User:Mario Ludovico

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Biographical Notes

Mario Ludovico, born in Rome on the 12th of August 1936, author, is an Italian Architect, Town & Regional Planner. After a mathematics-physics biennium at the State University of Bari and a two-year military service, he frequented the Faculty of Architecture in Florence and at La Sapienza University in Rome, where he was awarded the Laurea in Architecture and Town Planning. He devoted a few years to researches in Regional Analysis at the Centro Studi e Documentazione sulla Pianificazione Territoriale (Centre of Studies & Documentation on Regional Planning) established in Rome (1966) by the National Council for Research (CNR). From 1962 to 1966 he was also an active member of the Centre Européen pour les Recherches sur la Gravitation (CERG - Rome). Subsequently, he started his activity as an independent professional, which engaged him across five continents for the preparation or implementation of architectural projects and of town/regional development plans. (A short professional curriculum is at http://www.mario-ludovico.com/pdf/cv.pdf )


Major Publications

   * L’evoluzione sintropica dei sistemi urbani (Syntropy in the Evolution of Urban Systems), Bulzoni, Roma 1988.

   (An English synthesis at http://www.mario-ludovico.com/pdf/cv.pdf )

Originally written for regional planners and socio-economists, the book is an attempt to provide professionals with a usable theory of complex systems. The description of self-organized systems is given through chains of interdependent sets of linear equations, which enable analysts to simulate behavior and evolution of coherent systems of “agents” (or “activators”) that are linked to each other by quantifiable interactions. One salient aspect of the theory is the introduction and use of the concept of “syntropy” viewed as a key indicator of the system’s degree of organization and efficiency. This concept is akin to the concept of “negentropy”, more recently adopted also by information theory and by statistics. The term “entropy” (originally used by Italian mathematician Luigi Fantappiè in 1944) is preferred instead of “negentropy”, since the latter might be misleading: The word “negentropy” may let one think of a negative quantity, whereas both entropy and the relevant complementary syntropy are always non-negative parameters associated with probability distributions. The formal expression for syntropy given by the theory is:

             S = 2LnN + ΣkΣj pjk Lnpjk ,  (j, k = 1,..., N)

where pjk is the probability of interaction between any pair of “agents” j and k, within a system that consists of N distinct “agents” (or “activators”), and

              -ΣkΣj pjk Lnpjk = E

is the statistical uncertainty (or entropy) associated with probability distribution {pjk}.

   * Dinamica di popolazione e risorse (Dynamics of Population and Resources), Bulzoni, Roma 1991.

The book proposes a macro-analysis of ecosystems as determined by the relationships between any biological population and the pertinent environment. Through a set of linear differential equations, it shows that the ecosystem’s equilibrium states are intrinsically unstable: The persisting existence of any population entails the expansion of the relevant mass of resources, even when the mass of the population keeps substantially constant. (A very short English summary at http://www.mario-ludovico.com/pdf/ecosystems.pdf)

Other Essays

   * Se sovrano è il popolo (If the People Are the Sovereign), Bulzoni, Roma 1997.

The book is a criticism to the current democratic regimes. It includes a proposal for an alternative form of democracy based on parliamentary representatives drawn by lots from people.

   * Vacuum and Gravitation, Edizioni della rosa, Bracciano 2004.

Philosophical essay on a possible alternative approach to the riddle of gravity through the study of the motions proper to the physical “vacuum”, the latter being viewed as a “fluid” continuum that doesn’t consist of component particles. (Full English version at http://www.mario-ludovico.com)

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