Toronto, Ontario; San Francisco, California; San Jose, California; Sunnyvale, California; Mountain View, California; Berkeley, California
Cineplex Queensway: Tuesday Matinee viewing of Avengers Infinity War in UltraAVX non-3D is a lot to absorb, having to recall linkages over 10 years of movies. Between prior 16-day trip and upcoming 10-day trip, squeezing in regular life is a luxury. (Cineplex Cinema Queensway, Etobicoke, Ontario) 20180501 MarsDD: Connected data in graphs @fzakariya @neo4j briefing. Beyond relational databases on a LAMP stack, and document databases on the MEAN stack, now looking at GraphQL and Node.js tools. Continual learning on technologies that continue to evolve. (Mars Discovery District, College Street, Toronto, Ontario ) 20180503Pearson T1 aisle 11: Been 18 months since I last flew to USA on AC, despite have travelled to Asia, Europe and western Canada multiple times. I may be part of the statistic of fewer flyers under the current government adminstration. Pearson Terminal moved Air Canada U.S. check-ins to the far end aisles, from the middle. Agent said they did that about 18 months ago. (Pearson Terminal 1, Toronto, Ontario) 20180507SFO International Terminal: By door 06, Rufino Tamayo (1983) “Conquest of Space”, enamel paint on steel. Mexican painter with first sculpture permanently placed outside of Mexico at age 84. Waiting for pickup by AHI at departures level, wearing shorts and sandals. (San Francisco International Airport, International Terminal, California) 20180507San Jose Japantown: Driver attests to Ford Focus 5* safety rating. A sore wrist and three small pricks on the back of left hand are the only post collision symptoms. Neighbours say 4 way stop was installed only a month ago. Northbound sedan struck on driver’s side by Volvo SUV, forcing the car into the utility pole. Side and front air bags deployed. Vehicles taken to towing yard on flatbed trucks. (N.4th Street at E. Empire, Japantown, San Jose, California) 20180508
Merit Vegan: Ex-vegans @rarar @liv_bryce and omnivore @teh_allchemist accommodating my prescribed diet for tofu and eggplant in selecting a dining spot. Indulged in non-dairy desserts. Learning about each other’s backstories, there are surprises in the contexts that make sense in appreciating life journeys. Served by waiter who we’re convinced really enjoys the foods he recommends. (Merit Vegan, Merit Expressway, Sunnyvale, California) 20180510 Kolbeh: Persian restaurant sees koobideh kebab sampled by two, while the majority opts for the more familiar falafel. We’ll join the rest of the family in the North Bay, for the official ceremonies tomorrow. Genial service by head waiter, unexpected with the casual decor. (Kolbeh, El Camino Real, Mountain View, CA) 20180511 Cal Memorial Stadium: UC Berkeley class of 2018 takes 1 hour in procession to fill the seats, audience capacity of 63,000 looks two-thirds full. Maddy’s mother alumna says when she graduated decades ago, ceremonies were smaller by department, so campus-wide events are newer. Extended family attending only this event today, two more departmental events this week. Milestone sesquicentennial 150 years for UC. (California Memorial Stadium, University of California, Berkeley) 20180512UC Berkeley: Family convening for Maddy’s class of 2018 graduation at U.C. Berkeley. Lots of groups lining up for choice photo spots. Exodus from Cal Memorial Stadium at conclusion of ceremonies disperses crowds up and down staircases and the hills on campus. (University of California at Berkeley) 20180512Berkeley Art Center: Examining Jeremiah Jenkins (2018) “Jacob’s Teaset” installation, with barrier and omenous warning to preclude electrical shock. Power cord plugged into wall connects to percolator, placement of the spoon to close a circuit is noticed. Unexpected arc across spark gap between percolator and sugar bowl confirmed danger, but then we couldn’t trigger another zap by bouncing on the floor. Leisure afternoon continued with stroll along Berryman Path, and a visit to the Berkeley Rose Garden. (Berkeley Art Center, Walnut Street, Berkeley, California) 20180513Veggie Garden: Meeting AHI’s circle of friends, social media means everyone is well-briefed on recent news. Some had seen RDI on a prior trip, didn’t know there are more brothers at home. Vegan duck unanimously voted as outstanding. (Veggie Garden, El Camino Real, Mountain View, California) 20180515Yerba Buena: Partition wall sees Future Farmers (2018) “Oar Trade” blades threaded through ports. Baltimore floorboards inlaid into Seattle house, then extracted Seattle floorboards shaped into art objects. This contemporary art show was more conceptual than usual, a lot of documentaries to watch. (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Mission Street, San Francisco, California) 20180516 SFO Museum: Isamu Noguchi (1986) “Akari Table Lamp Model VB13-T” made of washi paper, bamboo and metal. Display cases in International Terminal showing Japanese-American designer (1904-1988), where 2-dimensional origami folding influences 3-dimensional objects. (San Francisco International Airport, International Terminal G, California). 20180517 Former Weston Bread Factory: Photo installation @laird_kay 2018 “Wonder” abstracts building details of bread production lines now silent since 2014. Venue for Contact Festival at the end of our street received zoning approvals in 2017, pre-sales of condominium units should commence later this month. More construction on our block to be expected. (Former Weston Bread Factory, 462 Eastern Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20180519Pine Hills Cemetery: Igniting incense sticks shielded by the Lowkong monument and inside a metal can. Annual cemetery visit to remember clan members no longer with us, and ancestors in our lineage. (Pine Hills Cemetery, Birchmount Road, Scarborough, Ontario) 20180520 SystemsThinking/TO: Systemic insurrection after ST/TO formal program. I invited anyone who wanted to discuss “why I disagreed with 90% of the presentation on Innovation Engineering” to pull up a chair, and stay for a chat. Emergent multi-way discussion backed up by theoretical and historical recall by Stephen Regoczei. This was an emergent thread from a one-way talking-head agenda, future meetings may seek to be more participative. Photo courtesy of Chris Chapman. (SystemsThinking/TO, LoyaltyOne, King Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20180524 Sim Toronto: Vintage K-E-M editing table @simcomplete @Doors_OpenTO contrasts to digital editing suites on tours for visitors on this special weekend. Sound isolation from floating floors and 5 panes of window glass is impressive, given the busy city thoroughfares immediately outside. Viewed quick show reel in wonderful facility equipped for Dolby Atmos, but a real demo of the capabilities requires approvals and an NDA that customers normally sign. (Sim International (formerly Tattersall Sound and Picture, Adelaide Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20180526 203-205 College St.: The BMO branch where I opened an account in 1976 was replaced by a Starbucks, but now only the east wall is left to be demolished. The 5-storey building on the southeast corner of St. George Street and Beverley Street applied to the OMB for a 29-floor tower replacement. My grandparents’ house where I lived was one block west, and during my uncle’s university days, they lived one block south. (203-205 College Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20180527
Grange Park: Rear side of Art Gallery of Ontario, exterior wall colours bright on a sunny day. Bicycle had a flat tire on Spadina, decided to walk further east to position for RDI to pick up in car. (Grange Park, Beverley Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20180530
The 125th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario coincided with the closing day for the RSD13-RSDX online program. As a regular systems convening group, we’ve had monthly meetings since January 2013. Zaid Khan moderated a discussion including me (David Ing), Tim Lloyd, Allenna Leonard, and Kelly Okamura. We recollected starting as a spinoff from Design with […]
The International Society for General Systems Research formed circa 1956 became the International Society for the Systems Sciences in 1988. In 1985, Bela H. Banathy organized the annual meeting on the theme of “Systems Inquiring”. Proceedings normally are published in the year following. In 1987, John A. Dillon summarized Banathy’s perspective in the yearbook, General […]
For five immersive days, a team of six researchers had the opporunity to collaborate on ideas on rhythmic shifts (mostly based on Systems Changes Learning) and anticipatory systems (in the legacy of Robert Rosen). The 2024 Banathy Conversation was organized by the Creative Systemic Research Platform Institute, facilitated by Susu Nousala, Gary S. Metcalf, and […]
Systems Processes Theory has been under development for many decades, led by Len Troncale, a past president of the International Society for the Ssytems Sciences. Many have found getting a grip on the science to be a demanding task, both in scope and in depth. Over many decades, Lynn Rasmussen was a collaborator, refining and […]
The Socio-Technical Systems (STS) perspective, dating back to the studies of Eric L. Trist and Fred E. Emery, was on the reading list of organizational behaviour classes in my undergraduate and master’s degree programs. It wasn’t until 15 years later, when I got involved with the systems sciences and David L. Hawk, that the Socio-Ecological […]
Civic Tech can be described as projects using technology “for the public good“. Civic Tech may be related to, but different from Gov Tech. For the May 2024 Systems Thinking Onrtario, we had two knowledgeable guests in conversation. Dorothy Eng, executive director of Code for Canada since 2021, related her professional journey from engineering to […]
David L. Hawk (American management theorist, architect, and systems scientist) has been hosting a weekly television show broadcast on Bold Brave Tv from the New York area on Wednesdays 6pm ET, remotely from his home in Iowa. Live, callers can join…Read more ›
Following the first day lecture on Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 1 for the Global University for Sustainability, Keekok Lee continued on a second day on some topics: * Anatomy as structure; physiology as function (and process); * Process ontology, and thing ontology; * Qi ju as qi-in-concentrating mode, and qi san as qi-in-dissipsating mode; and […]
The philosophy of science underlying Classical Chinese Medicine, in this lecture by Keekok Lee, provides insights into ways in which systems change may be approached, in a process ontology in contrast to the thing ontology underlying Western BioMedicine. Read more ›
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 ›
The appreciation of change is different in Western philosophy than in classical Chinese philosophy. JeeLoo Lin published a concise contrast on differences. Let me parse the Introduction to the journal article, that is so clearly written. The Chinese theory of time is built into a language that is tenseless. The Yijing (Book of Changes) there […]
In trying to place the World Hypotheses work of Stephen C. Pepper (with multiple root metaphors), Nicholas Rescher provides a helpful positioning. — begin paste — Philosophical perspectivism maintains that substantive philosophical positions can be maintained only from a “perspective” of some sort. But what sort? Clearly different sorts of perspectives can be conceived of, […]
Finding proper words to express system(s) change(s) can be a challenge. One alternative could be diachrony. The Oxford English dictionary provides two definitions for diachronic, the first one most generally related to time. (The second is linguistic method) diachronic ADJECTIVE Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “diachronic (adj.), sense 1,” July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/3691792233. For completeness, prochronic relates “to […]
The selection of readings in the “Introduction” to Systems Thinking: Selected Readings, volume 2, Penguin (1981), edited by Fred E. Emery, reflects a turn from 1969 when a general systems theory was more fully entertained, towards an urgency towards changes in the world that were present in 1981. Systems thinking was again emphasized in contrast […]
In reviewing the original introduction for Systems Thinking: Selected Readings in the 1969 Penguin paperback, there’s a few threads that I only recognize, many years later. The tables of contents (disambiguating various editions) were previously listed as 1969, 1981 Emery, System Thinking: Selected Readings. — begin paste — Introduction In the selection of papers for this […]
