Emergentism | Chapter 2: From Reduction to EmergenceBrendan Graham Dempsey7 hr ago52New Laws: Thermodynamics and Evolution

Emergentism | Chapter 2: From Reduction to Emergence

“Any old map will do” meets “God is in every leaf of every tree”

“Any old map will do” meets “God is in every leaf of every tree” | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

“Any old map will do” meets “God is in every leaf of every tree”

Posted on April 23, 2012 9:23 AM by Andrew

As a statistician I am particularly worried about the rhetorical power of anecdotes (even though I use them in my own reasoning; see discussion below). But much can be learned from a true anecdote. The rough edges—the places where the anecdote doesn’t fit your thesis—these are where you learn.

We have recently had a discussion (here and here) of Karl Weick, a prominent scholar of business management who plagiarized a story and then went on to draw different lessons from the pilfered anecdote in several different publications published over many years.

Setting aside an issues of plagiarism and rulebreaking, I argue that, by hiding the source of the story and changing its form, Weick and his management-science audience are losing their ability to get anything out of it beyond empty confirmation.

A full discussion follows.

2022-09-19

Systems Thinking Ontario – 2022-09-19

Too late for the session, but to preserve the links and record

2022-09-19

September 19 (the second Monday of the month) is the 103rd meeting for Systems Thinking Ontario. The registration is at https://global-elephants.eventbrite.ca .

Global Elephants in the Room: A reflexive prospective following 50 years of the Global Problematique

For September’s Systems Thinking Ontario, OCADU’s professor Peter Jones will share a preview of his talk for RSD11 on a world system perspective of the Club of Rome’s Global Problematique.

It has been 50 years since the original Limits to Growth report to the Club of Rome. Since then, many of the original controversies triggered by the dire scenarios produced by the Meadows research team have been accepted as current outcomes of their prediction, anchoring its position as prescient in climate and economic policies. The Limits to Growth project was based on the original Club of Rome prospectus know as the Global Problematique, a problem framing produced by Hasan Özbekhan, a first-generation social system thinker who advocated requisite variety and stakeholder engagement to resolve the problematique.

After 50 years the technocratic approaches of systems thinking still pervade methodology and design. The globalism inherent in the Problematique also remains; with rapidly developing new economies in the Global South, these assumptions ought to also be reconsidered. Why must the Problematique be situated as “global?” Even as Özbekhan’s stakeholder-centred vision may be achievable today, but now we must ask, who are the real stakeholders for these problems? Jones critiques the original view of “the global” as originating from the Club of Rome expert-centred framing and contrast the Western policy mindset with systemic design’s stakeholder-centred systems view. Jones will discuss the mappings from these studies and show an alternative non-Western frame with significant difference in priorities, if the Global South is centred instead of the West.

Venue:

• The link for a Zoom conference will be sent upon preregistration.
• Unfortunately, due to the pandemic OCADU, sLab (Strategic Innovation Lab), 205 Richmond Street West, Room 410 is not available!

Suggested pre-reading:

Özbekhan, H., Jantsch, E., & Christakis, A. N. (1970). The predicament of mankind: A quest for structured responses to growing world-wide complexities and uncertainties. Proposal to the Club of Rome. [Part 1 excerpt]

Christakis, A. N. (2006). A retrospective structural inquiry of the Predicament of Humankind. In Volume 1: Rescuing the enlightenment from Itself (pp. 93-122). Springer, Boston, MA. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.580.2313&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Christakis, A. N. & Diedrich J. (2022). Co-constructing Retrospective and Retroductive Global Problematiques Virtually with the Logosofia platform, in the context of the Climate Crisis: A report on the Gedanken Experiment. [manuscript]

Systems thinking in public policy: Making space to think differentlySeptember 20, 2022By Catherine Hobbs

Systems thinking in public policy: Making space to think differently – Integration and Implementation Insights

Development and application of ‘systems thinking’ principles for quality improvement

Development and application of ‘systems thinking’ principles for quality improvement | BMJ Open Quality

Development and application of ‘systems thinking’ principles for quality improvement

1. Duncan McNab1,2, 
2. John McKay1, 
3. Steven Shorrock3,4, 
4. Sarah Luty1, 
5. Paul Bowie1,2
6. Correspondence to Prof Paul Bowie; paul.bowie@nes.scot.nhs.uk

16 – On doing “being ordinary”Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2010ByHarvey SacksEdited byJ. Maxwell Atkinson

On doing “being ordinary” (Chapter 16) – Structures of Social Action

pdf

[I urge you to get beyond the abstract, it is worth it!]

What we talk about when we talk about context

What we talk about when we talk about context | SpringerLink

• Published: 05 December 2003

What we talk about when we talk about context

• Paul Dourish 

Personal and Ubiquitous Computing volume 8, pages19–30 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

The emergence of ubiquitous computing as a new design paradigm poses significant challenges for human-computer interaction (HCI) and interaction design. Traditionally, HCI has taken place within a constrained and well-understood domain of experience—single users sitting at desks and interacting with conventionally-designed computers employing screens, keyboards and mice for interaction. New opportunities have engendered considerable interest in “context-aware computing”—computational systems that can sense and respond to aspects of the settings in which they are used. However, considerable confusion surrounds the notion of “context”—what it means, what it includes and what role it plays in interactive systems. This paper suggests that the representational stance implied by conventional interpretations of “context” misinterprets the role of context in everyday human activity, and proposes an alternative model that suggests different directions for design.

Presidents Series 20 Cybernetics and Tribal Dynamics

15 Sept 20220

Omar Kharoti discusses Cybernetics and Tribal Dynamics followed by James Bryant introducing a conversation about Discovering Cybernetics

(1) Presidents Series 20 Cybernetics and Tribal Dynamics – YouTube

INFORMATION THEORY

How Shannon Entropy Imposes Fundamental Limits on Communication

What’s a message, really? Claude Shannon recognized that the elemental ingredient is surprise.

Kevin Hartnett

Contributing Writer

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September 6, 2022

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VIEW PDF/PRINT MODE

Abstractions blogcomputer scienceexplainersinformation theorymathematicsAll topics

If someone tells you a fact you already know, they’ve essentially told you nothing at all. Whereas if they impart a secret, it’s fair to say something has really been communicated.How Shannon Entropy Imposes Fundamental Limits on Communication

How Claude Shannon’s Concept of Entropy Quantifies Information | Quanta Magazine

Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety

Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety

https://daily.stoa.com/category/systems-thinking

The Complexity Lounge

New York, NY, USA

The study of complexity helps us to be open to new perspectives, consider non-linear non-causal relationships, and encourages an experimental mindset. We created the NYC Complexity Lounge to discuss Complexity Science, Complex Adaptive Systems, Organizational Change, and Agile / Adaptive approaches to work and everyday life. We share case studies and discuss the latest advances in complexity thinking. We also talk about sense-making principles and tools from the Cynefin Framework.

The Complexity Lounge

https://www.meetup.com/complexity-lounge/

Organizations and Subjectivism Pt. 1Published on September 14, 2022https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_RogerianaNovi MilenkovicNavigating Complexity5 articles FollowingPrefaceOrganization is a human way of dealing with the complexity of the world(1). When I say organization, I don’t mean strictly an enterprise, but any kind of formal or informal organization that brings people together under shared purpose or a promise of an incentive—from book clubs or social activism, to startups or corporations… Organization facilitates creation of order, and order is a low entropy state. It’s how we make our existence more bearable in a universe that otherwise craves disorder. It’s well prepared food, electric cars or skyscrapers that are built by organizing matter into states that could possibly occur, but are highly improbable. It’s the laws, theories or knowledge that we expand to decrease the uncertainty in the world. The entropic concept I’m referring to is not thermodynamic entropy, but statistical entropy, which is a property of a probability distribution, not a real system, and as such is lacking any inherent semantics, it’s a purely syntactic concept(2) If something is ordered it is constrained to the point where future outcomes are predictable as long as the constraints can be sustained(3). It does not matter if we talk about service (an activity) or a product (a physical or a digital object), if the constraints are clear and the causality is linear—it’s order. Consequently, if we understand the causality, we can replicate the outcome.

(1) Organizations and Subjectivism Pt. 1 | LinkedIn

The thermodynamics of life taking shapeby Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo (UTokyo-IIS)

The thermodynamics of life taking shape

Complexity and LeadershipEdited By Kiran Chauhan, Emma Crewe, Chris MowlesCopyright Year 2023Paperback£34.99Hardback£120.00eBook£31.49ISBN 9780367551599Published September 12, 2022 by Routledge266 Pages

Complexity and Leadership – 1st Edition – Kiran Chauhan – Emma Crewe