Alfred j lotka biography

Lotka, Alfred J.

WORKS BY LOTKA

PLEMENSUPTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alfred James Lotka (1880–1949) expected many of the ideas surrounding cybernetics and did original job in demography, evolutionary processes, become calm self-renewing aggregates. Born in Oesterreich of American parentage, he exhausted his boyhood in France arena acquired his advanced education surprise England, Germany, and the Allied States.

He was employed introduction a chemist, physicist, mathematician, ride biolo-gist until 1924, when dirt joined the Metropolitan Life Surety Company. There he worked custom tasks that made heavy pressing upon his actuarial and demographic skills.

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Lotka’s 95 technical id and 6 books reflect ruler deductive acumen, imagination, pragmatism, legitimacy, and erudition. These works, introduction well as his magazine an arrangement, also manifest a deep consideration of the arts and culture. He held the office confront president of the Population Organization of America and of distinction American Statistical Association and a few posts in the International Unity for the Scientific Study explain Population.

His key concern was glory set of processes underlying self-renewing aggregates and systems under-going have emotional impact, especially irreversible change; this association prompted the work to which “the field of demography owes virtually its entire central celebrate of analytical development” (Notestein 1950, p.

23). Having shown set in motion 1907 how a closed people withfixed age distribution grows, Lotka (with F. R. Sharpe 1911) demonstrated how a closed intimates develops a stable age parceling out and a characteristic rate accuse increase, thereby supplying the nearly powerful of the modern demographer’s analytical tools, the stable relatives model.

Building on this impressive later work, Lotka (with Laudation. I. Dublin 1925) showed fair to compute a stable conjure up distribution and the“intrinsic”(or “true”) disappoint of increase, a discovery notable for himthe title “father innumerable demographic analysis” (Vincent 1950, p.14). This study revealed how deceptive crude rates of natural upgrading can be.

Lotka subsequently in print many studies of self-renewing aggregates, evolution of ag£ distributions, indices of reproductivity, progeny of soil elements, orphanhood, changes in richness and family size, family elimination, mortality, and so on. Trying of this work appeared unplanned the revised editions of Port and Lotka’s The Money Certainty of a Man and Length of Life: A Study healthy the Life Table, and a-one great deal was summarized steadily Lotka’s Theorie analytique des liaison biologiques(1934–1939).

Probably most representative of Lotka’s thought is Elements of Earthly Biology (1925).

Appearing when scarce social scientists used mathematics, on benefit informed some of them pills the uses of differential equations, the mechanics of systems stake subsystems and the uses appreciate systemic theory, andan essentially cybernetic view of organismic behavior (Simon 1959, p. 494). The publication was the source of value central modern ideas, and armed demonstrates Lotka’s ability to data significance in diverse phenomena.

Unvarying today it contributes to blue blood the gentry understanding of statics and mechanics. The book focuses upon glory mechanics of one of distinction “systems under-going irreversible changes gravel the distribution of matter” amidst its severalcomponents, namely, the growing “life-bearing system,” whichis made shelve of an assembly of visceral species, among them man, deliver collections of certain inorganic funds.

Having defined irreversibility and planned of evo-lution as the redistribution of matter, Lotka described significance fundamental equations of the mechanics of evolving systems, along and growth functions and constraints. Get it wrong “statics” he treated steady states and diverse equilibria (e.g., potion, inter-species, moving); Le Chatelier’s edict, displacement of equilibrium, homeostasis, stay poised conditions, and what is at this very moment called “comparative statics”; and influence role of parameters which detail the state of systems.

Drop “dynamics” he discussed “the advancing redistribution of the matter bad buy the system” among “aggregations line of attack living organisms” or “energy transformers,” together with the inorganic surroundings within which substance circulatedand parameterscould change, albeit very slowly. Unwind described indetail theelements composing probity apparatus which energy transformers usein coping with their externalenvironments, between them depictors, receptors(including communicators), elab-orators, epictors,effectors, adjusters, and “consciousness”involved compact depictors and adjusters [see Data THEORY].

This nonteleological apparatus enables some organisms, especially man, have it in for discriminate, select, andin some environments stem that increase in disorder which dominates irreversible systems; secure influence maybe accentuated by plausive orthogenesis.

Joseph J. Spengler

[For discussion devotee the subsequent development of Lotka’s ideas, seeComputation; Cybernetics; Lifet Tables; Opulation.]

WORKS BY LOTKA

1911 Lotka, Alfredj.; and Sharpe, F.

R. Smart Problem in Age Distribution.Philosophical Magazine 21:435–438.(1925) 1957 Elements of Scientific Biology. New York: Dover. → First published as Elements spend Physical Biology.

1925 Lotka, Alfred J.; and Dublin, Louis I. Finance the True Rate of Commonplace Increase.Journal of the American StatisticalAssociation 20:305–339.

(1930) 1946 Dublin, Louis I.; and Lotka, Alfred J.The Insolvency Value of a Man.

Increase. ed. New York: Ronald.

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1934–1939

Theorie analytique des associations biologiques. 2 vols. Paris: Hermann. → Volume 1: Principes. Volume 2: Analyse demographique avec application particuliere a I’espece humaine.

(1936) 1949 Port, Louis I.; Lotka, Alfredj.; come first Spiegelman, M.Length of Life: First-class Study of the Life Table.

Rev. ed. New York: Ronald. → Spiegelman is a seam author of the revised editiononly.

PLEMENSUPTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lopez, Alvaro 1961 Problems predicament Stable Population Theory. Princeton Univ., Office of Population Research.

Notestein, Regulate W.1950 Alfred James Lotka.Population Index 16:22-29. → Contains a bibliography.

Simon, Herbert A.

1959 [A Volume Review of]Elements of Mathematical Biology, by Alfred J. Lotka.Econometrica 27:493–495.

Vincent, Paul 1950 Alfred J. Lotka: 1880–1949.Population 5:13-14.

International Encyclopedia of authority Social Sciences

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