Welcome to this webinar with Professor Emeritus Ray Ison, talking about how we can transform human activity systems towards a more improved human-biosphere agriculture. The webinar is hosted by SLU Global and ELLS . Please register below for zoom-link.
Transforming human activity systems: towards an agriculture for improving human-biosphere relations | slu.se
Date: 17 March 2026
Time: 10:00 – 11:15
Language: English
Organiser: SLU Global
Co-organiser: ELLS
Location: Online
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Cameron Tonkinwise – Service Design & Social Complexity – The Complexity Lounge – Tuesday March 17, 7pm UK time
Cameron Tonkinwise – Service Design & Social Complexity, Tue, Mar 17, 2026, 3:00 PM | Meetup
Tuesday, Mar 17 · 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM GMT
Online event
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Cameron Tonkinwise – Service Design & Social Complexity
Hosted by Jocko S.
Differential Logic • The Logic of Change and Difference
Differential logic is the logic of variation — the logic of change and difference.
Differential logic is the component of logic whose object is the description of variation — the aspects of change, difference, distribution, and diversity — in universes of discourse subject to logical description. A definition as broad as that naturally incorporates any study of variation by way of mathematical models, but differential logic is especially charged with the qualitative aspects of variation pervading or preceding quantitative models.
To the extent a logical inquiry makes use of a formal system, its differential component treats the use of a differential logical calculus — a formal system with the expressive capacity to describe change and diversity in logical universes of discourse.
A simple case of a differential logical calculus is furnished by a differential propositional calculus, a formalism which augments ordinary propositional calculus in the same way the differential calculus of Leibniz and Newton augments the analytic geometry of Descartes.
Resources
- Logic Syllabus
- Survey of Differential Logic
- Differential Logic • Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3
- Differential Propositional Calculus • Part 1 • Part 2
- Differential Logic and Dynamic Systems • Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5
cc: Academia.edu • Cybernetics • Laws of Form • Mathstodon
cc: Research Gate • Structural Modeling • Systems Science • Syscoi
A VSM governance tool and agricultural paradigm change for climate and ecology – Jenkinson (2026) (paywalled)
TECHNICAL PAPER| MARCH 06 2026
A VSM governance tool and agricultural paradigm change for climate and ecology | Kybernetes | Emerald Publishing
A VSM governance tool and agricultural paradigm change for climate and ecology
Angus Jenkinson
Author & Article Information
Kybernetes 1–25.
https://doi.org/10.1108/K-06-2025-1586
Article history
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Purpose
This study offers transformation pathways through the intersections of enterprise governance and farming in response to climate and ecological crises (COP21, COP28 et al.). The analysis further proposes Virtuoso as a novel integration capability for the Viable System Model (“VSM”), Stafford Beer’s systemic methodology for enterprise management (Beer, 1985; Jenkinson, 2022). It thereby contrasts farming models and their ways of seeing.
On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/angusjenkinson_virtuoso-biodynamicfarming-fertilizers-activity-7437173834631442432-Hmq4?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAACuq-oBecVFDW6PCf3lkoG-peMeuLBeoho, Angus says:
Very happy to share this paper I just published about different farming models and their impact on nature and climate (A VSM governance tool and agricultural paradigm change for climate and ecology). it shows how this relates to ways of seeing the world and managing a company or enterprise. This features the VSM, the viable system model developed by Stafford Beer, whose centennial is this year. It takes a deep look at identity as the guiding star and model.
But what really excites me is its illustration of the immense potential the right kind of farming has. The key to the life and economic health of the farm is soil management and that depends on understanding how to cherish it so that it will support farmer, food, and future.
You see the future is very bleak if farming does not get its act fully together, so I am delighted to showcase genuine best practice in the case study. The featured farm is sequestering around ten times more carbon than it emits
https://lnkd.in/e5xsMMNq
Findings
Farming has radically altered the planetary biosphere (Ellis et al., 2010). The IC model is a major contributor to global climate and biodiversity challenges through its degenerative cycle of soil degradation, input dependency, and declining resilience (Montgomery, 2017, 39–40, 80–81). BD demonstrates that economically sound, mitigation and regeneration is possible, exceeding UN COP21 soil organic carbon (“SOC”) targets, a key indicator of climate change (Gantlett, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025). Virtuoso articulates their contrasting identities and operational logics, revealing latent potential for agriculture and the VSM.
Launch Event: What does it take to sustain place-based change? Renaisi-TSIP, 21 April 2026, London UK
Launch Event: What does it take to sustain place-based change? Tickets, Tuesday, Apr 21 from 11 am to 3 pm | Eventbrite
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Coin Street Neighbourhood CentreLondon, England
Tuesday, Apr 21 from 11 am to 3 pm
Northeast Regional Conference on Complex Systems 2026 – on now!
ByNERCCS
University of RochesterRochester, NY
Wednesday, Mar 11 at 12 pm to Friday, Mar 13 at 12:30 pm
Weirdly, they stopped selling $15 onine tickets but program
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Cybernetic Praxis, Part II: Toward a Reconstruction of Construction – Wood (2026)
Project Consultant | Builder | Systems Thinker
Cybernetic Praxis, Part II: Toward a Reconstruction of Construction
(1) Cybernetic Praxis, Part II: Toward a Reconstruction of Construction | LinkedIn
Ben Wood, PMP
Project Consultant | Builder | Systems Thinker
How do we find the “why”? Vornov (2026)
Mindwalk – a film by Bernt Capra
Recommended as ‘the only film about systems thinking’ on LinkedIn…
MINDWALK – YouTube
ChatGPT says:
Mindwalk (1990) is an unusual film. It is almost entirely a long philosophical conversation rather than a conventional story. The director is Bernt Amadeus Capra, and the ideas come largely from his brother, physicist Fritjof Capra, especially the book The Turning Point (1982). (Wikipedia)
The film runs about 112 minutes and stars Liv Ullmann, Sam Waterston, and John Heard. It was filmed largely on location at Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, whose medieval architecture and tides serve as a kind of symbolic backdrop to the discussion. (Wikipedia)
The basic premise
Three people wander around the island and talk:
• Sonia Hoffman – a Norwegian physicist who left her research career after realising it was feeding weapons development.
• Jack Edwards – an American politician recovering from a failed presidential campaign.
• Thomas Harriman – a poet and former political speechwriter who is disillusioned with politics. (Wikipedia)
The entire film is essentially their walk and conversation. They move through cloisters, terraces, and courtyards while arguing about science, politics, ecology, economics, and culture.
The core idea
The film’s intellectual centre is systems thinking. Sonia argues that modern society still thinks in a mechanistic, reductionist way inherited from Newtonian science. Instead, she proposes a holistic or systems view, where ecological, social, technological, and economic processes are interconnected networks. (What’s After the Movie?)
So the conversation ranges across things like:
• quantum physics and uncertainty
• ecological limits and environmental damage
• how political decisions ripple through complex systems
• the relationship between science, ethics, and power
Rather than giving solutions, the film tries to shift the frame of thinking—from isolated problems to interacting systems. (What’s After the Movie?)
Style and structure
It’s basically a “conversation film”. The drama is intellectual rather than plot-driven. The closest comparisons are films like My Dinner with Andre or, later, Linklater’s dialogue films. Critics often note that the risk with such films is that characters become mouthpieces for ideas. (sensesofcinema.com)
To counter that, the film uses:
• the striking setting of Mont-Saint-Michel
• shifting camera compositions of the three characters
• poetry (including a reading of Neruda at the end)
These elements keep the film from becoming purely didactic.
Reception
Critics often say the same thing: it’s thoughtful but demanding. One review described it as an engaging but dialogue-heavy film that mostly appeals to viewers already sympathetic to its ecological and systems-thinking ideas. (Wikipedia)
Why it still gets talked about
Despite being small and somewhat obscure, Mindwalk became a cult favourite in intellectual and ecological circles because it tried to translate systems theory and modern physics into a human conversation about society.
For people interested in systems thinking, complexity, ecology, or the philosophy of science, it’s almost a cinematic essay rather than a typical film.
If you want, I can also explain the key systems ideas in the film (Capra’s worldview, deep ecology, network thinking, etc.). That’s really the heart of it.
Differential Logic • 18
Tangent and Remainder Maps
If we follow the classical line which singles out linear functions as ideals of simplicity then we may complete the analytic series of the proposition in the following way.
The next venn diagram shows the differential proposition we get by extracting the linear approximation to the difference map
at each cell or point of the universe
What results is the logical analogue of what would ordinarily be called the differential of
but since the adjective differential is being attached to just about everything in sight the alternative name tangent map is commonly used for
whenever it’s necessary to single it out.
To be clear about what’s being indicated here, it’s a visual way of summarizing the following data.
To understand the extended interpretations, that is, the conjunctions of basic and differential features which are being indicated here, it may help to note the following equivalences.
Capping the analysis of the proposition in terms of succeeding orders of linear propositions, the final venn diagram of the series shows the remainder map
which happens to be linear in pairs of variables.
Reading the arrows off the map produces the following data.
In short, is a constant field, having the value
at each cell.
Resources
- Logic Syllabus
- Minimal Negation Operator
- Survey of Differential Logic
- Survey of Animated Logical Graphs
cc: Academia.edu • Cybernetics • Laws of Form • Mathstodon (1) (2)
cc: Research Gate • Structural Modeling • Systems Science • Syscoi
Differential Logic • 17
Enlargement and Difference Maps
Continuing with the example the following venn diagram shows the enlargement or shift map
in the same style of field picture we drew for the tacit extension
A very important conceptual transition has just occurred here, almost tacitly, as it were. Generally speaking, having a set of mathematical objects of compatible types, in this case the two differential fields and
both of the type
is very useful, because it allows us to consider those fields as integral mathematical objects which can be operated on and combined in the ways we usually associate with algebras.
In the present case one notices the tacit extension and the enlargement
are in a sense dual to each other. The tacit extension
indicates all the arrows out of the region where
is true and the enlargement
indicates all the arrows into the region where
is true. The only arc they have in common is the no‑change loop
at
If we add the two sets of arcs in mod 2 fashion then the loop of multiplicity 2 zeroes out, leaving the 6 arrows of
shown in the following venn diagram.
Resources
- Logic Syllabus
- Minimal Negation Operator
- Survey of Differential Logic
- Survey of Animated Logical Graphs
cc: Academia.edu • Cybernetics • Laws of Form • Mathstodon (1) (2)
cc: Research Gate • Structural Modeling • Systems Science • Syscoi
Differential Logic • 16
Propositions and Tacit Extensions
Now that we’ve introduced the field picture as an aid to visualizing propositions and their analytic series, a pleasing way to picture the relationship of a proposition to its enlargement or shift map
and its difference map
can now be drawn.
To illustrate the possibilities, let’s return to the differential analysis of the conjunctive proposition and give its development a slightly different twist at the appropriate point.
The proposition is shown again in the venn diagram below. In the field picture it may be seen as a scalar field — analogous to a potential hill in physics but in logic amounting to a potential plateau — where the shaded region indicates an elevation of 1 and the unshaded region indicates an elevation of 0.
Given a proposition the tacit extension of
to
is denoted
and defined by the equation
so it’s really just the same proposition residing in a bigger universe. Tacit extensions formalize the intuitive idea that a function on a given set of variables can be extended to a function on a superset of those variables in such a way that the new function obeys the same constraints on the old variables, with a “don’t care” condition on the new variables.
The tacit extension of the scalar field to the differential field
is shown in the following venn diagram.
Resources
- Logic Syllabus
- Minimal Negation Operator
- Survey of Differential Logic
- Survey of Animated Logical Graphs
cc: Academia.edu • Cybernetics • Laws of Form • Mathstodon (1) (2)
cc: Research Gate • Structural Modeling • Systems Science • Syscoi
Designing Freedom in the 21st Century – The Moral Modalities Framework (MMF) – Hilder (2026)
Feb 26, 2026
Designing Freedom in the 21st Century – 3
Designing Freedom in the 21st Century – 3
The Moral Modalities Framework (MMF)
TREVOR E HILDER
FEB 26, 2026
The Third System – Trevor E Hilder on substack – Designing Freedom in the 21st Century (2nd part) – Hilder (2026)
What functions are needed for a system to be viable?
Feb 17, 2026
The Third System
Designing Freedom in the 21st Century – 2
Designing Freedom in the 21st Century – 2
What functions are needed for a system to be viable?
TREVOR E HILDER
FEB 17, 2026
School of Systems Change hiring a Head of Systems Change Practice Partnerships – 08.FTE, £57.5k pro rata, permanent, deadline 22 March 2026, UK
At a glance
We’re excited to bring a new member to our team and network. As Head of Systems Change Practice Partnerships, you will join a team committed to embracing difference and nurturing a systemic, living paradigm, where learning is change.
Salary: £57,500- 61,750 pro rata per annum
Hours: 30 hours per week excluding lunch breaks (0.8 FTE).
Contract: This is a permanent contract. The notice period is three months in writing on either side. There is a probationary period of six months.
Location: London, UK. 22-26 Paul Street, EC2A 4QE, with opportunities for flexible working. Candidates must have a valid right to work in the country.
Benefits: Various opportunities for flexible working, generous time off policies, and other sector-competitive benefits.
hiring a Head of Systems Change Practice Partnerships
We’re hiring a Head of Systems Change Practice Partnerships! – School of System Change
At a glance
Job pack
Application process
At a glance
We’re excited to bring a new member to our team and network. As Head of Systems Change Practice Partnerships, you will join a team committed to embracing difference and nurturing a systemic, living paradigm, where learning is change.
Salary: £57,500- 61,750 pro rata per annum
Hours: 30 hours per week excluding lunch breaks (0.8 FTE).
Contract: This is a permanent contract. The notice period is three months in writing on either side. There is a probationary period of six months.
Location: London, UK. 22-26 Paul Street, EC2A 4QE, with opportunities for flexible working. Candidates must have a valid right to work in the country.
Benefits: Various opportunities for flexible working, generous time off policies, and other sector-competitive benefits.






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