London, Ontario; Toronto, Ontario; Mountain View, California; San Jose, California; Oakland, California; Alameda, California; Vancouver, British Columbia; Boston, Massachusetts
Restaurant solarium: Pendant lights above booths, in Greek restaurant for lunch. Comfortable, casual space on a grey, rainy day. Music from the 1970s sets mood for baby boomers. On the way home from Michigan, venue chosen serendipitously. (Four Seasons Restaurant, London, Ontario) 20151201Armenian lunch: Zataar, beef manakeesh, kishek with sujuk, moutabbal, tabbouleh, then a half order of mixed BBQ platter. Extraordinary flavour when the food arrived hot to the table, declining as it cooled in the approaching winter. Celebration of DY’s birthday deferred to weekend when family could be together. (Paramount Fine Foods, Yonge Street, Toronto) 20151206Terminal 1 Christmas: December not yet cold, so holiday cue is a reminder of family times to come at end of month. Departing on flight to California, so thoughts of snowflakes even farther away. (Toronto Pearson Airport Terminal 1, U.S. gates, Toronto, Ontario) 20151208The Milk Pail Market: Grocery shopping at an institution with a history of local produce back into the 1970s. Found Comice pears, plus many other fruits and vegetables to stock up nephew’s refrigerator. They’re known for their cheese selection, which isn’t an attraction for me. (The Milk Pail Market, Mountain View, CA) 20151208Santa Teresa County Park: Facing east, the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton is far away in the distance. Walked out from IBM Almaden towards summit, along road where cars are blocked from water reservoirs and power transformer stations. (Santa Teresa County Park, San Jose, CA) 20151209Julian Street Inn: Designed by Christopher Alexander in 1988 in the style of a country inn, a shelter for the homeless demonstrates the practical side of a Berkeley professors known as an architectural theorist. Down the street from San Jose Arena (now SAP Center) that was completed in 1993. (Julian Street Inn, San Jose, California) 20151209Deepening systems knowledge: Lunch with Ian Mitroff @MitroffCrisis discussing complexity vs. complicatedness, and ways of teaching systems thinking to students. Ian had a copy of “The Collapse of Complex Societies” by Joseph Tainter on his shelf, and said that he would read it on my recommendation. (Oakland, CA) 20151210San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art: With Jack Park @gardenfelder, viewing Jim Campbell (2011) “Exploded View (details)” of 1152 LEDs hanging by wire, electronics showing low resolution images from various perspectives in a 360-degree walkaround. Artist had former career as a Silicon Valley engineer, now designs pieces where lights are programmed and often constructed in three dimensions. (San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, California) 20151111East Ocean Restaurant: In line for Sunday dim sum, sampling Chinese restaurants for future nuptial festivities. In California East Bay, have to drive across multiple cities to reach authentic banquet scale venues. (East Coast Seafood Restaurant, Alameda, California) 20151213Cows near the summit: IBM leases some of its land to cattle ranchers near Santa Teresa County Park. Early morning arrival for meetings had greeting of mooing, just across from the parking lot. (IBM Almaden, San Jose, California) 20151215Accelerated Discovery Lab: Former library space has been repurposed so that researchers and industry practitioners can collaborate in a central, open space. Workshop on Mycroft Cognitive Mediator moved out of windowless meeting room for an hour, in a change on scenery. Presentation includes Labbook prototype currently under research. (IBM Almaden, San Jose, California) 20151215Rainy Vancouver waypoint: Direct SanFran-Toronto flight cancelled, so earlier flight via Vancouver makes up some time. Luggage missing, should eventually be delivered to house. Domestic security inspected zhong rice dumpling wrapped in banana leaves, recognised by ethnic Chinese screener. (Vancouver International Airport, British Columbia) 20151217Queen Street Viaduct: Dusk on Christmas Eve, biking westward to see how much the city is shutting down for the holidays. Unusually warm for December, prospects for snow anytime soon seem far away. (Queen Street Viaduct, Riverside, Toronto, Ontario) 20151224Serano Bakery: Family-run Greek neighbourhood bakery, for crusty whole wheat bread and taramasalata. An exercise destination, biking uphill in below-freezing weather, past two artisanal bakeries who offer products at twice the price. Large store with sweets for dessert. Will sample with family at dinner tonight, and judge whether we’ll become repeat customers. (Serano Bakery, East York, Ontario) 20151228MIT Sloan School of Management: In 1982, I was #2 on a list of 1 for a PhD program in Management Information Systems at the MIT Sloan School, applying with a Masters degree from Northwestern U. with high recommendations. Went to UCLA PhD program, dropped out first day, then to U. British Columbia for 2 years before dropping out. Really need to finish this PhD at Aalto U. in 2016, as have been around graduate schools for so long. The MIT decision going another way would have been a completely different life. (Siteman Dining Room, MIT Building E-62, Cambridge, Massachusetts) 20151231
Institute of Contemporary Art Boston: Tara Donovan (2003) “Untitled (Pins)” is a precise cube of size 17 straight pins. Behind, right, is Philip Taaffe (1983) “Untitled III”, a linoprint collage on muslin on canvas. On left is Shannon Ebber (2011) “XIS” archival pigment prints. Exhibits on 4th floor of gallery, quick stop of Silver Line bus from downtown to airport. (Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston) 20151231
The October online meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario presented an opportunity for an update on progress made by the Systems Changes Learning Circle by 2022. A slide deck had been prepared an in-person seminar at the Universitat de Barcelona Graduate Programmes in Business, organized by Ryan C. Armstrong, one week earlier. Our regular monthly meeting, […]
Just before starting a trip to Spain, I received an invitation from Ryan C. Armstrong at the Universitat de Barcelona Business School to give some lectures. The students in the bachelor’s programme in international business had a short mention of systems thinking in the first lecture of the operationa management class. With that brief entry, […]
While the adaptive cycle and panarchical connections reflect the possiblity of movement from one stable state to another, it’s possible to get “stuck” in a disfavoured trap. Social ecological systems involve both natural systems and human systems. After widespread recognition of the 2002 Panarchy book, reflections in 2010 revealed further development of the theory and […]
In order to appreciate the influence of resilience science and panarchy on ongoing research into systems changes, revisiting foundational works sometimes resurfaces insights. In the 2002 Panarchy book, Chapter 15 provides a summary of findings. In the course of the project hat led to this volume, we identified twelve conclusions (Table 15-1) in our search for […]
What 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 […]
Towards 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 […]
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…Read more ›
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…Read more ›
How might our society show value for the long term, over the short term? Could we think about taxation over time, asks @carlotaprzperez in an interview: 92% for 1 day; 80% within 1 month; 50%-60% tax for 1 year; zero tax for 10 years.Read more ›
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…Read more ›
In web conference, #HermanDaly says #EcologicalEconomics used to get attacked from the right, now it's from the left. Panel @revkin @jon_d_erickson @ktkish @sophiesanniti #TimCrowshaw #KatieHorner livestreamed #sustainwhat .Read more ›
Complementing the idea of a @longnow , @nfergus provokes the challenge of a #shortthen as the online social media platforms distract the larger perspectives on history.Read more ›
An online version of a special issue of Paunch (1980) on "Root Metaphor: The Live Thought of Stephen C. Pepper" has been preserved on the internet Archive
Attributed to Hippocrates is the use of the term kairos in observational methodology, and the presentation of significant findings. Just to be scholarly, Hippocrates is generally reported as a institution, rather than a person. Although Hippocrates is generally accepted as the father of medicine, few have recognized, or even realized, the extent to which he […]
Autopoiesis, as coined by Humberto Maturana, is in the contextualist root metaphor of Stephen C. Pepper, rather than the organismic root metaphor, say #HowardMancing and #JenniferMarstonWilliam .
