Thomas Manning

The ontological status of a concept is typically conceived by either: (i) relating to abstract objects, (ii) relating to abilities, or (iii) relating to mental representations. I advocate for a fourth reading, whereby a concept is a process that preserves the logical coherence of a complex of topic relations throughout ongoing conversational interactions. Concepts in this account are not tokenesqe structures as typically conceived: Instead, they are non-localised coherences that emerge and stabilise themselves through conversational interactions. I suggest how conversation theory embodies this reading and how it could provide a potential non-representational avenue for emulating conceptualisation processes within artificial intelligence and machine learning.

In the last decade, there has been a growing interest in advancements made in artificial intelligence via modern natural language processing techniques utilising artificial neural networks in the form of large language models. This has led to the emergence of conversational technologies like ChatGPT, which mimic aspects of the conversational processes that occur between humans. However, it is contended that the model of conversation proposed above is inadequate as a model of human-like conversation. Already, far simpler models are found in the context of autonomous agents and multiagent systems theory (AAMAS), whilst more primitive are better representations of the types of primordial interactions found before the development of conversation proper. But whilst these developments are on the right track regarding replicating the emergence of actual conversational systems, there already exists a preexisting methodology so far not utilised in the context of AAMAS that could be used which better replicate the kind of conversations we humans have with each other. Thus, conversation theory (CT)—which is a cybernetic theory of concept-forming and concept-sharing via conversation—is suggested in this paper as a systems-oriented and cybernetic design methodology that could be used to design and model conversational interactions in AAMAS. Unlike contemporary approaches to the design of conversational and conceptual systems, conversation theory is specifically concerned with the following: How the formation of coherent structures of self-reproducing topics—i.e., the concept—via conversation permits the convergence of shared understandings through positing and testing for analogy relations holding between one participant’s concept with another’s concept. One key benefit of utilising this approach for conversational design in the context of researchers working in AAMAS is that its insights are built upon (currently underutilised) literature from educational psychology and early childhood studies. Because of this, it is held in this text that conversation theory has untapped potential as a methodology for designing and analysing conversational interactions that involve mutual conceptualisation between discursive agents.

This three-part paper presents Gordon Pask’s conversation theory (CT) and interaction of actors theory (IA) and outlines ways to apply these cybernetic approaches to designing technologies and scenarios for both formal and informal learning. The first part of the paper covers concepts central to CT and IA, explaining the relationship between conceptual and mechanical operators, and machines mediating informal and formal learning. The second part of the paper applies visual representations of CT and IA to understanding the use of Pask’s course assembly systems (CASTE and THOUGHTSTICKER), created between the late 1960s and the 1980s, and the ThoughtShuffler search interface, created in the 2010s. The third part proposes two pathways for design based on CT and IA: firstly, the potential for designers and observers to reformulate the qualities of tools and learning scenarios to augment human thinking and collective action; and secondly, the possibility to create tools with malleable interfaces that allow users to become intermediaries rather than consumers of knowledge.

This workshop unearths the potential of applying principles of cybernetics to curriculum and educational technology design. Here, we focus on using technology-assisted learning scenarios at the confluence of education, psychology, and computer science as an asset for adults to learn the skills for critical Internet navigation; skills we argue are an integral part of life in the Information Age. The first part of the workshop begins with an introduction to what von Foerster called Gordon Pask’s first theorem (a basic framework of human-tool conversations), which was used to design classes in heuristics at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and involved project-based community and artefact development. It then describes how this approach was replicated to co-design educational psychology classes at The Ohio State University in 2022-2023 to help preservice teachers engage in metareflection about their future careers. A small group discussion between workshop participants follows to understand how tools and activities used in these classes (social media, block programming, co-authoring, podcasting) can be adapted for other subject classrooms. The second part of the workshop focuses on fine-tuning the build of educational technologies like search engines to spur concept development. We invite volunteers to interact with our Paskian search engine, ThoughtShuffler, which uses an uncertainty regulation mechanism to organize search results for lateral reading, and present results from an experimental study showing the tool has the potential to engender higher-order reflectivity in information search. We suggest principles of cybernetics can be used to co-design sociotechnical systems and sharpen both human and machine functioning within them, presenting hopes for human adaptation to an information-saturated future.

The purpose of this study is to compile a selection of the various formalisms found in conversation theory to introduce readers to Pask's discursive algebra. In this way, the text demonstrates how concept sharing and concept formation by means of the interaction of two participants may be formalized. The approach taken in this study is to examine the formal notation system used by Pask and demonstrate how such formalisms may be used to represent concept sharing and concept formation through conversation. The compilation of the discursive algebra using the framework provided by conversation theory could potentially be used as an auxiliary framework to study conversational interactions in multi-agent systems theory.

The purpose of the following text is to give readers a general introduction to Gordon Pask’s conversation theory, which is considered here to be a cybernetic and epistemological account of concept-forming and concept-sharing through conversational discourse and practice. While Pask devoted three lengthy tomes to articulate the theory and its applications, I believe it is necessary to give readers who are interested in conversation theory a general introduction to what I believe are the key features of his work in this area. I argue that conversation theory should be considered an inferential account of the theory of concepts rather than a representational account, by virtue of Pask’s argument that a concept must be a process that involves many other concepts.