George Spencer-Brown’s Laws of Form is a work that deserves to be better known. Since its first publication in 1969, it has become something of a cult classic. It outlines a powerful content-free calculus based on a single act of making a distinction. From there, Spencer-Brown traces the path the universe takes to come into being in and of itself in order (as he argues) to know itself. In this video, Leon Conrad gives an overview of an on-line course he has designed to help people engage with the work in more depth – chapter by chapter – theorem by theorem, in a rigorous but easy-to-understand way. I recommend following through the course with a copy of the 2011 edition of Laws of Form. A great story-based introduction to the calculus and the way it works is George Burdett-Stuart’s website – The Markable Mark – www.markability.net
HumanSelection (@Alidad Hamidi) Tweeted: POSIWID. Ackoff in this wonderful short video talk about the fact that we have sickness system and not health system and most of our social systems are doing the opposite of what the state they do.
(He clarified that the concept of POSIWID is from Stafford Beer)
Cybernetic Aspects in the Agile Process Model Scrum
M. Bogner, Maria Hronek, F. Wiesinger
Published in ICSEA 2014 Engineering
Agile process models provide guidelines for modern software development. As one of their main purposes is to complete projects under external influences as successfully as possible, the question arises as to how reliably and routinely given project goals can be achieved by means of such process models. This is all the more relevant as today, unfinished software projects frequently lack certain functionality, or missed project deadlines are still on the daily agenda in software development. Therefore, research has been done to identify the coherences between agile process models and cybernetics. Cybernetics is a natural science based on biocybernetics which forms the basis for well-functioning processes. It was analysed how it helps to cope with complexity, thus allowing for viable complex systems or processes. Cybernetics, as a science of functioning, is also relevant for agile process models. Once the basic cybernetic aspects are applied, processes are kept under control and organized in ways that ensure long-term viability. This paper reports the results of the selected agile representative Scrum. It shows that although some major cybernetic aspects like communication, feedback and circularity are covered, other basic cybernetic principles are missing in Scrum. Yet, these shortcomings can be compensated in order to get essential reliability, especially in critical situations. Keywords–agile software development; Scrum; cybernetics; biocybernetics.
Down the Rabbit Hole: Tracking the Humanizing Effect of John Dewey?s Pragmatism on Norbert Wiener
September 2015IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 34(3):64-71
DOI: 10.1109/MTS.2015.2461231
Laura Moorhead
Tibor Solymosi and John Shook https://doi.org/10.4000/ejpap.671
Abstract
Over the past three decades, cognitive science has been making a turn towards pragmatism. Here we outline steps towards completing this turn. As a handful of cognitive scientists and philosophers have been arguing more recently, the insights of William James, John Dewey, and George Herbert Mead are not only being re-discovered, they are also proving rather prescient in light of growing research. The new field of neuropragmatism aims to take these insights seriously and further into new directions for both pragmatism and cognitive science. In this manifesto, a brief history of the relationship between classical pragmatism and the sciences of life and mind is offered as a background for twelve proposed theses of neuropragmatism. These theses serve as general guidelines for further philosophical and scientific research. To illustrate the possibilities and consequences of this neuropragmatic framework, neuropragmatist views on traditional questions of philosophy of mind, such as the mind-body relationship, are situated among other leading philosophical perspectives, like enactive, embodied, and embedded theories of cognition and mentation. Such views, however, when taken from a neuropragmatist perspecitve, have significant consequences for the philosophical project of reconciliation be- tween what Wilfrid Sellars called the scientific and manifest images of humanity. The difference in conceptions of experience and subesequently science are crucial for understanding the difference between Sellarsian neurophilosophy and neuropragmatism, as well as how to reach rapprochement between the sciences and the humanities.
Lifeworld Analysis
Philip Agre pagre@ucsd.edu
Department of Communication 0503
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
and
Ian Horswill ian@ils.nwu.edu
Northwestern University Computer Science Department
1890 Maple Avenue
Evanston, IL 60201, USA
Mind, Self, and Society is a book based on the teaching of American sociologist George Herbert Mead‘s, published posthumously in 1934 by his students. It is credited as the basis for the theory of symbolic interactionism. Charles W. Morris edition of Mind, Self, and Society initiated controversies about authorship because the book was based on oral discourse and Mead’s students notes.[1]
In a meeting this year, Angus Doulton remarked ‘the concept of situation is a deepy cybernetic one’. This resonated so strongly with my thinking and provided such a powerful set of concepts that I am currently trying to include it properly in my writing, and having a kind of crisis of discovery at how much good stuff there is in Dewey (and next post coming on Mead and Symbolic Interactionism). Mind blown…
Situation and inquiry For Dewey (1938/1991), situation is not something we enter into, nor does it exist independent of inquiry. It is a dialectical event of which we are participants, not spectators. We change a problematic situation and are changed in turn through our actions. In his classic reflex arc paper, Dewey (1896/1972) shows how under this view, conventional distinctions between organism and environment, stimulus and response, body and mind, or cause and effect need to be reconsidered.
Kumu’s suite of network mapping/weaving tools – and how they may help your network of improvers (Zoom)
Cofounder and CEO of Kumu Jeff Mohr will share their suite of network mapping/weaving tools – showing how each might help your network and how to determine which is right for you (including a real-world example of an NHS integrated care system (ICS) network).
Get Involved
Communities of Practice Leadership Development Programme
Q Visits
Q Exchange
Network Weaving: learning series
Journals and Learning Resources
QI Connect WebEx series
Upcoming events
Past events
Your events
Add your event
Live streaming and webinar tools
Resources
Your resources
Add your resource
Report: The role of improvement during the response to COVID-19
Supporting local learning
6 Oct 2021
16:00 – 17:00
This is the abstract of a paper I have in draft form. I’m looking for critique on any or all parts of it. If you are interested please send me email and I’ll send you a copy. Thanks in advance to all.
Abstract
This article presents a case for more rigorous application of Complexity Science in our efforts to evaluate activity that seeks to bring about transformative change. It builds on the work that is already going on in the evaluation community. The argument begins by explaining the value of traditional if –> then logic and then shows why such logic is not appropriate for evaluating large-scale transformation change activities. Three constructs from Complexity Science are employed – sensitive dependence, emergence, and social attractors. The paper concludes with an explanation of why if –>then logic is recommended for small-scale change within transformation efforts, but that to…
Interoception: The Secret Ingredient
Your brain keeps you alive and well by running a metabolic “budget” for your body. Our authors, who co-direct the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory at Northeastern University and Massachusetts General Hospital, explain how these budgetary activities, and the bodily sensations they create, suggest surprising connections between brain, mind, body, and world.
Published: July 15, 2021
Authors: Lisa Feldman Barrett, Ph.D. , Karen S. Quigley, Ph.D.
Allostatsis, interoception, exteroception and the continuum betwen them, prediction, mental vs physical and the continuum between them.
A brilliant introductory piece – it would have been utterly wonderful for me if:
some of the links were to Robert Rosen, biological systems theory, Daoism or other slightly older roots (the piece if well-referenced through hyperlink and I didn’t click them all, but I think not), and
if there was room for a bit of self-reflection on the reductive ‘brain circuitry’, elements of the brain, and ‘neurochemical effects’ compared to the story they were telling
Nevertheless, brilliant as an introduction and explanation with depth (and what do I know compared to Lisa Feldman Barrett?)
You must be logged in to post a comment.