source

Self-organized criticality – Wikipedia

Self-organized criticality

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to navigationJump to search

In physics, self-organized criticality (SOC) is a property of dynamical systems that have a critical point as an attractor. Their macroscopic behavior thus displays the spatial or temporal scale-invariance characteristic of the critical point of a phase transition, but without the need to tune control parameters to a precise value, because the system, effectively, tunes itself as it evolves towards criticality.

The concept was put forward by Per Bak, Chao Tang and Kurt Wiesenfeld (“BTW”) in a paper^[1] published in 1987 in Physical Review Letters, and is considered to be one of the mechanisms by which complexity^[2] arises in nature. Its concepts have been applied across fields as diverse as geophysics,^[3] physical cosmology, evolutionary biology and ecology, bio-inspired computing and optimization (mathematics), economics, quantum gravity, sociology, solar physics, plasma physics, neurobiology^[4][5][6] and others.

SOC is typically observed in slowly driven non-equilibrium systems with many degrees of freedom and strongly nonlinear dynamics. Many individual examples have been identified since BTW’s original paper, but to date there is no known set of general characteristics that guarantee a system will display SOC.

source

Self-organized criticality – Wikipedia

A famous anecdote describes a scheme the British Colonial Government implemented in India in an attempt to control the population of venomous cobras that were plaguing the citizens of Delhi that offered a bounty to be paid for every dead cobra brought to the administration officials. The policy initially appeared successful, intrepid snake catchers claiming their bounties and fewer cobras being seen in the city. Yet, instead of tapering off over time, there was a steady increase in the number of dead cobras being presented for bounty payment each month. Nobody knew why.

https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/systems-thinking-and-the-cobra-effect

Other sources:

Anne-Laure Le Cunff: https://nesslabs.com/cobra-effect

“Delhi, beware of the cobra effect” https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/in-perspective/delhi-beware-of-the-cobra-effect-762366.html

Freakonomics podcast: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-cobra-effect-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

Sketchplanations: https://www.sketchplanations.com/post/186110724996/the-cobra-effect-the-story-goes-something-like

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect

source

Mapping the Evolution of Socio-Technical Systems

[The reference to STS is a reference to ‘Wardley Mapping’, and later, Argyris is transcribed as ArcGIS, which I rather like]

Mapping the Evolution of Socio-Technical Systems

source

Mapping the Evolution of Socio-Technical Systems

source:

(PDF) Action Research: Its Foundations in Open Systems Thinking and Relationship to the Scientific Method | Tim Haslett – Academia.edu

Syst Pract Action Res (2009) 22:475–488
DOI 10.1007/s11213-009-9148-6

ORIGINAL PAPER
Action Research: Its Foundations in Open Systems
Thinking and Relationship to the Scientific Method
John Barton – John Stephens – Tim Haslett
Published online: 22 August 2009
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009

Abstract

This paper considers those interpretations of action research that can be traced to Kurt Lewin at the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the University of Michigan, and the work in social ecology by Emery and Trist at the Tavistock Institute. It locates the logical basis of these interpretations in the philosophy of pragmatism, particularly as it relates to Peirce’s inferential logic and inquiry system. Drawing on this argument, and on the significant developments in approaches to systemic thinking over the past 40–50 years, a normative set of criteria is established for action research. The paper concludes that both positivist science (which relates to closed systems thinking) and action research (which relates to open systems thinking) are essential to any complete scientific approach.

Keywords Action research Open systems Scientific method Peirce
Pragmatism Abduction

source:

(PDF) Action Research: Its Foundations in Open Systems Thinking and Relationship to the Scientific Method | Tim Haslett – Academia.edu

Management Cybernetics and the Force in organisational life https://bit.ly/3dtanpG

Tuesday, July 7, 2020, 6-8pm

I recognise that geezer!

“Well, the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.” ―Obi-Wan Kenobi

The Force in organisations is real. It can shape and control you and your organisation – or you can learn to shape them. This will be an introduction to the jedi arts of management cybernetics.

Management Cybernetics and the Force in organisational life

Tuesday, Jul 7, 2020, 6:00 PM

agile² Webinars (online)
Zoom webinar Heidelberg, al

32 Members Attending

“Well, the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.” ―Obi-Wan Kenobi The Force in organisations is real. It can shape and control you and your organisation – or you can learn to shape them. This will be an introduction to the jedi arts o…

Check out this Meetup →

source

Homeostats and cybernetic regulation – GentlySerious – Medium

One of the very few things I remember from school is a visit to the local trading standards people. I can remember two stories. A mouse was baked into something sold in Marks and Spencer, and M&S would not allow the story to be linked to them, letting the baker take all the flak. The other was about farmers who had watered down their milk, saying things like “the cows have been eating wet grass”.

Now when you think about it, the fact that all milk from all cows is similar enough in its composition, and constant enough over time, to allow trading standards to prosecute cheating farmers is truly remarkable. It means that there are few if any factors in the farming environment that can distort the milk a cow makes for its calf. That is a good model for a homeostat: something that keeps things pretty much constant, no matter what.

As a slightly edgier, more policy-oriented example, take John Adams and his work on accidents at road junctions. If there is an accident blackspot and you put in extra warning signs and a high-friction road surface what happens? The accidents happen at the next junction down.

continues in source:

Homeostats and cybernetic regulation – GentlySerious – Medium

source

Human Dynamics In System Change | Meetup

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Human Dynamics In System Change

Catarina vM

Hosted byCatarina vM and 3 others

SystemsThinkingTOPublic group?

Tuesday, June 30, 2020
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM EDT

Details

RSVP to get Zoom link!

Many of us are frustrated with slow change. This slow change is (in part) due to the human systems (aka people and their motivations, the 4th facet of Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge). People are often treated as subordinate to larger systems; it is assumed they will adapt (with some training) in response to the larger system change. However, larger systems are collections of processes+ and people (systems nested within systems). Therefore, larger systems are (in part) subject to people. Individuals and groups can intentionally and unintentionally influence larger systems, sometimes quite profoundly.

To generate constructive, sustainable system change, we need to choose whether we will continue trying to subjugate human dynamics, or whether we will learn to leverage the power of human dynamics. To deepen our understanding of human dynamics in system change, Catarina von Maydell will present an overview of connected ideas (how we approach our systems, group dynamics and individual processes). This 2-hour session will be fast moving with several ideas introduced that can be explored in greater depth at a later date.

The expected outcomes of the session include:

– An overview of factors that influence human dynamics.
– Breakout group discussions.
– Identify possible topics of interest for future ST-TO+ sessions.

Please join us on Tuesday, 30th June 2020 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. The Zoom link will open at 6:15pm to allow for informal networking.

To reduce the sense of ‘drinking from a firehose’ during the session, and to get a sense of the direction of the conversation, you might want to read this LinkedIn article before the session: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-make-systems-thinking-more-natural-act-catarina-von-maydell/

Please note: there will be no recording of the session, however, a summary of the discussion will be provided a few days after the session.

source:

Human Dynamics In System Change | Meetup

source:

Understanding Society: Guest post by Nicholas Preuth

Understanding Society

Innovative thinking about a global world

Saturday, June 20, 2020

Guest post by Nicholas Preuth

Nicholas Preuth is a philosophy student at the University of Michigan. His primary interests fall in the philosophy of law and the philosophy of social science. Thanks, Nick, for contributing this post!
Distinguishing Meta-Social Ontology from Social Ontology

Social ontology is the study of the properties of the social world. Conventional claims about social ontology proceed by asking and answering questions such as, “what is the existential status of social entities (e.g. institutions, governments, etc.)?”, “can institutions exert causal influence?”, “what is the causal relationship between micro, meso, and macro-level social entities?”, etc. Daniel Little is one of the many philosophers and sociologists who has written extensively on the topic of social ontology (see discussions here, here, and here). The types of arguments and discussions found in those blog posts represent conventional social ontology discussions—conventional in the sense that the content of the posts constitute the sort of commonly agreed-upon purview of social ontology discussions.

continues in source:

Understanding Society: Guest post by Nicholas Preuth

source:

Fritjof Capra’s interview on Stan Grof followed by Live Q&A- on June 25

Dear friends,   Hello! I wanted to share with you an upcoming event with Fritjof that you can watch via livestream. The details are below. Fritjof Capra’s interview on Stan Grof followed by Live Q&AThursday, June 25 12:00 noon San Francisco, 3:00 PM New York, 4:00 PM Sao Paulo, 8:00 PM London You can watch the livestream via Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/414185857.    The livestream will also be broadcast from this Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/PsychonautWay.      Event Description: Fritjof Capra recounts how his blending of quantum physics and Eastern philosophies was paralleled in Stan Grof’s merging of psychology and spirituality. The resulting collaboration between the two men brought scientific grounding to Transpersonal Psychology. Fritjof describes the interrelated nature of the universe, and how Stan’s work provided an experiential opportunity to explore this reality. He also notes how the new understanding of emergence validates Stan’s perspective on mental illness – as an inability to integrate experiences that can be resolved if fully explored. Fritjof ends by emphasizing the need to shift away from a mechanistic world view to one of networks that cooperate and seek novelty. Following the recorded interview, there will then be a live Q&A with the filmmakers.   The event is free and no preregistration is required. We hope you can join this upcoming online event with Fritjof.    With warm regards,   Mira Michelle Kennedy Executive Coordinatoradmin@capracourse.net www.capracourse.net

source:

Fritjof Capra’s interview on Stan Grof followed by Live Q&A- on June 25

This special issue was inspired by papers presented during the inaugural Social Innovation and Complexity Stream at the 9th International Social Innovation Research Conference (ISIRC) in 2017. The introduction of a complexity stream at the 9th ISIRC builds upon two previous International Conferences on Social Entrepreneurship, Systems Thinking and Complexity that were held at Adelphi University, Garden City, New York in 2008 and 2010.

The theme of the 9th ISIRC was ‘Beyond Boundaries? Organizations, Systems and Social Innovation’. In line with the conference theme, the call for papers for the Social Innovation and Complexity Stream was particularly interested in receiving abstracts that explored the role of complexity theory for social innovation beyond boundaries.

https://eco.emergentpublications.com/Article/fc6e894e-d90f-4408-8228-91ce4834f5d6/academic

Source

StraightTalk: Focus on Systems Thinking – Academy for Systems Change

 

 Systems Thinking: How We Lost the Plot and How We’ll Find Our Way Home

Academy President, Darcy Winslow, is special guest on StraightTalk.Live (June 11, 2020).

Our current breakdown of leadership, infrastructure, networks, and cooperation have been tested and exposed during this pandemic. And what’s glaringly obvious is our fundamental disconnect from ourselves, each other and the planet.

• So how does systems thinking change everything?
• What are the warning signs that we need to heed?
• How can we adapt, not just to survive, but to thrive?
• How do we balance our global and local needs in the coming times?
• How do we stay cognizant of who benefits and who gets exploited through developing technologies and governance?

Listen in as Darcy dives into the game-changing approach of systems thinking to tackle our greatest challenges ahead.

source:

StraightTalk: Focus on Systems Thinking – Academy for Systems Change

Harish’s Notebook – My notes… Lean, Cybernetics, Quality & Data Science.

Copernican Revolution – Systems Thinking: In today’s post, I am looking at “Copernican Revolution”, a phrase used by the great German philosopher, Immanuel Kant. Immanuel Kant is one of the greatest names in philosophy. I am an Engineer by profession, and I started learning philosophy after I left school. As an Engineer, I am trained to think about causality in nature – if I do this, then that happens. This is often viewed as the mechanistic view of nature and it is reliant on empiricism. Empiricism is the idea that knowledge comes from experience. In contrast, at the other end of knowledge spectrum lies rationalism. Rationalism is the idea that knowledge comes from reason (internal). An empiricist can quickly fall into the trap of induction, where you believe that there is uniformity in nature. For example, if I clapped my hand twenty times, and the light flickered each time, I can then (falsely) conclude that the next time I clap my hand the light will flicker. My mind created a causal connection to my hand clapping and the light flickering. David Hume, another great philosopher, challenged this and identified this approach as the problem of induction. He suggested that we, humans, are creatures of habit that we assign causality to things based on repeat experience. His view was that causality is assigned by us simply by habit. His famous example of challenging whether the sun will rise tomorrow exemplifies this:

Continues in source:

Copernican Revolution – Systems Thinking: | Harish’s Notebook – My notes… Lean, Cybernetics, Quality & Data Science.

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QlqQ5p6h4Y&t=12s

On the face of it, a Dan Brown-like mystery…

source:

System Dynamics Hackers Wanted. Do you have what it takes?

Join Us for the First System Dynamics Hackathon (that we know of!) Society Sponsor, University of Bergen, is piloting the first of hopefully many System Dynamics hackathons. President Birgit Kopainsky and members Brooke Wilkerson, Anaely Aguiar, Christina Gkini, and others have been instrumental in pulling this together and hope that you will join them in this inaugural event. Clients and experts in different domains have already convened to build a causal map of the system. Now you have 48 hours to turn it into a simulation model and suggest policies, strategies, and solutions. There will be mentors available to help throughout the event which will be hosted online next week (June 25th 16:00 – 27th 16:00 CEST). In addition to eternal glory and an opportunity to network with brilliant people in the field, there will be a cash prize of 5000 NOK to the winner. Sign up to help the City of Bergen, the location of our virtual conference, get cracking on policies to be fossil-free by 2030. REGISTER HERE!

source:

System Dynamics Hackers Wanted. Do you have what it takes?