In conversation, @zeynep with @ezraklein reveal authentic #SystemsThinking in (i) appreciating that “science” is constructed by human collectives, (ii) the west orients towards individual outcomes rather than population levels; and (iii) there’s an over-emphasis on problems of the moment, and…
Blog Archives
2019/04/09 Art as a discipline of inquiry | Tim Ingold (web video)
In the question-answer period after the lecture, #TimIngold proposes art as a discipline of inquiry, rather than ethnography. This refers to his thinking On Human Correspondence. — begin paste — [75m26s question] I am curious to know what art, or…
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2020/07/13 “Making Growing Thinking” |Tim Ingold (web video)
For the @ArchFoundation, #TimIngold distinguishes outcome-oriented making from process-oriented growing, revisiting #MartinHeidegger “Building Dwelling Thinking”. Organisms are made; artefacts grow. The distinction seems obvious, until you stop to ask what assumptions it contains, about the inside and outside of things…
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2013/07/27 Beau Lebens “Taking WordPress to the Front End with O2” (web video)
The WordPress O2 plugin with P2-Breathe theme results in a Facebook-like or Twitter-like streaming interface. The idea was first presented in 2013, evolving from the P2 theme in 2009 (originally launched as Prologue in 2008) when hosted on wordpress.com. “Beau…
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“alphaWorks 10” (web video) | Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Rod Smith, Gina Poole | Oct. 4, 2006
Rod Smith, VP, Emerging Technologies-SWG, Gina Poole, VP, Innovation and University Relations, and Irving Wladawsky-Berger, VP, Technical Strategy and Innovation, talk about alphaWorks celebrating ten years of ushering in emerging technologies that have helped shape the technology landscape. And, as…
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Cantonese Vs. Mandarin | Aug. 25, 2013 | Off the Great Wall
On our family visit back to our ancestral village at Lougang (or Lowkong), the members of the collective group mostly spoke no more than two of four dialects, from the heritage Toisanese, to local standard Cantonese, the modern Mandarin, and…
Geoffrey Bowker, “Memory Practices in the Sciences” (MP3 audio) | Feb. 5, 2008 | Library Cafe, WVKR-FM
Scientific knowledge has changed from its19th century origins, through 20th century industrialization into 21st century information economy. Have practices changed? Geoffrey C. Bowker, Regis and Dianne McKenna Professor and Executive Director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at…
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Comment on Getting better at working at the office | sacha chua :: living an awesome life
@sachac While working, I find jazz better than classical music to keep me energized. On web radio, I like The Grooveyard at http://www.jazz.fm/player/streams/index.htm , the Jazz Music Stream at http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ or Attention Span Radio on Live365 http://www.live365.com/stations/bamman Comment on Getting…
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Sean Quinlan, “Storage at Scale” (MP3 audio), O’Reilly Media Velocity Conference, IT Conversations, 2008/06/24
When massive volumes of data is expected to always be available on the Internet, how is that engineered? A one in a million hardware fluke would happen every day at Google, so reliability must be handled by smart software. In…
Daniel Klein on Adam Smith “The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Episode 1 — An Overview (MP3 audio), Econtalk, 2009/04/06
Although many cite Adam Smith, few have actually read him. Economists who have read Adam Smith’s writings find more clarity in the work that preceded The Wealth of Nations. Dan Klein, of George Mason University, talks with EconTalk host Russ…
Dambisa Moyo, “Is Aid Dead? Foreign Aid and Development” (MP3 audio), Council on Foreign Relations, 2009/04/21
Does foreign aid help the development of third world countries, or inhibit it? Roundtable Meeting: Global Health Roundtable: Is Aid Dead? A Discussion with Dambisa Moyo on Foreign Aid and Development Is Aid Dead? A Discussion with Dambisa Moyo on…
Christopher Coyne, “Exporting Democracy after War” (MP3 audio), Econtalk, 2008/04/07
After wars, countries may be helped in economic recovery. Christopher Coyne of West Virginia University and George Mason University’s Mercatus Center talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his book, After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy. They talk…
Rick Prelinger, “Lost Landscapes of San Francisco” (MP3 audio), Longnow Foundation, 2008/12/19
San Francisco has a long and interesting history. Rick started out in 01982 as an amateur collector of the un-collected. He began by collecting film out-takes, esoteric commercial films, and all the other ephemera that is usually discarded by archives…
Stephen Marglin, “Marglin on Markets and Community” (MP3 audio), Econtalk, 2008/03/10
Community and markets are two different ways in which human being interact socially. Stephen Marglin of Harvard University and author of The Dismal Science: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the markets…
Vernon Smith, “Markets and Experimental Economics” (MP3 audio), Econtalk, 2007/05/21
When I was in graduate school in the 1980s, experimental economics was a new area of research. Vernon Smith, Professor of Economics at George Mason University and the 2002 Nobel Laureate in Economics, talks about experimental economics, markets, risk, behavioral…
Michael Meyer, “Last Days of Old Beijing” (MP3 audio), Tech Nation, 2008/09/04
The urbanization of Beijing means that the old parts of the city are disappearing. Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Michael Meyer, author of “The Last Days of Old Beijing,” about the transformation of a city. IT Conversations | Tech Nation…
William McDonough, “Sustainability And The Next Industrial Revolution” (MP3 audio), Total Picture Radio, 2007/07/05
William McDonough is a designer with creative approaches to sustainability. “Reflect on this: It took us 5,000 years to put wheels on our luggage. How smart are humans?” William McDonough “My goal is very simple. It’s to help create “a…
George Dolbier and David Laux, “IBM’s Gaming Business” (MP3 audio), AfterTV, 2007/01/30
Although most people think about IBM as “business machines”, the company is a significant presence in the growing business of video games. Do they play games at International Business Machines? Yes, they do and, like most other things at IBM,…
Ted Leung, “Open Source in the Corporate World” (MP3 audio), Herding Code, 2008/10/03
It’s interesting to hear first-hand accounts of histories of successes and failures in Silicon Valley. Ted Leung … works on dynamic languages and tools at Sun Microsystems and is a member of the Apache Software Foundation. We discussed a variety…
- Sustainability from ecological anthropology: the second life of treesWhat might a non-anthropocentric view of sustainability look like? This would probably include regeneration of species alongside others in the ecosystem. With some recent presentations, an idea that resonates with audiences is the “The Second Life of Trees”, credited by Tim Ingold (2002) to John Knight (1998). Ingold sees continuity of life not only of ea […]
- Hypotheses Concerning Living Systems | James Grier MillerTowards a general theory of living systems, we should be looking beyond the singletons of a hierarchical level, i.e. (i) cell, (ii) organ, (iii) organism, (iv) group, (v) organization, (vi) community, (vii) society, and (viii) supranational level. In a scientific approach, James Grier Miller created a list of hypotheses. In the 1100+ page book, the hypothes […]
- A General Theory of Living Systems | James Grier MillerWhen exploring the meaning of Living Systems, it’s pretty hard to ignore the major works of James Grier Miller (1916–2002) with a book thus titled. In addition to the 1978 book Living Systems (of 1168 pages!) some additions were published in 1992 in Behavioral Science, the Journal of the Society for General Systems Research. Miller cites Alfred North Whiteh […]
- When Unfreeze-Move-Refreeze Isn’t Working: Doing, Thinking and Making via Systems Changes Learning | SCiO 2022-07-11For their community of systems practitioners, Systems and Complexity in Organisation (SCiO) UK invited a presentation at their Virtual Open Meeting in July. Presenting in a 45-minute slot, the slides at http://coevolving.com/commons/2022-07-11-doing-thinking-making-systems-changes were covered in 38 minutes, leaving time for a few questions and comments. The […]
- Appreciating Systems Changes via Multiparadigm Inquiry: Architectural Design, Ecological Anthropology, Classical Chinese Medicine, Systems Rhythms | ISSS plenary 2022-07-08On the path towards a publication in 2023, this plenary talk for the International Society for the Systems Sciences 66th Annual Meeting came with a preamble. Slides were provided in advance at http://coevolving.com/commons/2022-07-08-appreciating-systems-changes, so that details might be later perused at leisure. Here is the agenda for the presentation: A. R […]
- Systems Changes Learning: Recasting and reifying rhythmic shifts for doing, alongside thinking and making (preprint)In which ways are systems changes different from changes? Extending the deep body of knowledge in the systems sciences, rhythmic shifts serve as a gateway for exploration. In a rigourous coevolving of inquiries into (i) doing (praxis), (ii) thinking (theoria), and (iii) making (theoria), a coherent systems approach is being recast and reified. An article tra […]
- 2022/08 Moments August 2022Busy social calendar of summer family gatherings and local festivals, interspersed with otherwise invisible journal article writing.
- 2022/07 Moments July 2022Enjoying summer with Toronto Jazz, then road trip to Iowa and Chicago.
- 2022/06 Moments June 2022Social calendar for month was full with Toronto Biennal of Art, Luminato, Taste of Little Italy and Toronto Jazz Festival, plus family dim sum and dinners.
- 2022/05 Moments May 2022Spring return from California visit, into Toronto coming back to life with city activities.
- 2022/04 Moments April 2022Spring sees art exhibitions opening up around Toronto, then a trip to the Bay Area in Northern California to visit family and friends.
- 2022/03 Moments March 2022Emergence from hibernation at home, as winter gives way to spring
- The Aesthetics of Nature | Carlson and Berleant (2004)Towards a non-anthropocentric view of aesthetics, we explore the legacy of work in the aesthetics of nature. The collection of essays in The Aesthetics of Natural Environments (2004), edited by Allen Carlson and Arnold Berleant, illuminates some of the issues and debates on this perspective. In the Acknowledgements for the 2004 book is a trail […]
- Genealogy of Systems Thinking | Debora Hammond | 2002In the history of science of systems thinking, Debora Hammond related the backgrounds and connections of the founder of the Society for General Systems Research, that is now the International Society for the Systems Sciences. Boulding (1956) plays a large role in framing two orientations towards “general systems theory”. Kenneth Boulding used to distinguish […]
- Moral character in human systems (Geoffrey Vickers) | Adams, Catron, Cook (1995)Geoffrey Vickers saw human systems as different, with moral character distinguishing from natural and manmade systems. Gregory Bateson, in a more general view of systems, saw morality as entering in systems processes.
- Protein remover tablets (RGP)As protein remover tablets for RGP contact lenses become more difficult to find, the hydrogen peroxide solutions are an easy-to-find alternative.
- Book review of ZHANG, Zailin (2008) “Traditional Chinese Philosophy as the Philosophy of the Body” | Robin R. Wang | 2009In this review of a philosophical work written in Chinese, a comparison is made between Chinese philosophy centering on the body, in comparison to Western philosopy centered on the mind. (I found a reference to this book, tracing back from Keekok Lee (2017) Chapter 9, footnote 8.
- Approche systémiqueThe translation from English "systems thinking" to French "la pensée systémique" misses meaning. "Approche systémique" has lineage to "Conférences Macy", "General System Theory (Bertalanffy)" and "Gregory Bateson"
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