What, Why & How do we Know ?
“The Way of Systems” is maybe not a phrase I would choose. Religious connotations of “the way” (Christian as well as Buddhist) seem unnecessary baggage to lead with, even though I clearly see universal value in systems thinking. But nevertheless, whenever one is looking to improve on the “orthodox scientism” of western rationality all roads … Continue reading “The Way of Systems”
Thinking about an upcoming dialogue, I thought I’d compose a brief outline of what I’m about in 2023. A conversation starter. I’m doing “Systems Thinking”. For 20+ years, I would have called it “Cybernetics” by which I mean the original sense of the term – how humans as living things decide and govern ourselves for … Continue reading “What Am I Thinking?”
I gave a talk to the ISSS last weekend. Public link to PDF of the ISSTalk Slides here. Members link to the recording here (November 19, 2022). I postponed an “in conversation” session with Anatoly Levenchuk at the Russian EEMI from the previous week until early new year. I made several references to EEMI and … Continue reading “Systems – Work(s) in Progress”
In a break from writing, one or two pieces in need of reading and listening caught my attention. It’s all related. In an ISSS context there has been some debate between two schools, between many different aspects of systems definition, complex detail for systems of different types in different real-world applications versus abstraction of systems … Continue reading “Systems Connections”
[Draft Holding Post – links being added.] Cybernetics, like anything else, evolves, so I’m never talking about specific systems theory(ies). I’ve described my own journey every which way through systems engineering to systems thinking under the cybernetic umbrella. I have a nothing new under the sun attitude to any topic, whereby changing language may change … Continue reading “General Systems Theory(ies)?”
As well as dallying about at conceptual / philosophical levels with cybernetics and systems thinking in recent decades, I’ve had several abortive attempts at getting some useful tools going. In fact in those decades I was also working with and for software developers / solution providers on “generic” tools mainly in the “capital facilities” business. … Continue reading “Systems Functional Needs”
I’ve been mentioning Systems and Systems Thinking increasingly as I explicitly formalise the metaphysics underlying my world-view and my various writing projects, technical synthesis and creative fictional narrative. And I’m in “just write something” mode after 20+ years of intense reading and research trying to minimise distractions from what is now effectively my post-retirement day-job … Continue reading “International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS)”
I watched a talk by Eva Jablonka on the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) which I’ve mentioned previously in connection with Kevin Laland et al. (In fact she provides one of the cover blurbs for his “Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony“.) Apart from the general plea for the phenotypic focus (*) on evolutionary change – of which (DNA) … Continue reading “Paradigmatic Shift – Objects to Systems?”