CELLULAR AUTOMATA AND MACHINE 4.0

by Achim Szepanski

​It was one of Leibniz's intentions to show that the world is made up of elemental automata that he called "monads." Monads, which each consist of aggregates and form complex automats, can be fanned further and further into Leibniz's infinite small, from the organism to the elementary particles, without ever coming to a final atom. And always the Monad is coded, in so far as it is inscribed the entire present, past and future. If today's cellular automata are to function like a universal Turing machine, then for progress-believing authors who discuss Leibniz in terms of atomism rather than Deleuze in the context of the fold, this means nothing more than that the world's organizing principle is that of the computer and its progressive capacities in which Moore's Law is constantly pushing forward the progression, so that one can overcome again and again all technical problems. The smallest calculating machines today contain a lot of electronic components, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to guarantee the power supply to the digital machines and to control excessive heat generation. Thus, the biological model remains, under very different conditions, still unreached.

​According to Klaus Mainzer, cellular automata consist of "checkerboard-like grids, whose cells change their states (eg the colors black or white) according to selected rules and thereby depend on the color distribution of the respective cell environments" (Mainzer 2014: 25). They are mostly two-dimensional grids (one- or multi-dimensional grids are also possible), whose cells have discrete states, but which can change over time.

​All cells must be identical, so they behave according to the same rules. In addition, since all rules are executed stepwise and discretely, the automatic network operates synchronously and clocked. And each cell can relate to neighboring cells according to certain rules by comparing its own state with that of the other cells with each clock cycle in order to calculate its new state from this data. Thus, the state of the respective cell results at a time t from the previous state t-1 and the state of the neighboring cells, which in turn are in connection with further neighboring cells. Cellular automata are thus characterized by their interactive dynamics in time and space.

In the universe of cellular automata, space is a discrete set of cells (chain and lattice) that have a discrete number of possible states and that transform and update in discrete time steps. Finally, a cellular automaton can be specified as follows: 1. Cell space: size of the field and number of dimensions. 2. Boundary conditions. 3. Neighborhood and radius of influence of cells on each other. 4. Set of possible states of a cell. 5. Neighborhood and self-change of the cells. 6. Ambient function that indicates to which other cells a cell is connected. With the help of powerful computer services, pattern developments of future generations of cells can then be simulated. According to Mainzer, the cells of a cellular automaton that react to their respective environment behave like a swarming intelligence. (Ibid .: 161) Such a pattern formation of cellular automata can be modeled with the help of differential equations.

​A configuration of cells is considered stable if and only if it matches its successor, but it will disappear in the next generation if all its cells are in the white state. Mainzer writes: "In this case, the entire system is destabilized. It could be said that two dead isolated cells are brought to life through coupling and diffusion. The awakening to life becomes precisely calculable. "(Ibid .: 138) Mainzer presumably assumes that life could have come about through a simple process," through coupling and diffusion, "although we are not yet in a self-preserving way "Substance and energy exchange" of an organism have to do. Nevertheless, there does seem to be "a definite reaction-diffusion equation" that has "a limit cycle, that is, an oscillating solution" (ibid .: 139). If border-cycle means something like an inside-outside difference, then we actually have an indication of the spontaneous emergence of life here. The term "oscillation," according to Mainzer, refers to the "cycle of a metabolism." And Mainzer notes that we are leaving the realm of entropy here.

​The disarray or dissolution of a closed system can possibly be compensated by a specific opening of the system, in which the destruction is attacked by an incomplete new regulation, by a deviation, which can also lead to order again. The times of the destruction of the order (thermodynamics) and the times of the composition of the parts (negentropy) are integrated into the thermodynamics of open systems. (Serres: 1994: 103) Serres speaks of life as a multi-faceted, polychronic process, bathing as a Syrrhese in the flow of several times. Bergson's duration, Prigogine's deviation from reversibility and irreversibility, Darwin's evolution, and Boltzmann's disorder.) Finally, with Serres' conception of an open polychronology, it can be summed up that the idea that one could coherently describe the complex forms of the universe with the help of the logic of cellular automata is only another variation of the philosophical decision, which is the possibility of capturing  the infinity of the data as a scientifically consistent theory. But things are not that easy. Let us visualize the distinction between smooth and notched spaces made by Deleuze / Guattari in a thousand plateaus. Networks are less in smooth mode, they are more strictly stratified. And stratified networks can be compared to the logic of cellular automata or cellular spaces. These networks were described in the 1950s by scientists such as John von Neumann and Nils Aall Barricelli. Cellular spaces, be they the mentioned lattices or elastic topologies, always contain clear distinctions between links and nodes as well as between one node and another. Such networks could now be contrasted with non-cellular spaces such as Konrad Wachsmann's »grapevine structures« or the works of the architect Lebbeus Woods, in which there is no clear separation between links and nodes or between the nodes. Instead, the smooth form dominates here, governed by various "logics": hydraulics, metallurgies, and pure difference in motion, flow, and variation. (See Deleuze/ Guattari 1992: 409) However, it has already been pointed out elsewhere that this type of multilateral dynamic nomadic network, which Deleuze/Guattari calls a "rhizome," has to do with the volatile, virtualization-in-circuit updating processing, real-money capital can be compatible.

​Let's briefly look at new trends in automation, which today summarizes the feature pages under the label "Industry 4.0". Following a linearly conceived genealogy of the history of technology, the first epoch of industrialization begins with the steam engine, which is replaced by the epoch of electrification and Taylorization, and this in turn by the third epoch of digital automation and the introduction of robots. With the online networking of the machines in real time (Cyber-physical Systems) is today allegedly reached the fourth stage of the industrial revolution. "Cyber-physical systems" organize themselves largely autonomously via the mode of intelligent interfaces, for example as "smart grids" or "smart cities".

The term "Industry 4.0" thus refers to machine complexes that are networked without exception online and usually process in an internal and of course secure production network. One speaks now of the "Internet of Things". It can be assumed that in the future "smart factories" mainly networked machines are active, which also largely control themselves in the networks. All the machines in a company are now online and every single machine part communicates when it is equipped with sensors, RFID chips and specific software functions, not only with other machine parts, but also in certain lines and along lines with the areas of management, transport and logistics , Sales and shipping.It is no longer the computer, it is the IT networks themselves that are growing together with the physical and immaterial infrastructures, and this happens beyond the respective production sites, including the external environment of the companies, vehicles, home appliances or supermarket shelves. Even today, infrastructure tasks and the functioning of logistics are so complex that "cyber-physical systems" are absolutely necessary for the self-organization and automation of logistics, supply, health and transport systems. In doing so, local places like factories are tapped as databases, but the arithmetic operations themselves usually take place in remote places. In any case, the computing operations from the isolated computers migrate to networked environments where they process on the basis of sensor data and technologies, which not only collect and distribute data but also use them to calculate future events based on algorithmic techniques. In addition, the machines should be permanently addressable by means of the RFID tags, and their own paths should be sought in the global logistics chains for packet switching networks. The storage, evaluation and indexing of the data takes place in so-called Clouds of the data center.

The online-integrated human actors will communicate directly with the machines: the machines command the actors what they are doing and vice versa, the actors give orders to the machines what they have to do. It could also be that in the internal networks of the companies to similar modulations, relations and functions as in the Internet 2.0 comes. In principle, any access to the machine complexes could be done in real time, every machine is permanently reachable, and every machine can send signals on the spot, just in time and as needed. With the Industry 4.0 becomes a customer-oriented production possible, it is produced "on-demand", i. e. Consumption is adjusted to individual individuals. Sensors capture gigantic amounts of data ("big data") in order to observe and control the production processes. At this point, however, the immediate question would be how to determine the storage and access rights to the data in the future. If "big data" migrates into factory halls, then the comparatively transparent production processes also facilitate the manipulation possibilities, so that the highly complex systems become even more sensitive to disturbances - local irregularities can be cascaded in the sense of chaos theory.

As modular components of networks, human and non-human agents are integrated into the dynamics of permanent business communication via the online mode. The distinction between analog (carbon-based, offline) and digital (silicon-based, online) areas is breaking up, with the latter overflowing and mixing with the former. These phenomena are known as Ubiquitous Computing, Ambient Intelligence or the Internet of Things. The information theorist Luciano Floridi speaks here of a ubiquitous »on-life experience«, the drift into the post-human or the inhumane, in which the boundaries between the human, the technology and nature are blurred, and further from a shift from scarcity to overflowing with information, from the entities to the process and the relations (to the substance). (See Floridi 2013) All of this involves new forms of control and power that run in multidimensional dimensions and lines, including corporate, technological, scientific, military and cultural elements.

​However, it is also necessary to put the term "Industry 4.0" into perspective. From the very beginning, microelectronics has had to do with the revolution in production and distribution, such as computer-aided design (CAD) or the various control technologies in the industry. And the associated increase in productivity dragged through all sectors of the economy, be it industrial production, agricultural production or raw material extraction, including the non-productive sectors of the state.

The accelerated growth driven by computer and information technologies is called "singularity" in scientific circles, but it has to be distinguished between technical and economic singularity. The economic singularity is measured by the general development of the substitutability between information and conventional inputs. The economist William D. Nordhaus has pointed out in a new study that economic growth depends on how much material can be replaced by electronics. In addition, at the macroeconomic level, account should be taken of the fact that higher productivity leads to lower prices, with the result that only an increasing proportion of high-productivity sectors can be demonstrated in toto if their volume increase overcompensates for the fall in prices. Nordhaus also investigates the question of the permanent substitutability of certain factors of production through information at the organizational level. (See Nordhaus 2015) He proves that this has not been the case in the past and predicts only a slow development towards the economic singularity for the 21st century, although capital intensity will continue to increase in favor of the capital stock (compared to the workload) hence also the share of the information capital. Nevertheless, digital information and communication technologies in the new millennium are expected to have helped establish a new level of productivity in production and distribution, by streamlining and accelerating trade between companies; rationalization processes in the global supply chains and in the supplier industry that enable the reorganization of areas such as architecture, urban planning, health care, etc. The software, with which management methods, derivatives, and digital logistics are processed, may well be understood as a basic innovation, which is integrated into a new technical-economic paradigm.3 (See Perez 2002: IX)

In the context of the neo-imperialism of the world's leading industrialized countries, in the future, 4.0.-industries are needed to secure their own competitive advantages. So it is no coincidence that German scientists are constantly pointing out that the industrial Internet can provide a central locational advantage for both Germany and the European Union. Based on a world-leading engine, automotive and supply industry, it is important to rapidly develop new technologies that can connect factories, energy, transportation, and data networks on a global scale. The state also had to provide intensive research and development programs to secure its location advantage.

​This requires a sophisticated and complex logistics industry. Logistics is a sub-discipline of Operations Management. It quickly gained in importance as a result of containerization and its integration into the utilization chains of global capital. Concentrating on the product, on its efficiency and quality, is increasingly losing importance in globalized value chains, but instead capital exploitation is more along lines of abstract lines that process in spirals and cybernetic feedback loops, which in turn are integrated into ubiquitous digital networking , Companies like Google and Amazon are playing an increasingly important role in that the relation between production and consumption is weighted more strongly than the product and at the same time mixed in a unique way in the operational processes of horizontality and verticality. Verticality refers to the line manager who has to operate or supervise the "algorithmic" metrics and rhythms along others. tried to eliminate the error rate and slowness of the human decision. The line manager works along the operational lines, his function in the production processes is chiefly that of an enforcement agency, which gives commands while at the same time the rhythm of the production processes operates through it. After all, management seems to be mainly concerned with protecting the algorithmically organized production processes from the resistance of the workers. And finally, on the line means also working in the "progressive" mode working on the line, constantly improving, expanding, adding to it, to set a new line. This is also the new role of senior management, which knows no managers but only "leaders".

Deleuze, Gilles / Guattari, Félix (1974): Anti-Oedipus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia 1. Frankfurt / M
- (1992): Thousand plateaus. Capitalism and schizophrenia. Berlin.
- (1996): What is philosophy. Frankfurt / M.
Floridi, Luciano (2013): The Philosophy of Information. Oxford / New York.
Mainzer, Klaus (2014): The calculation of the world. From the world formula to big data. Munich
Serres, Michel (1991): Hermes I. Communication. Berlin.
- (1993): Hermes IV. Distribution. Berlin.
- (1994): Hermes V. The Northwest Passage. Berlin.
- (2008): Clarifications. Five talks with Bruno Latour. Berlin.

translated by Dejan Stojkovski

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