledge held by shamans and religious sages for millennia The venom from Bufo alvarius, an unusual toad found in the Sonoran desert, contains 5-MeO-DMT, a potent natural chemical similar in effect to the more common entheogen DMT. The venom can be dried into a powder, which some researchers speculate was used ceremonially by Amerindian shamans. When smoked it prompts an instantaneous break with the physical world that causes out-of-body experiences completely removed from the conventional dimensions of reality. In Tryptamine Palace, James Oroc shares his personal experiences with 5-MeODMT, which led to a complete transformation of his understanding of himself and of the very fabric of reality. Driven to comprehend the transformational properties of this substance, Oroc combined extensive studies of physics and philosophy with the epiphanies he gained from his time at Burning Man. He discovered that ingesting tryptamines unlocked a fundamental human capacity for higher knowledge through direct contact with the zero-point field of modern physics, known to the ancients as the Akashic Field. In the quantum world of nonlocal interactions, the line between the physical and the mental dissolves. 5-MeO-DMT, Oroc argues, can act as a means to awaken the remarkable capacities of the human soul as well as restore experiential mystical spirituality to Western civilization.

The two-volume set LNCS 9366 and 9367 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Semantic Web Conference, ISWC 2015, held in Bethlehem, PA, USA, in October 2015. The International Semantic Web Conference is the premier forum for Semantic Web research, where cutting edge scientific results and technological innovations are presented, where problems and solutions are discussed, and where the future of this vision is being developed. It brings together specialists in fields such as artificial intelligence, databases, social networks, distributed computing, Web engineering, information systems, human-computer interaction, natural language processing, and the social sciences. The papers cover topics such as querying with SPARQL; querying linked data; linked data; ontology-based data access; ontology alignment; reasoning; instance matching, entity resolution and topic generation; RDF data dynamics; ontology extraction and generation; knowledge graphs and scientific data publication; ontology instance alignment; knowledge graphs; data processing, IoT, sensors; archiving and publishing scientific data; I oT and sensors; experiments; evaluation; and empirical studies. Part 1 (LNCS 9366) contains a total of 38 papers which were presented in the research track. They were carefully reviewed and selected from 172 submissions. Part 2 (LNCS 9367) contains 14 papers from the in-use and software track, 8 papers from the datasets and ontologies track, and 7 papers from the empirical studies and experiments track, selected, respectively, from 33, 35, and 23 submissions.

In Where Metaphors Come From, Zoltán Kövecses proposes a metaphorical grounding that augments and refines conceptual metaphor theory according to which conceptual metaphors are based on our bodily experience. While this is certainly true in many cases of metaphor, the role of the body in metaphor creation can and should be reinterpreted, and, consequently, the body can be seen as just one of the several contexts from which metaphors can emerge (including the situational, discourse, and conceptual-cognitive contexts) - although perhaps the dominant or crucial one. Kövecses is a leader in CMT, and his argument in this book is more in line with what has been discovered about the nature of human cognition in recent years; namely, that human cognition is grounded in experience in multiple ways - embodiment, in a strict sense, being just one of them (see Barsalou, 2008; Gibbs, 2006; Pecher and Zwaan, 2005). In light of the present work, this is because cognition, including metaphorical cognition, is grounded in not only the body, but also in the situations in which people act and lead their lives, the discourses in which they are engaged at any time in communicating and interacting with each other, and the conceptual knowledge they have accumulated about the world in the course of their experience of it.

These proceedings collect selected papers from the 8th International Conference on Green Intelligent Transportation Systems and Safety held in Changchun on July 1-2, 2017. The selected works, which include state-of-the-art studies, are intended to promote the development of green mobility and intelligent transportation technology to achieve interconnectivity, resource sharing, flexibility and higher efficiency. They offer valuable insights for researchers and engineers in the fields of Transportation Technology and Traffic Engineering, Automotive and Mechanical Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Electrical Engineering.