[As well as coverage of Cybersyn, includes this fascinating snippet:
Looking closer at the attendee’s list of the 1980 Leipzig Autumn fair, the surprise guest was undoubtedly the Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek. Contrary to his earlier statements and after his first flying visit through the GDR accompanied by Emilio Barrarecan and Frank Volkster, he let himself be carried away to the following statement: „Socialism is becoming a self-regulating system in the way I had once assumed markets to be. Socialist cybernetics thus establishes a harmonious order by itself.“ ]
Written by Alan Bellows • Non-Fiction • October 2012
Nineteen Seventy ThreeLong-Form/Podcast: Chile’s audacious 1970s-era plan to network and automate the country’s entire economy, hindered by political upheaval and CIA maneuvering.Written by Alan Bellows • Non-Fiction • October 2012
While we do not always use words, communicating what we want to an AI is a conversation — with ourselves as well as with it, a recurring loop with optional steps depending on the complexity of the situation and our request. Any given conversation of this type may include: (a) the human forming an intent, (b) the human expressing that intent as a command or utterance, (c) the AI performing one or more rounds of inference on that command to resolve ambiguities and/or requesting clarifications from the human, (d) the AI showing the inferred meaning of the command and/or its execution on current and future situations or data, (e) the human hopefully correctly recognizing whether the AI’s interpretation actually aligns with their intent. In the process, they may (f) update their model of the AI’s capabilities and characteristics, (g) update their model of the situations in which the AI is executing its interpretation of their intent, (h) confirm or refine their intent, and (i) revise their expression of their intent to the AI, where the loop repeats until the human is satisfied. With these critical cognitive and computational steps within this back-and-forth laid out as a framework, it is easier to anticipate where communication can fail, and design algorithms and interfaces that ameliorate those failure points.
Who we areSystems Beings Lab (SBL) is a collaborative research collective to facilitate and elevate various approaches to grapple with complexity. We bring process-oriented approaches to foster non-linear dynamics of un/learning, and allow space and time to explore the messes of paradoxes, contradictions, and multiples perspectives.
Systems thinking in local government: intervention design and adaptation in a community-based studyTiana Felmingham, Siobhan O’Halloran, Jaimie Poorter, Ebony Rhook, Cindy Needham, Joshua Hayward, Penny Fraser, Stephanie Kilpatrick, Deana Leahy & Steven Allender Health Research Policy and Systems volume 21, Article number: 90 (2023)
Exciting news 📢 We are pleased to announce Dr Mike C Jackson OBE as the Arnold Keynote Speaker on Day Two of ASEC 2023!
Michael is Emeritus Professor at the University of Hull and MD of Systems Research Ltd, Michael’s expertise spans civil service, academia, and consultancy. He’s a triple-crown accredited former Dean of Hull University Business School and a key figure in critical Systems Thinking.
Join us at ASEC 2023 to hear his invaluable insights! Book your spot at ASEC 2023 now: https://bit.ly/3ZKUCD1
Since systems thinking in education is a common topic in this group (and perhaps its cousin or sister interdisciplinary thinking is welcome as well), I thought to post this little article from 1896, which describes one way to approach it. The following is the introduction. “Concentration , or the correlation of studies, is only the extension of the principle of the relativity of knowledge which has been current in the world since the rise of a philosophy of the sciences. The assumption of the relativity of knowledge is denial that knowledge is absolute At the same time it is an assertion that each province of knowledge is related to all others, that all the departments of human knowledge form one articulated body of which the various branches of learning form mutually dependent parts.”
Autopoietic theory had posited life-mind identity, while the role of materiality remained ambiguous. This identity has been cast in doubt. So: what is the unique contribution of mind in the context of matter and life? What if each makes a unique contribution to the organism? 1/n pic.twitter.com/aYIfShvELl
— Tom Froese, Embodied Cognitive Science Unit (ECSU) (@DrTomFroese) September 2, 2023
Irruption Theory: A Novel Conceptualization of the Enactive Account of Motivated Activityby Tom FroeseEmbodied Cognitive Science Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son 904-0495, Okinawa, JapanEntropy 2023, 25(5), 748; https://doi.org/10.3390/e25050748Received: 20 February 2023 / Revised: 27 April 2023 / Accepted: 27 April 2023 / Published: 2 May 2023(This article belongs to the Special Issue Brain Theory from Artificial Life)
Join us on Saturday, September 30th, as we celebrate the publication of Combining, the latest book by Institute of General Semantics Trustee Nora Bateson. The New York Society for General Semantics is pleased to host a reading and book signing with the author during her brief visit to New York City. The event is cosponsored by the Institute of General Semantics.
In Combining Nora Bateson invites us into an ecology of communication where nothing stands alone, and every action sets off incalculable consequences. She challenges conventional fixes for our problems, highlighting the need to tackle issues at multiple levels, understand interdependence, and embrace ambiguity.
Insisting on our collective responsibility to confront the looming threats to humanity’s survival, she advocates change through interdependencies and challenges us to rethink our perspectives on relationships, community, and the very essence of being human.
A blend of intellectual inquiry, essays, emotional engagement, storytelling, poetry and graphic art, Combining is an invitation to nurture genuine connections and navigate a world brimming with “Warm Data”—the interrelationships that integrate elements of every complex system. The book calls on us to shed our linear thinking and embrace “Aphanipoiesis” — the unseen ways in which life comes together to foster vitality and propel evolution.
In Combining, love, humor, curiosity, and vulnerability entwine amidst the trials of a world in flux. As we face the Polycrisis, Nora Bateson urges us to swerve from the traditional paths and to dismantle the illusions of fitting in. She beckons us to step into a world where learning, uncutness, and readiness converge, promising both revelation and revolution.
Nora Bateson is an award-winning filmmaker, artist, international lecturer, research designer, author, as well as President of the International Bateson Institute. She is the founder and creator of Warm Data and the practices of the Warm Data Lab and People Need People Online.
Nora wrote, directed, and produced the documentary, An Ecology of Mind, a portrait of her father, Gregory Bateson. Her work brings the fields of biology, cognition, art, anthropology, psychology, and information technology together into a study of the patterns in ecology of living systems. Her book, Small Arcs of Larger Circles published by Triarchy Press, UK, 2016 is a revolutionary personal approach to the study of systems and complexity.
Come join us for an inspiring and illuminating evening!
6 PM to 9 PM Saturday, September 30th at the historic Players Club in Gramercy Park.
Registration is free, but all attendees must be registered in order to gain admittance to the club. This includes any guests you might want to bring with you.
The program will take place in the Library on the 2nd floor of the club. Please note that, as an historic 19th century landmark, the site is not handicap accessible. Dress code is business casual and is strictly enforced, including no sneakers, shorts, ripped jeans, t-shirts).
by Francis Irving on August 7, 2015
In Combining Nora Bateson invites us into an ecology of communication where nothing stands alone, and every action sets off incalculable consequences. She challenges conventional fixes for our problems, highlighting the need to tackle issues at multiple levels, understand interdependence, and embrace ambiguity.
Systems Community of Inquiry 
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