See my post on LinkedIn (replicated below) and join the discussion there:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_rough-draft-systemscomplexitycybernetics-activity-7246779585235664896-64Xz
pdf: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/85zlt0t6ph8qarx7d7gic/2024-09-27-rough-draft-systems-thinking-reading-list-v1.1BT.pdf?rlkey=3rfavacsy4n6sl8j0pyedph1q&st=qagh1418&dl=0
Commentable Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Tt8GgQQj4Qw4HnR7DxKeF370o_HlDlpv/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=115526108239573817578&rtpof=true&sd=true
How do you get into systems | complexity | cybernetics?
Here’s my rough reading list.
There are a lot of answers to the question, many of them connecting with some kind of disjointing break from ‘normal’ ways of seeing and being. Anything from being bullied at school to being dyslexic. Being in an outsider group. Naively applying thinking from one domain to another. Studying a technical problem long enough to suddenly see it in a completely different light – then either have your breakthrough celebrated or rejected.
It isn’t some mystic thing and it doesn’t require to you break from polite society. But it is one of the richest, weirdest, most diverse and challenging, inspiring and confounding, confronting and validating things you can study.
I’m often asked for a reading list for people interested in the field, and I usually suck my teeth. Some of the books are engaging, insightful, humorous, relevant. Others are dry as old twigs but less likely to kindle a spark.
Really, it depends on you and your context – as David Ing says, it’s better to talk of the thinkers and their individual constellations of interests, history, learning, and personal tendencies than it is to talk of schools and fields and separate places.
And even presenting this reading list, I’d say that I’d recommend Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Ursula K Le Guin, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Star Trek, old 20th Century Sci-Fi and Apartheid-era South African writing, art movies and music more – if you happen to be a bit like me. You’ll find your thing, if you’re interested.
But. The books are there – and many of them are *really good*. Top ones I’d recommend came out this decade
Hoverstadt’s Grammar of Systems
Jackson’s Critical Systems Thinking: A practitioner’s Guide
Opening the box – a slim little thing from SCiO colleagues
Essential Balances by Velitchkov
The attached list is a bit systems-practice focused. It is also too long and incomplete and partial simply for lack of time and energy.
There are *so many* flavours of systems thinking / complexity / cybernetics – do yourself a favour and don’t flog through stuff that doesn’t work for you, find things that bring your mind alive. Start with the articles and skim through.
But do start, because you will find in here the thinking and tools to find better ways of doing things for organisations, societies, the ecosystem, for people – and a lot of fun.
Tip: to save the pdf, hover over the image of the first page and find the rectangle bottom right – click that and it should go full screen. Top right you’ll have a download option, which when clicked will then resolve into a download button… (which might then open in your browser, but at least as a proper pdf you can save).
So… deep breath… what would you recommend? What do you think is missing?
Hello and welcome to the end of March mailing from SCiO. Please check the Events page on the website for updates https://www.systemspractice.org/events. Please note that you are welcome to attend any event (allowing for restrictions on members-only events) so long as you speak and understand the language.
COURSES
Please remember that All thirty-one courses now on the SCiO LMS are discounted 10% to members – use the discount code MEMBER10 when booking. The courses currently available are here.
Multi-course discounts: There is a discount of 20% for any four or more courses and 25% for considerably more. The full set of courses (including future additions) can be had with a 30% discount and this includes access to coaching.
Organisational Development Programmes: If your organisation is interested to use any or all of the courses, substantial discounts of around 50% are available and bespoke programmes can be prepared.
2026 CONFERENCE
The three-day conference: Systems Thinking Systems Practice, took place at Hull University from 24–26 March 2026. It was good to meet some of you there and I hope that you enjoyed it. SCiO was not as involved in the organisation this year and so I cannot guarantee that as much material will be made available. However, Hull have committed to making everything available that they can and this will include recordings of key note speakers and panels. Other material may be more piecemeal. We will structure it in a single page when we see what we have.
SCiO’s Development Event offer an opportunity to draw upon the collective expertise of SCiO members in a friendly and supportive atmosphere. By taking Development Events online, using the Zoom meeting platform, we aim to make them accessible to more SCiO members. Development Events are both for members who are just starting out on a journey to explore Systems Thinking approaches, and for those who have many years of exploration and practice. This is a bring your issues of interest Development Event.
Members only; FREE; Online event; English BOOK NOW
Virtual Open Meeting: A series of presentations of general interest to Systems and Complexity in Organisation’s members and others. SCiO organises Open Meetings to provide opportunities for practitioners to learn and develop new practice, to build relationships, networks hear about skills, tools, practice and experiences. This virtual meeting will be held on Zoom.
In deze laatste activiteit verkennen we hoe we vastgeroeste denkpatronen kunnen doorbreken en nieuwe perspectieven kunnen creëren. Door middel van provocatieve vragen onderzoeken deelnemers de grenzen van hun eigen systemische benadering verkennen en innovatieve oplossingen vinden voor complexe problemen. Enkele voorbeelden die relevant zouden kunnen zijn voor het systeem waarmee je geconfronteerd wordt:
“Wat als we het probleem precies tegenovergesteld zouden benaderen?”
“Stel dat de meest onwaarschijnlijke oplossing de juiste is, wat zou die dan zijn?”
“Wie zou er het meeste baat bij hebben als dit probleem niet werd opgelost?”
“Welke regels of aannames moeten we breken om een innovatieve oplossing te vinden?”
We vatten de avond zeer interactief op en werken in kleine groepjes, vertrekkende van de systemen waarmee de deelnemers worstelen. Het wordt een avond waarin we creatief, onconventioneel en respectvol gevoelige onderwerpen zullen omdenken.
Members only + guests; 50 euro; Kon. Astridlaan 144, 2800 Mechelen, Belgium; Dutch BOOK NOW
Zwischenergebnisse einer laufenden Dissertation zur Messbarkeit organisationaler Komplexität im industriellen Umfeld. Im Fokus: Wie nehmen operative Führungskräfte steigende Komplexität wahr – und inwieweit lässt sich diese Wahrnehmung datenbasiert im Unternehmen abbilden? Ein praxisnaher Einblick in erste Befunde, methodisches Vorgehen und weiterführende Forschungsfragen.
Organisaatiot ovat yhä suorituskykyisempiä. Ne optimoivat prosesseja, asettavat tavoitteita, seuraavat mittareita ja palkitsevat onnistumista. Nämä vahvuudet eivät kuitenkaan välttämättä takaa kestävää menestystä tai organisaation elinkelpoisuutta pitkällä aikavälillä. Esityksessä tarkastellaan suorituskykyä organisoivana logiikkana sekä sen rakenteellisia rajoja. Keskustelemme siitä, miten tavoitteilla johtaminen ja suorituskyvyn optimointi menettävät tehoaan ympäristöissä, joissa epälineaarisuus lisääntyy ja arviointikriteerit muuttuvat epävakaiksi, sekä siitä, kuinka nämä rajat usein tulkitaan toimeenpanon ongelmiksi sen sijaan, että kyseenalaistettaisiin taustalla olevia perusoletuksia. Esityksessä tehdään erottelu suorituskykylogiikan ja adaptiivisen logiikan välillä. Tarkoitus ei ole hylätä suorituskykyä, vaan paikantaa sen rajat – ja avata tilaa toisenlaiselle organisoinnin logiikalle.
SCIO-NL komt elke 1e of 2e vrijdag van de maand live bijeen, meestal in Woerden (Pelmolenlaan 2). Er staan (meestal) geen vaste onderwerpen op de agenda (daarvoor organiseren we specifieke andere meetings), maar de ervaring leert dat er altijd wel een interessant gesprek op gang komt over een systemisch onderwerp. Toegankelijk voor iedereen die de jaarlijkse fee voor de live-bijeenkomsten (€50,-) hiervoor betaald. En voor KNVI-leden. En voor gasten. Neem contact op via ed@doitogether.nl als je interesse hebt, maar nog geen lid van de club bent.
NL Members + guests; FREE; Pelmolenlaan 2, Woerden (At the Office) 5, Woerden, Netherlands; Dutch BOOK NOW
SCIO-NL komt elke 1e of 2e vrijdag van de maand live bijeen, meestal in Woerden (Pelmolenlaan 2). Er staan (meestal) geen vaste onderwerpen op de agenda (daarvoor organiseren we specifieke andere meetings), maar de ervaring leert dat er altijd wel een interessant gesprek op gang komt over een systemisch onderwerp. Toegankelijk voor iedereen die de jaarlijkse fee voor de live-bijeenkomsten (€50,-) hiervoor betaald. En voor KNVI-leden. En voor gasten. Neem contact op via ed@doitogether.nl als je interesse hebt, maar nog geen lid van de club bent.
NL Members + guests; FREE; Pelmolenlaan 2, Woerden (At the Office) 5, Woerden, Netherlands; Dutch BOOK NOW
[Requires one of those infernal ‘now check your email’ logins but the trick is to just keep registering – even if already registered – to read the full article]
Since Aristotle, we have attempted to avoid self-causation, giving rise to ontic dualisms, Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, and pancomputationalism. In this article, Francisco Varela develops an alternative axiomatic paradigm whose arithmetic and algebra allow us to address self-reference. The implications and interpretation of employing such an alternative mathematical foundation are remarkable, and that is why I will examine it today.
People who study C.S. Peirce would say reflective reasoning requires triadic relations at core and there is work being done on that. One of the challenges is clarifying the role of triadic relations in category theory and raising them into higher relief as fundamental operations.
Note. I was looking for a word to describe a random encounter with something that jogs one’s memory of a recurring theme — incident plays into the reflection theme and looked worth trying for now.
STPrism is not simply a digital library; it is an architectural framework designed to refract the differing point of views from Systems Thinking and Complexity Science into a coherent collection of principles distilled from the unique voices of individual thinkers.
Philosophical Foundations of General Systems Theory
I’m pleased to share a new paper:“Philosophical Foundations of General Systems Theory” (EFGST 01)
This paper sets out the philosophical basis for the Extended Framework for General Systems Theory (EFGST), integrating two complementary perspectives:
Cognitive Physicalism – everything that exists is physical and located in space–time, including cognition itself
Critical Realism – reality exists independently of our knowledge, but our understanding of it is always mediated
Together, these provide a realist yet epistemically modest foundation for systems science.
The paper explores several key implications, including:
systems as real, structured physical entities
knowledge as model-based and necessarily partial
the distinction between observable events and underlying causal structures and
the idea that the future is constrained but not predetermined, unfolding through branching possibilities shaped by interaction and agency.
One theme that runs throughout is that we never act directly on reality itself, but on representations of it; representations that are sufficient for action, but never complete.
To illustrate this, I’ve included a banner image accompanying the paper. You might like to take a careful look at it…
Download the paper (PDF): https://rational-understanding.com/EFGST#01
Also available on Academia: https://www.academia.edu/165229843/Philosophical_Foundations_of_General_Systems_Theory
This paper forms the first in a series developing a unified systems framework spanning physical, biological, and social domains.
Next in our Papers in Systems discussion series: “The Causal Texture of Organizational Environments” by Fred Emery and Eric Trist
The discussion will be led by Trond Hjorteland. Trond has been bringing many of these classics in sociotechnical systems to broader attention in our field. We are very excited that Trond will lead this!
When: Monday, April 6th, 2025, 1PM – 2PM Eastern Time (US/Canada) (19:00 CET). The Zoom room will remain open until 2:30PM for informal discussion. (Check time in your timezone: WorldTimeBuddy )
Some quotes to tease the appetite for reading this 1965 paper:
“A main problem in the study of organizational change is that the environmental contexts in which organizations exist are themselves changing—at an increasing rate, under the impact of technological change. This means that they demand consideration for their own sake.”
“This requires an extension of systems theory. The first steps in systems theory were taken in connection with the analysis of internal processes in organisms, or organizations, which involved relating parts to the whole.”
‘Organizational environments differ in their causal texture, both as regards degree of uncertainty and in many other important respects. A typology is suggested that identifies four ‘‘ideal types”‘
Papers in Systems Discussion: Causal Texture 1–2pm, April 6th, 2026 Remote View schedule Causal Texture of Organizational Environments Next in our Papers in Systems discussion series: “The Causal Texture of Organizational Environments” by Fred Emery and Eric Trist
The discussion will be led by Trond Hjorteland. Trond has been bringing many of these classics in sociotechnical systems to broader attention in our field. We are very excited that Trond will lead this!
When: Monday, April 6th, 2025, 1PM – 2PM Eastern Time (US/Canada) (19:00 CET). The Zoom room will remain open until 2:30PM for informal discussion. (Check time in your timezone: WorldTimeBuddy )
The paper is available at: https://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/64/04702605/0470260564.pdf
Some quotes to tease the appetite for reading this 1965 paper:
“A main problem in the study of organizational change is that the environmental contexts in which organizations exist are themselves changing—at an increasing rate, under the impact of technological change. This means that they demand consideration for their own sake.”
“This requires an extension of systems theory. The first steps in systems theory were taken in connection with the analysis of internal processes in organisms, or organizations, which involved relating parts to the whole.”
‘Organizational environments differ in their causal texture, both as regards degree of uncertainty and in many other important respects. A typology is suggested that identifies four ‘‘ideal types”‘
Subject: Differential Logic —
A point of contact with AI Knowledge Representation
Dear Jon,
Thank you for keeping the bell tolling — your framing of differential logic as the logic of variation arrives at a propitious moment.
For the past year I have been working at the intersection of knowledge representation, non‑logical reasoning, and AI systems, partly through the W3C AI Knowledge Representation Community Group (which I chair) and partly through independent research. One of the persistent problems we encounter is that classical propositional and first order logic, however powerful for static state description, cannot represent the dynamics of reasoning systems — what changes, how fast, under what perturbation.
Your formulation cuts right to it: ordinary propositional calculus describes positions in logical space; differential propositional calculus describes movement through it. The analogy to Leibniz–Newton augmenting Descartes marks a categorical shift.
This connects directly to work I have been developing on what I call the five‑corners framework, extending Nagarjuna’s “catuskoti” (the four‑cornered logic: true, false, both, neither — with Graham Priest’s fifth corner as refusal of the frame) toward a relational and co‑evolutionary account of knowledge. The catuskoti gives us positions; your differential extension gives us the calculus of transitions between them. The five corners are attractors; differential logic describes the manifold on which the system moves.
I am attaching a recent research note —
“Beyond Formal Logic: Non‑Logical Forms of Valid Reasoning and Their Implications for AI Knowledge Representation”. Online.
It documents three classes of reasoning that produce valid outcomes yet resist formalization in FOL: embodied ecological reasoning, somatic‑intuitive reasoning, and transrational insight.
I suspect your differential extension of propositional calculus may offer formal traction on at least the first two, precisely because it can represent how a reasoning agent’s truth‑value assignments shift as context changes.
I also noticed your reference to neural network activation states and competition constraints in relation to the boundary operator.
This is terrain I am actively exploring in connection with oscillatory network models and a citizen science project on anomalous luminous phenomena (where the signal is change, not static state). I may have to write a paper on that.
Paola Di Maio
Chair, W3C AI Knowledge Representation Community Group
Research Lead, Center for Systems, Knowledge Representation and Neuroscience, Ronin Institute
Dear Paola,
Many thanks for your kind reply and comments.
I was getting ready to devote a blog post (or two or three) by way of responding to your very substantial comments and I see you addressed the Systems Science Working Group but your post did not make it through to the web interface. Did you intend to post it there? It would help if I had a list link in my response if you did so. Otherwise, if it’s okay with you, I could just quote the whole of your remarks on my blog. Please let me know what you prefer.
Cognitive Physicalism – everything that exists is physical and located in space–time, including cognition itself
Download the paper (PDF): https://rational-understanding.com/EFGST#01
Also available on Academia: https://www.academia.edu/165229843/Philosophical_Foundations_of_General_Systems_Theory
Systems Community of Inquiry 
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