antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 9:40 am on August 10, 2026

announcing The Necessary Tangle – a living evidence atlas of systems | cybernetics | complexity

I’ve been wanting for years to do a ‘better map’ of systems | complexity | cybernetics, having strongly criticised the Castellani ‘complexity map’ and seen some others – and been involved in the SCiO SysBoK where we tried to map key concepts, their necessary antecedents and dependent thingummies, people, meaning, and so on (- and always inspired by ‘rock family trees’ and the way it’s the constellation of influences and people around individual practitioners that actually makes the difference, as David Ing says).

So with the assistance of ChatGPT, and I’ve been building The Necessary Tangle – a living, evidence-backed atlas of systems | complexity | cybernetics.

It currently maps 411 public entries and 32 developed profiles from 93 registered sources.

The key difference from the usual family tree is that every line has to say what sort of relationship it represents: logical antecedent, historical precursor, documented influence, teaching, collaboration, practical use, and so on.

The eventual ambition to: trace the human as well as conceptual lineages; connect theory to practice; distinguish espoused intellectual genealogy from the clusters the evidence actually produces; and let categories emerge from the resulting network rather than deciding the schools in advance.

It’s very much a public alpha. Some areas are already quite deep; others are little more than markers saying ‘this belongs here’. I’m putting it out now precisely because corrections, missing connections, rival genealogies and ‘surely you can’t say that’ responses are part of building it.

AND I’m very happy to share, collaborate or whatever….

Have a look
https://transduction.systems

Benjamin
www.antlerboy.com

Jon Awbrey 10:52 am on August 28, 2026
Tags: Arithmetization ( 7 ), C.S. Peirce ( 70 ), Gödel Numbers ( 7 ), Higher Order Sign Relations ( 7 ), Inquiry Driven Systems ( 34 ), Inquiry Into Inquiry ( 10 ), logic ( 72 ), Mathematics ( 57 ), Quotation ( 7 ), Recursion ( 8 ), reflection ( 8 ), Reflective Interpretive Frameworks ( 7 ), Semiotics ( 47 ), Sign Relations ( 43 ), Triadic Relations ( 24 ), Use and Mention ( 7 ), Visualization ( 39 )

Reflective Interpretive Frameworks • Incident 2

Re: Terence Tao • Modular Arithmetic Challenge

Can a neural network learn to do modular multiplication efficiently?

Incidental Reflection 1

There are alternative models of neural networks which do not depend on threshold neurons and endlessly fiddling with weights.

Incidental Reflection 2

The series of three blog posts linked below present a case study comparing two ways of handling a classic example from the Parallel Distributed Processing paradigm, namely, the “Jets and Sharks” database problem, first taking up the original treatment by McClelland and Rumelhart and then proceeding according to a program I developed for propositional logic modeling. The latter method makes use of ideas from Grossberg’s competition‑cooperation and winner‑take‑all dynamics, but is purely propositional‑logic based, involving no extraneous weights.

Theme One Program • Jets and Sharks • (1) • (2) • (3)

Resources

cc: Academia.edu • Cybernetics • Laws of Form • Ma^thstodon
cc: Research Gate • Structural Modeling • Systems Science • Syscoi

#arithmetization, #c-s-peirce, #godel-numbers, #higher-order-sign-relations, #inquiry-driven-systems, #inquiry-into-inquiry, #logic, #mathematics, #quotation, #recursion, #reflection, #reflective-interpretive-frameworks, #semiotics, #sign-relations, #triadic-relations, #use-and-mention, #visualization

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 5:14 am on August 28, 2026

John Challoner new paper and course modules: Foundational Causality (2026)

John A Challoner on facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/ISARC51Sociocybernetics/?multi_permalinks=10167637583268709&notif_id=1787904672000000&notif_t=group_activity&ref=notif

AI content

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New paper and course modules: Foundational Causality

Causality is fundamental to systems thinking, explanation, diagnosis and intervention. Yet causal relationships are often represented in highly compressed form: A → B.

My latest General Systems Theory paper, Foundational Causality, asks what lies behind that arrow.

Beginning with processes and physical transfers of matter, energy and embodied information, the paper progressively examines multiple causal contributions, causal chains and networks, PTP and TPT perspectives, recurring causal structures, persistent causal organisation, conditions and constraints, systems and emergence, causal leverage, and the development of causal knowledge.

A central idea is causal decompression: progressively exposing the processes, transfers, conditions and constraints concealed within apparently simple causal relationships.

The paper is accompanied by eleven free course modules (GST 81–91). These take the learner from elementary cause-and-effect reasoning through causal networks and systems to leverage, causal knowledge and the interaction between hypotheses, explanations and theories.

A single flooding example develops throughout the modules so that learners can see a simple causal representation progressively become a systems-level causal analysis.

Recent research in science education has highlighted the importance of mechanistic reasoning, while other recent work has explicitly explored its relationship with systems thinking. The paper approaches that territory from a General Systems Theory perspective.

I would particularly welcome comments, criticisms and suggestions from systems thinkers, educators and researchers.

Alongside the paper I have also published a new set of General Systems Theory course modules featuring plain-English explanations, diagrams, examples, and practical exercises.

Both the paper and the course modules are open access. The paper is available at:

https://www.academia.edu/172…/Foundational_Causality_Vers4

EFGST

The course materials are available in two ways:

Open access (self-paced): https://rational-understanding.com/gst-course/

Supported learning: via Google Classroom through the ISSS Student SIG

Those in full-time or part-time education are especially encouraged to join the Student SIG, where they can benefit from guidance by experienced systems scientists, discussion with fellow learners, and access to a wider international community. To join go to:

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 5:00 am on August 27, 2026

QSEM: systems mapping with analytical power update 16th August 2026

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adam-hulme-234026226_systemsthinking-systemsscience-analysis-ugcPost-7494687580999811072-iDEO/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAACuq-oBecVFDW6PCf3lkoG-peMeuLBeoho

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 1:45 am on August 27, 2026

Harish’s Notebook – The Ladder That Never Comes Down – Jose (2026)

The Ladder That Never Comes Down:

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 11:44 am on August 26, 2026

The third dimension of Corporate Central Functions:Learnings from the application of the Viable System Model

https://lnkd.in/p/dHurPn-f

“I have drilled two pretty thick boards with the VSM this year and learned a lot. I’m looking forward to sharing this with you!”

That is how Judith Hennemann describes what she will bring to our next Metaphorum VSM-Practitioner Webinar on 9 September, 6:00–7:00 pm CET.

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 11:41 am on August 26, 2026

#63 Chris Rodgers – The Wiggly World of Organizations – YouTube

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 11:40 am on August 26, 2026

Vacancy Details IRC2362539

Vacancy Details IRC2362539

Senior Systems Thinking Manager

As Senior Systems Thinking Manager, you’ll be one of the leading Systems Thinking practitioners within the organisation, helping shape how the railway approaches complex operational, strategic and organisational challenges.
– Full Time Hours
– Salary: £85,395 – £104,160
– Location: London Puddle Dock, Blackfriars
– Closing Date: 30/08/2026

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 5:22 am on August 26, 2026

Exploring the role of the Knowledge Weaver | Q Community

https://q.thenhsalliance.org/get-involved/events/exploring-the-role-of-the-knowledge-weaver

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 5:19 am on August 26, 2026

Cybernetics in the Annex: Commemorating Stafford Beer’s Centenary + Summer Conferences Recap | Guild

https://guild.host/events/cybernetics-in-the-annex-tbara6

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 2:33 pm on August 22, 2026

A good – even a big – deal: Barry Oshry’s Encounters with the Other just became free!

Encounters with the Other

How we continue to misunderstand, dehumanize, scorn, humiliate, oppress − and even kill − others.
And how we can stop.

Barry Oshry
Encounters with the Other – Triarchy Press

https://www.triarchypress.net/encounters.html

Jon Awbrey 9:30 am on August 21, 2026
Tags: Abduction ( 18 ), C.S. Peirce ( 70 ), Comprehension ( 15 ), Deduction ( 20 ), Extension ( 15 ), Hypothesis ( 14 ), Icon Index Symbol ( 20 ), Induction ( 22 ), Inference ( 15 ), Information = Comprehension × Extension ( 17 ), inquiry ( 36 ), Intension ( 14 ), logic ( 72 ), Peirce's Categories ( 14 ), Pragmatic Semiotic Information ( 14 ), Pragmatism ( 15 ), Scientific Method ( 18 ), Semiotics ( 47 ), Sign Relations ( 43 )

Information = Comprehension × Extension • Comment 7

Let’s stay with Peirce’s example of inductive inference a little longer and try to clear up the more troublesome confusions tending to arise.

Figure 2 shows the implication ordering of logical terms in the form of a lattice diagram.

$\text{Figure 2. Disjunctive Term}~ u, \text{Taken as Subject}$

Figure 4 shows an inductive step of inquiry, as taken on the cue of an indicial sign.

$\text{Figure 4. Disjunctive Subject}~ u, \text{Induction of Rule}~ v \Rightarrow w$

One final point needs to be stressed. It is important to recognize the disjunctive term itself — the syntactic formula “neat, swine, sheep, deer” or any logically equivalent formula — is not an index but a symbol.‡ It has the character of an artificial symbol which is constructed to fill a place in a formal system of symbols, for example, a propositional calculus. In that setting it would normally be interpreted as a logical disjunction of four elementary propositions, denoting anything in the universe of discourse which has any of the four corresponding properties.

The artificial symbol “neat, swine, sheep, deer” denotes objects which serve as indices of the genus herbivore by virtue of their belonging to one of the four named species of herbivore. But there is in addition a natural symbol which serves to unify the manifold of given species, namely, the concept of a cloven‑hoofed animal.

As a symbol or general representation, the concept of a cloven‑hoofed animal connotes an attribute and connotes it in such a way as to determine what it denotes. Thus we observe a natural expansion in the connotation of the symbol, amounting to what Peirce calls the “superfluous comprehension”, the information added by an “ampliative” or synthetic inference.

In sum we have sufficient information to motivate an inductive inference, from the Fact $u \Rightarrow w$ and the Case $u \Rightarrow v$ to the Rule $v \Rightarrow w.$

Remark

Here, once again, I have departed from using symbol in the precise technical sense Peirce introduced at the beginning of this discussion, reverting to the more ordinary sense all of us, Peirce included, tend to use on other occasions. Perhaps the best way to smooth the wrinkle in usage is to mark a distinction among symbols, singling out the natural, normal, canonical, or simple symbols within the more general run of artificial, compound, or complex types. Taking that tack has the beneficial side‑effect of aligning the work of abduction and induction, at least, in a pre‑established universe of discourse, with the mainstream of work in computation which takes us from dubious terms to clear signs for the objects of our interest.

References

Peirce, C.S. (1866), “The Logic of Science, or, Induction and Hypothesis”, Lowell Lectures of 1866, pp. 357–504 in Writings of Charles S. Peirce : A Chronological Edition, Volume 1, 1857–1866, Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1982.
Peirce, C.S. (1867), “Upon Logical Comprehension and Extension”, Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 7, pp. 416–432. Archive. Online.