Hey – we’re running a workshop test in Brussels tomorrow, and we’d like some extra test audience, please forward this to anyone who might be interested.

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In this workshop we shall learn new ways to play, and learn to understand the world through play. We shall try to come to see, perhaps re-see, that collective play, such as that which young humans and animals do together is a form of collaborative genius.

In this session in particular, through embodied play we shall learn some of the core principles of emergence, self-organisation, complex adaptive systems and cybernetics. The very principles through which one can think about brains, networks, ecosystems, economies, games design, collective intelligence, and much more besides.

At the heart of this workshop lies the understanding that play and complex adaptive systems share a profound connection. Play, with its intrinsic self-organisation and embodiment, mirrors the dynamics of complex adaptive systems. By engaging in playful experiences, we gain insights into the principles of complexity, cybernetics, and emergence. Simultaneously, our understanding of play deepens through the lens of complexity. In essence, play becomes a gateway to exploring and comprehending the intricate nature of systems.

During the workshop, we will collaboratively create and explore a shared research playground. Drawing upon the principles of complexity—where simplicity gives rise to spontaneous order through the interactions of relatively autonomous agents—we will examine the tipping point at which simplicity transforms into complexity.

Play must never be subordinated or instrumentalised. Play is, and must remain. sensual, giddy, improvised, and simply fun for its own sake. Likewise we should never mistake the cajoling, backflipping and chirruping of animals for mere training for life, or evolutionary survival advantage. (Whilst it may be true that it is also those things.) First and foremost it’s vital to approach life as play, and then, to have the skills and knowledge to extract any kind of knowledge from that play at the moment that it is needed.

Orion Maxted is an artist, theatre maker and director of artscience at The Center Leo Apostel for Transdisciplinary research, at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels together with colleagues Evo Bussenairs, a researcher in mathematical anarchism, and Professor Francis Heylighen, a renowned researcher in cybernetics, self-organisation, emergence and consciousness. David Tann is a clown and researcher in biomimicry.

Please bring comfortable clothes that you can move around in.

Cost: € Free

Contact: Orion Maxted

This paper concerns the strongly theory based organisational intervention – Stafford Beers’ Viable Systems Diagnosis (VSD). The assumption that organisations have difficulty in transforming good theories into effective workplace practices is examined using VSD. We propose levels of knowledge or recursions of the Beer system that are appropriate and effective in terms of organisational interventions. We contend that the lexis emanating from Brain of the Firm, and The Heart of the Enterprise exacerbates the complexity of VSD causing readers to focus on Diagnosing the System. We suggest this outcome contributes to the non-popularity of VSD, but that Beer himself cannot be exonerated. The lack of fundamental VSD principles, identified as a deficiency in Diagnosing the System is expanded from the antecedents, Brain and Heart. The paper concludes by considering a systematic categorisation of Beer’s work that will guide organizational change agents wishing to use this intellectually complex and powerful system.

https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/journal_contribution/Demystifying_Beer_Do_You_Want_Fries_With_That_/5073121/1

In 1969, the first edition of Systems Thinking: Selected Readings was published in the Penguin Modern Modern Management series.

From those selected readings, have we moved beyond that milestone? What do we see if we revisit the 18 chapters, the five parts, and the introduction.

David Hawk received a copy of the book from Fred Emery, when he was in graduate school at U. Pennsylvania. He thus has had the experience of supervised study, and many years of reflection on the content.

David Ing has prepared a federated wiki at https://st1969.daviding.wiki.openlearning.cc/view/welcome-visitors/view/systems-thinking-selected-readings-penguin-1969 abridging the content that will used to guide the discussion.

See more details (including links to prereadings) at https://wiki.st-on.org/2023-06-12

The link to the web conference appears on Eventbrite after registration. Mind the passcode!

Participants are welcomed to join in the conversation with questions, comments and diverging viewpoints.

Open-minded novices and learners are always welcomed. We’ll try to keep the conversations understandable by the layman, and entertain questions for clarification.

To be notified of future sessions, please join the Google Group: http://bit.ly/st-on