An Assessment of the Adequacy of Common Definitions of the Concept of System July 2021 Conference: INCOSE International Symposium 2021 Authors: Alejandro Salado Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Aditya U Kulkarni

(PDF) An Assessment of the Adequacy of Common Definitions of the Concept of System

Just presented at the INCOSE conference. Systems Engineering (very much in its own terms – starting from ‘we restrict ourselves to systems in the world’, defining ’emergence’ in fixed thermodynamic terms etc) goes second order!

Abstract

In all areas of scientific study, definitions are used to describe the meaning of terms. Thus, a good set of definitions aids the scientific process by enabling researchers to communicate in a common language. In this regard, the Systems Engineering community has allocated significant effort to understanding the nature and scope of common definitions of a system. However, less attention has been given to formally examining whether these common definitions of a system are adequate. In this paper, we argue that the common definitions of a system are limited in their ability to adequately define a system’s boundary. Furthermore, we argue that the common definitions of a system rely on context and prior understanding to communicate the boundary of a system. Finally, by using concepts from philosophy and mathematical logic, we show that the common definitions of a system are nominal in their ability to define a system’s boundary.

Coming of age: a review of embodiment and the neuroscience of semantics Lotte Meteyard 1, Sara Rodriguez Cuadrado, Bahador Bahrami, Gabriella Vigliocco

Coming of age: a review of embodiment and the neuroscience of semantics – PubMed

 Cortex

. 2012 Jul;48(7):788-804. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2010.11.002. Epub 2010 Nov 18.

Coming of age: a review of embodiment and the neuroscience of semantics

Lotte Meteyard ¹, Sara Rodriguez Cuadrado, Bahador Bahrami, Gabriella ViglioccoAffiliations expand

• PMID: 21163473
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2010.11.002

Free article

Abstract

Over the last decade, there has been an increasing body of work that explores whether sensory and motor information is a necessary part of semantic representation and processing. This is the embodiment hypothesis. This paper presents a theoretical review of this work that is intended to be useful for researchers in the neurosciences and neuropsychology. Beginning with a historical perspective, relevant theories are placed on a continuum from strongly embodied to completely unembodied representations. Predictions are derived and neuroscientific and neuropsychological evidence that could support different theories is reviewed; finally, criticisms of embodiment are discussed. We conclude that strongly embodied and completely disembodied theories are not supported, and that the remaining theories agree that semantic representation involves some form of convergence zones (Damasio, 1989) and the activation of modal content. For the future, research must carefully define the boundaries of semantic processing and tackle the representation of abstract entities.

As I grokked this from that one episode of Very Bad Wizards, intution and rationalism in making (certain types of) decisions down based on an understanding of what the outcomes of a choice of action might possibly be like break down as a result of the incommensurability involved in you potentially being a different person with unknown motivations in that possible future.

L.A. Paul: “The Transformative Experience” HeadCon ’14 L.A. Paul [11.18.14]

L.A. Paul: “The Transformative Experience” | Edge.org

85 | L.A. Paul on Transformative Experiences and Our Future Selves February 24, 2020 | Philosophy, Thinking

85 | L.A. Paul on Transformative Experiences and Our Future Selves – Sean Carroll

Transformative Experience L. A. Paul, Transformative Experience, Oxford University Press, 2014, 189pp., $27.95 (hbk), ISBN 9780198717959. Reviewed by Krister Bykvist, Stockholm University 2015.10.09

Transformative Experience | Reviews | Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews | University of Notre Dame

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and the Origins of the Internet « balticworlds.com

THE CYBERNETICS SCARE AND THE ORIGINS OF THE INTERNET

Published in the printed edition of Baltic Worlds page 32-38, vol II:1, 2009
Published on Balticworlds.Com on February 11, 2010article as pdf1 commentshare

In the late 1950s, as Soviet society began to shed the legacy of Stalinism, science and engineering became new cultural icons. The new, post-Stalin generation was fascinated with Sputnik, nuclear power stations, and electronic digital computers. The popular image of an objective, truth-telling computer became a vehicle for a broad movement among scientists and engineers calling for reform in science and in society at large. Under the banner of cybernetics, this movement attacked the dogmatic notions of Stalinist science and the ideology-laden discourse of the Soviet social sciences.

Proposed originally in 1948 by the American mathematician Norbert Wiener as a science of control and communication in the animal and the machine,1 cybernetics acquired a much wider interpretation in the Soviet context. Soviet cyberneticians aspired to unify diverse cybernetic theories elaborated in the West ­— control theory, information theory, automata studies and others — in a single overarching conceptual framework, which would serve as the foundation for a general methodology applicable to a wide range of natural and social sciences and engineering.2

The more Soviet society departed from Stalinism, the more radical the cybernetic project became. Step by step, Soviet cyberneticians overturned earlier ideological criticism of mathematical methods in various disciplines, and put forward the goal of “cybernetization” of the entire science enterprise. Under the umbrella of cybernetics, scientific trends that had been suppressed under Stalin began to emerge under new, cybernetic names, and began to defy the Stalin-era orthodoxy. “Biological cybernetics” (genetics) challenged the Lysenkoites in biology, “physiological cybernetics” opposed the Pavlovian school in physiology, and “cybernetic linguistics” (structuralism) confronted traditional comparative philology and historical linguistics. Soviet cybernetics enthusiasts set the goal of achieving a comprehensive “cybernetization” of modern science by representing the subject of every discipline in a unified, formalized way and by moving toward a synthesis of the sciences. They aspired to translate all scientific knowledge into computer models and to replace the ideology-laden, “vague” language of the social and life sciences with the “precise” language of cybernetics.

continues in source: THE CYBERNETICS SCARE AND THE ORIGINS OF THE INTERNET

and the Origins of the Internet « balticworlds.com

ANZSYS …Australia and New Zealand Systems Society including South Africa, India and Oceania

ANZSYS home

Dates  Hybrid Retreat: September 11 & 12 (3:00pm UK / 10:00am US East / 7am US West)  Practice Sessions: September 16, 23, 30 and 7 October

Hidden Ways of Knowing

Source:

Groundbreaking book on methods to study social-ecological systems – Stockholm Resilience Centre

Groundbreaking book on methods to study social-ecological systems

Photo: A. Ranjan/Unsplash

Open-access book covers 28 broad groups of methods, featuring contributions from almost a hundred authors in 16 countries

Story highlights

• For the first time, the wide range of approaches being used in social-ecological research is presented in one handbook
• The book is edited by centre researchers Reinette Biggs and Maja Schlüter within a team of six editors from Stellenbosch University, SRC and Rhodes university
• It features a large number of centre researchers as chapter authors, as well as many SRC collaborators around the world

For the first time, the wide range of approaches that are currently being used in social-ecological research is presented in one handbook.

The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods for Social-Ecological Systems is out, and many centre researchers and collaborators have contributed to it.

The book is edited by centre researchers Reinette Biggs (also at Stellenbosch University) and Maja Schlüter together with Alta de Vos, Rika Preiser, Hayley Clements and Kristine Maciejewski from Stellenbosch and Rhodes Universities.

Source:

Groundbreaking book on methods to study social-ecological systems – Stockholm Resilience Centre

Presidents Series #9 Polis 4 0 and Quality 4 0 1 view20 Jul 2021 0 0 SHARE SAVE Cybernetics Society 132 subscribers SUBSCRIBED The 9th in the Presidents Series of events featured Richard Berry, a mature Doctoral student Loughborough University exploring the future of policing. Subsequently, Professor John Oakland introduced Quality 4.0 – a research project undertaken on behalf of the Chartered Quality Institute which considers the responses required from the quality profession to address the needs of organisations in the light of the data explosion

Presidents Series #9 Polis 4 0 and Quality 4 0 – YouTube

The Systems Movement: Engaging Communities with Traditions and Diversity, Gary S. Metcalf (ST-ON 2021-01-11) – Coevolving Innovations

To appreciate how systemicists worldwide collaborate, Gary S. Metcalf joined Systems Thinking Ontario for a conversation.  Gary served as president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences 2007-2008, and of the International Federation for Sysrtems Research 2010-2016.  From 2003 to 2018, he was a graduate instructor in Organizational Systems and Research on the faculty of Saybrook University.

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The Systems Movement: Engaging Communities with Traditions and Diversity, Gary S. Metcalf (ST-ON 2021-01-11) – Coevolving Innovations

Earth’s Complexity Is Non-Computable: The Limits of Scaling Laws, Nonlinearity and Chaos

Entropy | Free Full-Text | Earth’s Complexity Is Non-Computable: The Limits of Scaling Laws, Nonlinearity and Chaos | HTML

Share by Michael Garfield in the Complexity Explorer group on Facebook – a recommended join:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2156854757698450

AbstractCurrent physics commonly qualifies the Earth system as ‘complex’ because it includes numerous different processes operating over a large range of spatial scales, often modelled as exhibiting non-linear chaotic response dynamics and power scaling laws. This characterization is based on the fundamental assumption that the Earth’s complexity could, in principle, be modeled by (surrogated by) a numerical algorithm if enough computing power were granted. Yet, similar numerical algorithms also surrogate different systems having the same processes and dynamics, such as Mars or Jupiter, although being qualitatively different from the Earth system. Here, I argue that understanding the Earth as a complex system requires a consideration of the Gaia hypothesis: the Earth is a complex system because it instantiates life—and therefore an autopoietic, metabolic-repair (M,R) organization—at a planetary scale. This implies that the Earth’s complexity has formal equivalence to a self-referential system that inherently is non-algorithmic and, therefore, cannot be surrogated and simulated in a Turing machine. I discuss the consequences of this, with reference to in-silico climate models, tipping points, planetary boundaries, and planetary feedback loops as units of adaptive evolution and selection.

Feedback: What connects and separates Jimi Hendrix and cybernetics?

Cybernetics Society – A science for life.

New and really nice Cybernetics Society website.

(This is the UK-based CybSoc, not to be confused with the American Cybernetics Society – though they work together closely)

System redesign toward creating shared value July 20, 2021 By Moein Khazaei, Mohammad Ramezani, Amin Padash and Dorien DeTombe

System redesign toward creating shared value – Integration and Implementation Insights

Feedback / Stafford Beer

Feedback / Stafford Beer – YouTube

Radical Uncertainty: Design beyond solutionism – Webinar

Radical Uncertainty: Design beyond solutionism – Webinar Tickets, Fri 23 Jul 2021 at 10:00 | Eventbrite

JUL 23

Radical Uncertainty: Design beyond solutionism – Webinar

by The Radical Methodologies Research and Enterprise Group (RaMREG)

Radical Uncertainty: Design beyond solutionism webinar. University of Brighton Radical Methodologies Research and Enterprise Group. RaMREG

About this event

The University of Brighton Radical Methodologies Research and Enterprise Group (RaMREG) and the Centre for Arts and Wellbeing (CAW) are delighted to invite you to Radical Uncertainty: Design beyond solutionism. This event will explore situations characterised by changeability, conflicting values and uncertain boundaries. Please see the outline below.

We are excited that we will be joined by guest speakers Mihir Bhat, Shilpi Srivastava, Zoe Sadokierski, Chris Rose, and Claudia Westermann. These speakers have been invited as their work and ideas have influenced our framing of the event. Each guest will present personal reflections informed by their work in response to the ideas and questions outlined below. We invite you to participate in the conversations and questions that emerge.

Radical Uncertainty: Design beyond solutionism

The term ‘radical uncertainty’ can be characterised by extreme complexity, instability or disagreement about what is considered known or knowable. As such, the event will discuss diverse conceptions of uncertainty and seek to identify modes of working that embrace rather than eliminate complexity.

The event seeks to identify and discuss situations characterised by changeability, conflicting values and uncertain boundaries. These include embodied, emotional, and tacit ways of knowing and representing the world (Mehta, Lyla, and Shilpi Srivastava, 2020) and ideas of responsibility, accountability and ethics.

Design is situated within the rich, shifting, complex and relational systemic situations as both discipline and practice. We, therefore, seek strategies that enable us to ‘stay with’ the unknown and the unknowable without becoming bound by cyclical exercises in rhetoric.

How can we embrace practices and deliver strategies that better engage with global challenges characterised by their radical uncertainty?

For further information about RaMREG and our members please see this link