The proof establishes new conditions that cause connected oscillators to sway in sync.

Samuel Velasco and Paul Chaikin/Quanta Magazine

By Leila Sloman

Contributing Correspondent

July 24, 2023

Introduction

Six years ago, Afonso Bandeira and Shuyang Ling were attempting to come up with a better way to discern clusters in enormous data sets when they stumbled into a surreal world. Ling realized that the equations they’d come up with were, unexpectedly, a perfect match for a mathematical model of spontaneous synchronization. Spontaneous synchronization is a phenomenon in which oscillators, which might take the form of pendulums, springs, human heart cells or fireflies, end up moving in lockstep without any central coordination mechanism.

Bandeira, a mathematician at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, and Ling, a data scientist at New York University, dove into synchronization research, obtaining a series of noteworthy results on the strength and structure that connections between oscillators must have to force the oscillators to synchronize. That work culminated in an October paper in which Bandeira proved (together with five co-authors) that synchronization is inevitable in special types of networks called expander graphs, which are sparse but also well connected.

Expander graphs turn out to have a slew of applications not only in math but also in computer science and physics. They can be used to create error-correcting codes and to figure out when simulations based on random numbers converge to the reality they are trying to simulate. Neurons can be modeled in a graph that some researchers believe forms an expander, due to the limited space for connections inside the brain. The graphs are also useful to geometers who try to understand how to traverse complicated surfaces, among other problems.

Continues in source:

New Proof Shows That ‘Expander’ Graphs Synchronize | Quanta Magazine

https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-proof-shows-that-expander-graphs-synchronize-20230724/

Over 80+ of my favourite systems thinking resources — for the complete beginner, absolute expert, and everything in between.

TIJN TJOELKER NOV 28, 2023

∙ PAID

The Systems Thinking Starters KitOver 80+ of my favourite systems thinking resources — for the complete beginner, absolute expert, and everything in between.TIJN TJOELKERNOV 28, 2023∙ PAID

(1) The Systems Thinking Starters Kit – by Tijn Tjoelker

https://tijntjoelker.substack.com/p/systems-thinking-starters-kit

[What I said:]

I must admit I’m disappointed, Tjin. I know that my critique and recommendations were just one comment on your – as you say – viral LinkedIn post. But I hoped that from me or someone else you would have engaged with some of the points therein.

Here were my comments:

And of course https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/sk338l2kwzisua86j1gx1/SCiO-CF-Resources-v8-Oct2023.pdf?rlkey=l52h5h3wjvqrpw05klkvd4g45&dl=0

https://www.systemspractice.org/page/scio-competency-framework-professional-qualification

I think you’ve ended up with a toolkit that is flat – not engaging with some of the rich depth and complexity of systems | complexity | cybernetics – difficult – some of the Systems Dynamics stuff is amongst the hardest to learn and use well – and that includes a lot of interesitng stuff that doesn’t really relate to the field.

Anyway, I do appreciate all the work that goes into something like this (I’ve been working away at www.syscoi.com for years) and I will stay tuned – on the paid subscription – for a couple of months to see where yo utake this!

cheers

Benjamin

 November 23, 2023  daviding

 0 Comments

For the November 2023 Systems Thinking Ontario session, historian and policy advisor Dr. Michael Bonner was invited for an interview by Zaid Khan.  In organizing the sessions, we’re trying to avoid the trap of systems thinking becoming a discipline, through learning with a sweeping-in process.

The session opened on a map of The Sassanid Empire c. 620 CE, also known as Second Persian Empire, a high point for the Iranian civilizations before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th–8th centuries.

• Audio 15 minutes

Updated Wednesday, 23 March 2022

Peter Checkland recalls how a shortage of management education led him to develop his theories.

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/money-business/leadership-management/systems-explained-peter-checkland

Join us in person to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Buckminster Fuller Institute! A night of inspiration, innovation and community.

By The Buckminster Fuller Institute

Date and time

Friday, December 15 · 5 – 9pm PST

Location

Gray Area / Grand Theater, Mission Street, San Francisco, CA, USA2665 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94110 United States

Buckminster Fuller Institute 40th Anniversary Celebration

Join us for a spectacular in-person event celebrating the 40th anniversary of Buckminster Fuller Institute! This is designed as an immersive experience and will not be live streamed or recorded.

We are thrilled to invite you to the Gray Area / Grand Theater on Mission Street in beautiful San Francisco, CA, USA.

This milestone celebration promises to be an unforgettable experience filled with inspiration, creativity, innovation, and special guests! We will celebrate forty incredible years of Buckminster Fuller Institute and the transformative work underway heading into our fifth decade! We’ll also have updates on current projects to reach 100 million life-centered designers, regenerate bioregions, center indigenous knowledge in design, transform financial systems, engage with regenerative AI, uplift and build capacity for design scientists, support large-scale ecological restoration and more.

The event will feature sustainable local food served throughout the evening and a cash bar.

Friday, December 15Buckminster Fuller Institute 40th Anniversary CelebrationJoin us in person to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Buckminster Fuller Institute! A night of inspiration, innovation and community.By The Buckminster Fuller Institute54 followersFollowDate and timeFriday, December 15 · 5 – 9pm PSTLocationGray Area / Grand Theater, Mission Street, San Francisco, CA, USA2665 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94110 United StatesShow mapRefund PolicyContact the organizer to request a refund.Eventbrite’s fee is nonrefundable.About this event4 hoursMobile eTicketBuckminster Fuller Institute 40th Anniversary CelebrationJoin us for a spectacular in-person event celebrating the 40th anniversary of Buckminster Fuller Institute! This is designed as an immersive experience and will not be live streamed or recorded.We are thrilled to invite you to the Gray Area / Grand Theater on Mission Street in beautiful San Francisco, CA, USA.This milestone celebration promises to be an unforgettable experience filled with inspiration, creativity, innovation, and special guests! We will celebrate forty incredible years of Buckminster Fuller Institute and the transformative work underway heading into our fifth decade! We’ll also have updates on current projects to reach 100 million life-centered designers, regenerate bioregions, center indigenous knowledge in design, transform financial systems, engage with regenerative AI, uplift and build capacity for design scientists, support large-scale ecological restoration and more.The event will feature sustainable local food served throughout the evening and a cash bar.

Buckminster Fuller Institute 40th Anniversary Celebration Tickets, Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 5:00 PM | Eventbrite

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/buckminster-fuller-institute-40th-anniversary-celebration-tickets-764894679577?aff=oddtdtcreator

 November 20, 2023  daviding

For the Relating Systems and Design RSD12 symposium on October 14, 2023, members of the Explainers subgroup of the Systems Changes Learning Circle conducted an in-person workshop on “Explaining Systems Changes Learning: Metaphors and translations” at OCADU in Toronto.

Explaining Systems Changes Learning | RSD12 | 2023-10-14 November 20, 2023 daviding 0 CommentsFor the Relating Systems and Design RSD12 symposium on October 14, 2023, members of the Explainers subgroup of the Systems Changes Learning Circle conducted an in-person workshop on “Explaining Systems Changes Learning: Metaphors and translations” at OCADU in Toronto.

Explaining Systems Changes Learning | RSD12 | 2023-10-14 – Coevolving Innovations

Vol 1 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-40332-3

Vol 2 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-40985-1

Vol 3 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-40339-2

Message from Otto:

A New Concept of Advanced Systems Thinking

Highlights

• Focused on the mental processes of the systems thinker, the books introduce a paradigm
  shift in advanced systems thinking: rather than fixating attention on systems

hypostatized by the thinker on purely logical grounds, the books lay bare the thought-
form structure of the thinker’s real-time movements-in-thought that led him to

hypostatize the system in question, thus making visible the ‘absences’ in the thinker’s
thought that need to be repaired.

• By centering on the systems thinker’s own mental process and its cognitive-
  developmental structure, the books outline an assessment methodology for judging the

quality of individual system thinkers’ process in terms of the complexity and maturity of
their thinking.

• Thereby, they deliver the foundation for empirical studies in systems thinking as a part of
  studies in adult cognitive development; the books also lay the foundation for teaching
  advanced systems thinking in a self-reflective manner, not primarily for “solving
  problems” (which are always a function of the thinker’s thought maturity), but for
  measuring and boosting the thought complexity a thinker is presently capable of.
• The books thus amount to an epistemology of advanced systems thinking that highlights
  the latter’s limitations when it is conducted in purely logical terms, simultaneously
  showing that logical thinking, (in Western cultures) mature at 25 years of age, naturally
  evolves into dialectical thinking over the lifespan.
• The books are based on Laske’s Dialectical Thought Form Framework (DTF, put in place in
  2000), which is continued to be taught in international cohorts at the
  Interdevelopmental Institute (https://interdevelopmentals.org/services/).
  Three New Books on Advanced Systems Thinking
  by Otto Laske, known as Inventor of New Thinking
  Tools, have appeared at Springer

Volume 1: Approaching Real-World Complexity with Dialectical Thinking (ISBN 978-3-031-40331-6)
Volume 2: How to Measure and Boost Thought Maturity (ISBN 978-30031-40984-4)
Volume 3: Manual of Dialectical Thought Forms (ISBN 978-3-031-40338-5)

• The books spell out and interpret validated empirical outcomes of adult-developmental
  research in cognitive development over the life span, — a discipline now 25 years old but
  curiously kept out of the systems thinking mainstream which therefore lacks a reflexive
  meta-level.
• The books articulate the pedagogical foundations of 20 years of undergraduate and
  graduate instruction in advanced systems thinking at the Interdevelopmental Institute
  (IDM; www.interdevelopmentals.org), delivered in international cohorts in English,
  French, German, and Spanish.
• From a historical perspective, the books fuse insights of the Frankfurt School and the
  Harvard Kohlberg School as well as integrate cutting-edge insights deriving from R.
  Bhaskar’s and M. Archer’s Dialectical Critical Realism.
  Having proven their worth in practice, they are ready to be used for teaching and examinations
  at colleges, universities, think tanks, and in programs of executive and team development.
  I would be happy to mentor your staff in the novel subject of the three books.
  Sincerely,
  Otto Laske, Founder and Director, Interdevelopmental Institute (IDM)
  otto@interdevelopmentals.org

For more detailed information on the contents of the books, go to

Determinist Reductionism Sucks – Yet Again

What, Why & How do we Know ?

Getting to the bottom of reductionism – is it all just physics in the end?

By Kevin Mitchell – August 17, 2022

http://www.wiringthebrain.com/2022/08/getting-to-bottom-of-reductionism-is-it.html

[Shared on the American Cybernetics Society email list by Paul Pangaro]

Eames Office

uploaded 18 Oct 2013

The principle of feedback — the cycle by which performance is measured, evaluated against desired results, and corrected for future performance. Made for IBM, Introduction to Feedback was one of a series of films proposed by the Eames Office to explain computers and the principles underlying their operation. Script by Charles Eames Narrated by Vic Perrin, Music by Elmer Bernstein 10 minutes, 40 seconds.

Other videos on this Eames Office YouTube account are well worth a look:

https://www.youtube.com/@eamesoffice/videos

Edited by Steffen Roth, Jari Kaivo-oja, Kristof van Assche, and Harry F. Dahms

Virtual Special Issue of Futures onSimulation and dissimulationEdited by Steffen Roth, Jari Kaivo-oja, Kristof van Assche, and Harry F. Dahms

Release | Special Issue | Simulation and dissimulation | Dr. Steffen Roth

Sonja Blignaut

We tend to talk about complexity as something “out there”. A wicked problem to solve, a mess to order, a source of overwhelm and confusion to eliminate. And while it is all these things, it is also our home territory. Our habitat. And it IS us.

We are complexity walking.Sonja Blignaut·Following4 min read·3 hours ago25Photo by Ryoji Iwata on UnsplashWe tend to talk about complexity as something “out there”. A wicked problem to solve, a mess to order, a source of overwhelm and confusion to eliminate. And while it is all these things, it is also our home territory. Our habitat. And it IS us.

We are complexity walking.. We tend to talk about complexity as… | by Sonja Blignaut | Nov, 2023 | Medium

https://sonjablignaut.medium.com/we-are-complexity-walking-39a5116cfac0

Alexander Beiner

NOV 15 • 1HR 0M

How Reality Learns with Nora BatesonA podcast interview with Nora Bateson about her new book ‘Combining’

How Reality Learns with Nora Bateson – by Alexander Beiner

https://beiner.substack.com/p/how-reality-learns-with-nora-bateson#details

 Table of Contents

1. Step Into It
2. Making the case for System Innovation
3. Seeing the System
4. Working on Three Levels
5. Getting into The Washing Machine
6. The Keys that Unlock Systems
7. Be Part of a Movement
8. Closing the System Innovation Gap
9. Further reading

Download

PDF Version

Authors

Jennie Winhall

lCharles Leadbeater

Building Better Systems orginal — The System Innovation Initiative

https://www.systeminnovation.org/article-building-better-systems

Posted by: vanessalefton and alexfleming, 15 November 2023 – Categories:Policy Lab

This blog launches “Systemic” – a game that simulates how policy-making systems function and possible shifts that can be made to improve policy outcomes. Systemic has been inspired by the world of board games, and was co-created by Policy Lab and Matteo Menapace, the co-author of ‘Daybreak’. It forms part of our learning from a project aiming to shift complex systems around multiple disadvantage with the Changing Futures Programme. Serious games are one of Policy Lab’s new experimental methods, set out in the launch of our experimental innovation strategy last year.