antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 6:15 am on April 13, 2026

Stuck in the middle with you: A pragmatic theory of change – Mowles (2026)

Apr 13, 2026

Stuck in the middle with you
A pragmatic theory of change
CHRIS MOWLES
APR 13, 2026
Stuck in the middle with you – by Chris Mowles

https://chrismowles.substack.com/p/stuck-in-the-middle-with-you?r=1queb6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 2:46 am on April 13, 2026

Stafford Beer Revisited – Caminao’s Way (Remy Fannader)

Nowadays Stafford Beer’s foresight of the Viable system model (VSM) can be realized through digital twins and ontologies.
Stafford Beer Revisited – Caminao’s Ways

Stafford Beer Revisited

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 3:49 am on April 12, 2026

The History of Systems Thinking – Michael Lissack for systemsliteracy.org (2026)

From Heraclitus’s river to second-order cybernetics — twenty-five centuries of ideas about wholes, parts, flux, feedback, and the organised complexity of the living world.

SYSTEMSLITERACY.ORG
The History of Systems Thinking
From Heraclitus’s river to second-order cybernetics — twenty-five centuries of ideas about wholes, parts, flux, feedback, and the organised complexity of the living world.
The History of Systems Thinking — From Heraclitus to the Present

https://www.systemsliteracy.org/timeline/index.html

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 3:45 am on April 12, 2026

19th International Conference of Sociocybernetics – Glocal Intersections, Oaxaca, Mexico, 3-7 August 2026 (Hybrid Format)

Glocal Intersections

Oaxaca, Mexico, 3-7 August 2026 (Hybrid Format)

The 19th International Conference of Sociocybernetics will take place in Oaxaca, Mexico, from August 3rd to August 7th, 2026. This event is organized under the theme “Glocal Intersections”

19TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF SOCIOCYBERNETICS

Glocal Intersections
Oaxaca, Mexico, 3-7 August 2026 (Hybrid Format)

The 19th International Conference of Sociocybernetics will take place in Oaxaca, Mexico, from August 3rd to August 7th, 2026. This event is organized under the theme “Glocal Intersections”
19th International Conference of Sociocybernetics | ISA RC51 on Sociocybernetics

19th International Conference of Sociocybernetics

Jon Awbrey 2:40 pm on April 9, 2026
Tags: Arithmetization ( 6 ), C.S. Peirce ( 56 ), Gödel Numbers ( 6 ), Higher Order Sign Relations ( 6 ), Inquiry Driven Systems ( 33 ), Inquiry Into Inquiry ( 9 ), logic ( 58 ), Mathematics ( 56 ), Quotation ( 6 ), Recursion ( 7 ), reflection ( 7 ), Reflective Interpretive Frameworks ( 6 ), Semiotics ( 33 ), Sign Relations ( 29 ), Triadic Relations ( 23 ), Use and Mention ( 6 ), Visualization ( 38 )

Reflection On Recursion • 2

Turning to the form of a simple recursive function $f(n) = m(n, f(p(n))),$ the clause we used to define it earns the title of “syntactic recursion” due to the way the function name $``f"$ occurring in the defined phrase $``f(n)"$ re‑occurs in the defining phrase $``m(n, f(p(n)))".$

It needs to be clear there is no circle in the definition — each instance of the type $f$ is defined in terms of an instance one step simpler until the base case is reached and fixed by fiat. Instead of a circle then we have two gyres, the gyre down via the precedent function $p$ and the gyre up via the modifier function $m.$

Resources

cc: Academia.edu • Cybernetics • Laws of Form • Ma^thstodon
cc: Research Gate • Structural Modeling • Systems Science • Syscoi

#arithmetization, #c-s-peirce, #godel-numbers, #higher-order-sign-relations, #inquiry-driven-systems, #inquiry-into-inquiry, #logic, #mathematics, #quotation, #recursion, #reflection, #reflective-interpretive-frameworks, #semiotics, #sign-relations, #triadic-relations, #use-and-mention, #visualization

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 2:03 am on April 8, 2026

Systems Thinking and Risk ManagementThematic Journal, March 2026

Systems Thinking and Risk Management
Thematic Journal, March 2026
March 2026: Systems Thinking and Risk Management

https://www.risk-society.com/index.php?page=acymailing_front&ctrl=archive&task=view&id=24&noheader=1&noheader=1

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 3:40 pm on April 7, 2026

On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B – Kerr (1995)

[Original pdf just below, then the first article I found about it as it always seems weird to give only a pdf link…]

Click to access Kerr.pdf

Michael Austin

On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B
Whether dealing with monkeys, rats, or human beings, it is hardly controversial to state that most organisms seek information concerning what activities are rewarded, and then seek to do (or at least pretend to do) those things, often to the virtual exclusion of activities not rewarded. . . . Nevertheless, numerous examples exist of reward…

Michael Austin
On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B – By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 6:29 am on April 7, 2026

Of Bottlenecks and Breakthroughs: A proper introduction to the Theory of Constraints – Michael (2026)

MICHAEL
APR 07, 2026

Of Bottlenecks and Breakthroughs – by Michael

https://performancesystems.substack.com/p/of-bottlenecks-and-breakthroughs?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3353928&post_id=191368766&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=slo6&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 4:43 am on April 7, 2026

What Comes After Systems Thinking – Williams (2026)

[h/t Ivo Velitchkov. This confused me a bit, it started off with the usual systems thinking / system dynamics confusion, then pivoted to cybernetics along with complexity.]

Reflection On Recursion • 1

Ongoing conversations with Dan Everett on Facebook have me backtracking to recurring questions about the relationship between formal language theory (as I once learned it) and the properties of natural languages as they are found occurring in the field. A point of particular interest is the role of recursion in formal and natural languages, along with collateral questions about its role in the cognitive sciences at large.

It has taken me quite a while to bring my reflections up to the threshold of minimal coherence — and the inquiry remains ongoing — but it may catalyze the thinking process if I simply share what I’ve thought so far …

Comment 1

Recursion is where you find it — so, myself not being a natural language researcher, when someone who is says they don’t find it in a given corpus I just take them at their word …

Comment 2

The question to which I keep returning has to do with the relationship between two ways we find recursion occurring.

One way I’d call pragmatic recursion — if I wanted to be precise and cover its full scope — since so many of its operations occur without conscious direction, but for now I’ll defer to more familiar language, calling it cognitive or conceptual recursion.

Comment 3

If we discard from the idea of recursion what is not of its essence, we find recursion occurs when our understanding of one situation has recourse to our understanding of other situations.

Very typically, the object situation presents itself as complex, difficult, or unfamiliar while the resource situations are regarded as being better understood.

It must be appreciated, however, that any ranking of situations by level of understanding is contingent on the circumstances in view and may vary radically in alternate settings.

Comment 4

Recursion occurs more markedly in syntactic recursion, where the recursive process shows its character as such in the symbols of its syntactic expression.

A sense of the difference can be gained by looking at a case of ostensible syntactic recursion. (How much substance backs the ostentation is a subject we’ll take up, maybe at length, but later …)

Consider the following diagram for the computation of a simple recursive function.

For example, the factorial function $f(n) = n!$ has a definition in terms of the predecessor function $p(n) = n-1$ and the multiplier function $m(j, k) = j \cdot k.$

Comment 5

Recursion is rife in mathematics and computation, typically sporting its recursive character on its sleeve in the fashion of syntax sketched above. But mathematics and computation are overlearned subjects and practices, enjoying long histories of being gone over with an eye to articulating every last detail of any way they might be conceived and conducted. So it’s fair to ask whether all that artifice truly tutors nature or only creates a rationalized reconstruction of it. Then again, even if that’s all it does, is there anything of use to be learned from it?

Comment 6

The prevalence of recursion in mathematics arises from the architecture of mathematical systems.

Mathematical systems grow from a fourfold root.

Primitives are taken as initial terms.
Definitions expound ever more complex terms in relation to the primitives.
Axioms are taken as initial truths.
Theorems follow from the axioms by way of inference rules.

Recursive definitions of mathematical objects and inductive proofs of the corresponding theorems follow closely parallel patterns. And again, in computation, recursive programs follow the same patterns in action.

Resources

cc: Academia.edu • Cybernetics • Laws of Form • Ma^thstodon (1) (2) (3)
cc: Research Gate • Structural Modeling • Systems Science • Syscoi

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 4:23 pm on April 6, 2026

An Open Systems Science – Emery (2026)

Merrelyn Emery, 2026

I am pleased to present my latest and last book, a heartfelt plea to take open systems seriously. We are a brilliant species but we have fallen into a very deep hole. If we had had a science which was genuinely always based on reality, we may not be in this hole, and may have a more assured future. While there has always been a strand of science which is based on accurate descriptions and explanations of reality, it has been, in too many circumstances, overtaken by its closed systems relative. Far too many branches of science have succumbed to the hypothesis of mechanism and the first design principle. Here we look at a collection of examples in which science has taken a wrong direction while the alternatives are always available. In many ways, it is a bit of a romp through these problems so I hope you find it enjoyable as well as instructive.
An Open Systems Science – Social Science That Actually Works

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 4:18 am on April 6, 2026

Critical Thinking for Improved Systemic Coaching -Assumptions & PhilosophiesAccredited Enhanced Training for Coaches Qualification – AETC – with Colin Wilson (paid) – April-October 2026 (online)

Critical Thinking for Improved Systemic Coaching –
Assumptions & Philosophies
Accredited Enhanced Training for Coaches Qualification – AETC
Coaching Programme: Critical Thinking for Improved Systemic Coaching – Assumptions and Philosophies – Coaching Membership

Coaching Programme: Critical Thinking for Improved Systemic Coaching – Assumptions and Philosophies

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 2:51 am on April 6, 2026

‘Rebraiding cybernetics and AI’ – a few thoughts on the first webinar

If #AI is powerful at producing answers, what kind of system would be capable of asking better questions than the ones we currently know how to ask?

I missed Paul Pangaro, Jill Fain Lehman and Mike van de Wijnckel’s first ‘Re-Braiding Cybernetics and AI’ symposium because I was at hashtag#STSP26. But I’ve gone through the materials – it’s important.

Jill’s framing of the split itself is powerful: cybernetics took humans as an instance of self-organising systems, AI took humans as the self-organising system of concern. Tidy; enormous consequences. It changes what you think needs explaining, what you’re allowed to assume, what’s treated as background and what as the central problem. It’s where the trouble starts.

Once you narrow the question, you can get very good at modelling, classifying, predicting, generating and optimising, while tiptoeing away from purpose, observer, boundary, context and ethics. You can become extremely clever about the banana, even the stick, while losing interest in the cage, the shelf, the zookeeper, the audience, and the poor sod’s changing sense of what counts as freedom. Heinz von Foerster said, ‘cybernetics is not the banana’.

Pangaro’s opening definition: cybernetics is about information as feedback to effective action, and about purpose as something attributed by an observer. The observer is in the picture – so, therefore, is responsibility. So intervention isn’t just technical. It’s ethical and political. A much bigger challenge than ‘can the machine do the task?’ It asks who is deciding what the task is, from which world, and with what consequences.

Mike’s thread through von Foerster and Pask was excellent. Self-organisation, in this lineage, is not a magical property or a managerial slogan. It depends on interaction, coalition, adaptation, evolving boundaries, and non-zero-sum conditions. The system can’t optimise itself into wisdom. It has to become viable through relationship. Critical for anyone working in hashtag#publicservices, where our biggest failures come from treating living systems as if they were machinery.

The re-braiding question isn’t mainly about AI research, it’s about institutional design.

That’s what’s missing from a lot of the current conversation. The strands for the next symposium are ‘representation’ and ‘process’. Fair enough. But the questions that really bite in public life are purpose, power, boundaries, legitimacy, worlds, and agency – as substance, not optional.

This could be a great project, not just for history of ideas, but to help us ask a better practical question.

What would it mean to place AI inside purposeful, accountable, learning systems rather than bolt it onto broken ones? What would it mean to design for judgement and discretion within boundaries, over time, rather than automate transactions and call it progress? What would it mean to build public systems that can see themselves, and change themselves, instead of becoming more efficient at doing the wrong thing righter?

link to the project
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uXgkltowcKjmcLOyOQUKtv852gvq0zx1UlhT2zeabKU/edit?tab=t.0

Benjamin Taylor

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 2:03 am on April 6, 2026

From Hierarchy to Intelligence – Dorsey (2026)

[Blimey, there’s some familiar stuff here!]
jack on X: “From Hierarchy to Intelligence” / X

https://block.xyz/inside/from-hierarchy-to-intelligence

https://t.co/jgZkBvYOPt
— jack (@jack) March 31, 2026

antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor 2:50 pm on April 5, 2026

Kim Warren’s slides on Agentic AI and the self-managing etnerprise – STSP conference 2026

[Share on linkedin at the link below – with link direct to pdf in message]

Great to see such a great crowd at STSP. Feel free to share my piece about agentic AI and the self-managing enterprise. Linked-in can block external links so copy-paste this … sdl.re/AIshowITS

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7443264705017692160/?originTrackingId=%2BiOr8sc8An2zlOaP8SMRgw%3D%3D