In today’s post, I am looking with more depth at the ideas of Cybernetics with relation to Ross Ashby, one of the pioneers of Cybernetics.
In particular, I am looking at one of the Ashby aphorisms:
When a machine breaks, it changes its mind.
This is a very interesting observation from a Cybernetics standpoint. Ashby defined a machine as follows:
It is a collection of parts which (a) alter in time, and (b) which interact with on one another in some determinate and known manner.
A designer designs the machine specific to an environment. This means that the designer has encoded a model of the environment into the machine so that when certain perturbations are encountered, the machine reacts in a certain manner. The variety that is estimated to be “thrown” at the machine is captured by the designer, and appropriate responses are encoded into the parts or the circuitry…
One of the interesting hypotheses that DEFINITELY NEEDS MORE WORK, BUT IS LIKELY TRUE is the idea that, through Conway’s Law, values from the social organization transfer into the products developed by organizations will inherently embody the values that those organizations hold. We can revisit the Intermediate Corollary in these three slides, which say:
A continuation of the Requisite Agility movement (I’m part of RA, though not this conference) – drop me a line as I have a few free tickets, and a price reduction code once they’ve gone. Benjamin
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The Classical Renaissance, a period of artistic, architectural, and scientific discovery, was launched by the Black Death of the 14th Century.
Our Renaissance, the Renaissance of the 2020 global pandemic, spearheaded by leaders like you, is a period of elevated empathy, emotional resiliency, and consciousness manifest in your organizations that lighten the hearts and minds of your people and your clients.It is time to lead your people differently by elevating the consciousness of your leadership and your organizations – uplifting the hearts and minds of your people and your clients.
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an edited collection of 39 original papers and as many commentaries and replies. The target papers and replies were written by senior members of the MIND Group, while all commentaries were written by junior group members. All papers and commentaries have undergone a rigorous process of anonymous peer review, during which the junior members of the MIND Group acted as reviewers. The final versions of all the target articles, commentaries and replies have undergone additional editorial review.
Besides offering a cross-section of ongoing, cutting-edge research in philosophy and cognitive science, this collection is also intended to be a free electronic resource for teaching. It therefore also contains a selection of online supporting materials, pointers to video and audio files and to additional free material supplied by the 92 authors represented in this volume. We will add more multimedia material, a searchable literature database, and tools to work with the online version in the future. All contributions to this collection are strictly open access. They can be downloaded, printed, and non-commercially reproduced by anyone.
include
The Cybernetic Bayesian Brain
From Interoceptive Inference to Sensorimotor Contingencies
There is an on-going debate in cognitive (neuro) science and philosophy between classical cognitive theory and embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive (“4-Es”) views of cognition—a family of theories that emphasize the role of the body in cognition and the importance of brain-body-environment interaction over and above internal representation. This debate touches foundational issues, such as whether the brain internally represents the external environment, and “infers” or “computes” something. Here we focus on two (4-Es-based) criticisms to traditional cognitive theories—to the notions of passive perception and of serial information processing—and discuss alternative ways to address them, by appealing to frameworks that use, or do not use, notions of internal modelling and inference. Our analysis illustrates that: an explicitly inferential framework can capture some key aspects of embodied and enactive theories of cognition; some claims of computational and dynamical theories can be reconciled rather than seen as alternative explanations of cognitive phenomena; and some aspects of cognitive processing (e.g., detached cognitive operations, such as planning and imagination) that are sometimes puzzling to explain from enactive and non-representational perspectives can, instead, be captured nicely from the perspective that internal generative models and predictive processing mediate adaptive control loops.Keywords: embodied cognition; active perception; active inference; model-based systems
Arun Maira | Updated on September 11, 2020 Published on September 11, 2020
Understanding the food system is a complex process – MA Sriram
The Eat Right India initiative shows how large-scale change can be facilitated by a small govt agency like FSSAI
Two Indian initiatives have found places amongst the ten best global initiatives selected by the Rockefeller Foundation for its Food Systems Vision Prize 2050. One is the Naandi Foundation’s work with tribal communities in Araku in South India. The other is ‘Eat Right India’, the countrywide movement for food systems change being shaped by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
The capability to implement large-scale change in complex systems is the key for India to realise the benefits of any well-thought-out policy or plan. The National Education Policy is the most recent example of a far-reaching policy wherein all commentators are concerned about how it will be implemented.
Professor Tracey Osborne Taking on Complex, Grand Challenges in Climate and Social Justice
By Lorena Anderson, UC MercedSeptember 9, 2020
Professor Tracey Osborne
The world is a complex place, and humanity faces major challenges. Climate change mitigation might be the most difficult, in large part because of the interdependency of living things and their ecosystems.
How do people transform economic systems so they are also sustainable for people and the planet?
“If we don’t consider how everything connects from a systems perspective, we’re not going to solve grand challenges such as climate change,” Professor Tracey Osborne said. “Not even close.”
Part of the work of Illuminate, cultivating the field and practice of systems change.
“My Peer Input session was a highlight – it came at a time when I was second-guessing my approach to, and gut feelings about, collaboration for systems change. ”
— PARTICIPANT, COHORT 1 , IN THE THICK OF IT
What’s the deal?
Bridgers is a peer-learning cohort for people who are working to create systemic change and are working from non-dominant spaces and communities. This will be a place to share inquiry, key learning and practices, build alliances and camaraderie.
We know there are stories to be shared about what it takes to be a bridge for systems change. This will be a place to go deep, to shine light on diverse practices and different ways of knowing, so we may see collective patterns, challenges and identify the subtleties that are the opportunities for change.
Who is this for?
The Community Bridges Cohort is open to anyone working in context of non-dominant spaces, identities and communities and acts as a ‘bridge’ to places of dominant power and influence across the incumbent system.
As a practitioner you have experience code switching, translating, moving across “borders” to engage broader system actors in their work. You draw on multiple ways of knowing and practices. You are deeply in the middle of a complex project and are facing multiple challenges in doing this work.
You might be doing systems change work, but might not call it that. You have momentum and movement in your initiative. You have faced systemic obstacles and barriers that feel like ceilings, limitations and isolation.
We are open to applications from people who resonate with this call, but are not sure if they meet the criteria. Feel free to reach out.
We welcome applications from people all over the world.
What will it involve?
We convene peer learning circles in a monthly basis virtually via Zoom
Each peer session session is 1.5 hours long
1 hour buddy call with another participant between calls
Commitment to a total of 7 peer sessions and individual reflective practice & light homework
Why peer-to-peer learning?
Our experience has taught us that sitting down with colleagues and really digging into the detail of practice, what is emerging day to day, is the most valuable use of time.
You will be meeting people who implicitly understand what you’re talking about, who have ideas you can borrow and who will become a valuable network for years to come. Our role is to the create the conditions where you can connect meaningfully together, then get out of the way. This will be hosted.
What will happen on the calls?
Each session involves small group gatherings of up to 8 people with a different person sharing a challenge each month, followed by peer-to-peer coaching. Through this process we surface shared inquiry, exchange learning, resources and support.
We are joined by guest speakers and practitioners to support you in spirit, mind and body.
We will illuminate personal experiences and the connections to the systemic nature of the challenges we are aiming to shift, we will share systems change practices to help identify paths forward.
We will explore these barriers and start to think collectively about what practices are we uncovering and what are we learning about shifting outdated power structures and cultures towards new creativity, new freedom and a new way of being.
You will be in a Cohort with people who understand you and who get it. You will feel you are not alone in this. It will be inspiring, cathartic, infuriating and good fun. Join us!
Proposed dates of calls
Calls will take place October 2020 – March 2021 on the last Wednesday and Thursday of each month.
FacebookTwitterLinkedInMicrosoft (Outlook)TopicInnovation Community of Practice: Systems Spectrum Sessions (a collaboration between States of Change and UNDP)DescriptionWelcome to the “Global Track” of the Ministry of Change Innovation CoP Week!
From Monday, October 5th through Friday, the 9th we have a special set of curated sessions designed to walk across a spectrum of systems change and transition practices. From field practitioner cases, to less obvious ways of approaching complex challenges, we hope you join.
The style is casual- no sage on a stage- but deeply curious as we get serious about unlearning and uncovering new ways of working and generating impact.
Here’s what we have in store for you to select as you wish. Join one or all-
Session 1, October 5 at 3:30pm ICT = Inclusive Systems Innovation: big collaborations and small circles with Kelly Ann McKercher of Beyond Sticky Notes AND Felicty Tan and Reycel Hyacenth Bendaña of wesolve.
Session 2, October 6 at 3:30pm ICT = Navigating Systems Transitions: the view from data labs with Petrarca Karetji, UN Pulse Lab – Jakarta AND Enrico Gaveglia, UNDP Philippines, Pintig Lab
Session 3, October 7 at 3:00pm ICT = Long-termism for policymaking with Ella Saltmarsh, The Long Time Project
Session 4, October 8 at 3:30pm ICT = The Learning Curve:insights from COVID to climate change with Climate KIC AND States of Change
Session 5, October at 3:30pm ICT = A letter to my younger (innovator) self with States of Change AND UNDP
Blurring the boundary between nature and humankind.
From the wildfires around the world to the compelling links between Covid-19 and climate change it feels right to ask: is the way we think of nature and culture as two separate things all wrong? Could we reimagine this divide and instead shape different possible futures, ones based on the concept that humankind and planet Earth are entirely intertwined? And if it was, so what? Might that change the way we design policies or act to decarbonise our economies, and if it could, what direction could that take us?
Join Javier Guillot in this workshop to explore how these different ways of thinking might come to define how we act in the face of climate change and the other major challenges of our time. This intimate session is capped at 20 spaces and is very much a space to pose questions.
8 October. Bogota 8am | New York 9am | London 2pm | Bangkok 8pm.Time
In the systems science group on facebook – https://www.facebook.com/groups/2391509563/permalink/10158396670634564/
Andrew Suttar asked: Does anyone know of a mind-map showing the relationships between the pioneers/founders of cybernetics? – https://www.facebook.com/groups/2391509563/permalink/10158396670634564/
This occasioned several useful links and Jerry Michalski’s ‘The Brain’ systems map: https://app.thebrain.com/brains/3d80058c-14d8-5361-0b61-a061f89baf87/thoughts/60df588b-b9fe-9c29-ee72-da8e528477dd/notes
David Rooke has been at the forefront of leadership development for over 30 years, and co-wrote (with Bill Torbert) the highly influential Harvard Business Review paper The Seven Transformations of Leadership which outlined the concept of the Leadership Development Framework.
Jennifer’s business is called Cultivating Leadership, which ‘does what it says on on the tin’. She has authored and co-authored several books, most recently Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps – How to Thrive in Complexity.
In this episode we look at some of the factors that can inhibit us from ‘thriving in complexity’, and also delve into the idea that Leadership is a journey, not a destination.https://player.captivate.fm/episode/75ccf679-19ed-466b-8465-27a1226a287a
Systems Community of Inquiry 
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