Toronto, Ontario; Gravenhurst, Ontario
Fortune Seafood Restaurant: Family dinner on holiday weekend, with everyone back in town. Lobster, peking duck and a series of course. Tofu casserole with shrimp an unfortunate order for a vegan with an shellfish allergy, we added a late request for a mapo tofu dish. (Fortune Seafood Restaurant, Midland Avenue, Scarborough, Ontario) 20190901Royal York Hotel: Overflow room @AmericasForum #tgf @HeatherReisman hosting @geoffreyhinton @YoshuaBengio on questions of #ArtificialIntelligence. Dual podiums and video cameras in the Canadian room. International attendees, security and metal detector checks on the conference level of building. (Royal York Hotel, Front Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20190905East West Futons: Remote viewing of product selection for futon cover, videoconference on smartphone for opinion from home. Agreed on smoothest fabric in upholstery grade, available in grey. Replacing an older futon, we tried out three models and selected the firmest. While it’s possible to order online, it’s worth the drive uptown to see and feel furniture in person. (East West Futons, Cartwright Avenue, North York, Ontario) 20190908Hooked Inc. Leslieville: Birthday celebration @Ryan_Ing fish cooking chef @dreid63 class @hookedinc. Hot smoked and cold smoked salmon, potted prawns appetizer; rockfish en papillote; pan fried crisp skin rainbow trout; roasted garlic new potato salad; carrot fennel salad; slow roasted coho salmon in mustard sauce; halibut steamed with hot oil green onions and ginger. Bonus selection of salmon sashimi varieties for guest of honour to compare subtleties. Struggled with quantity, leftovers brought home in 2 minute walk. (Hooked Inc. Leslieville, Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20190909Hooked Inc. Leslieville: Bonus sample of variety of salmon sashimi, for birthday in cooking class. Warned that one species isn’t normally recommended raw, but knowing your fish makes the difference. (Hooked Inc. Leslieville, Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20190909Riverside neighbourhood: Vegan double chocolate cheesecake and frozen peach cookie, as celebration after an exceptionally meal of fish by private chef educator. Brought home pickles recently canned with local ingredients. (Riverside neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20190909Nelson Mandela Walk: First day onsite as @RyersonU Chang School continuing education student, encountered construction in progress, east side of Jorgenson Hall towards Podium building. Picked up Onecard student identification and CESAR Handbook. This is the first higher education institution where I’m taking classes and haven’t taught (at least yet). (Nelson Mandela Walk, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario) 20190910Sawdust City Brewing Co.: Dull fall day to be sitting in the oversized Muskoka Chair, summer in cottage country has passed. Climbing the structure has been made easier with safety ridges for traction, but it still takes nerve to dangle legs over the front. The shape is different than an Adirondack Chair, the back is rounder and the arms are wider. (Sawdust City Brewing Co., Muskoka Road N., Gravenhurst, Ontario) 20190914Gravenhurst Public School: I recall going to the “new” modern building of Gravenhurst Public School at Grade 4, having spent kindergarten though Grade 3 in an older structure. Walking two blocks west from our restaurant on the main street seemed so much farther with shorter legs. Fond memories of kind teachers, plus one so strict that she was nicknamed “Sarge”. Graduated to Gravenhurst High School next door. (Gravenhurst Public School, Mary Street S., Gravenhurst, Ontario) 20190915Lawrence Park neighbourhood: Full-sized bed doesn’t fit in microvan as futon did, fortunate to have winched straps to tie down on roof and day without precipitation. Cascading furnishings through extended family ties, as their teenager is taller and still growing. Minor spectacle driving downtown via Bayview Avenue. (Lawrence Park neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20190917Sala Modern Thai Kitchen: Dinner hosted by houseguest first met by sons on vacation in Thailand, coming across the ocean for the first time for a new world experience. Long dialogues in Thai language with restaurant owner on food preferences and allergies. Food prepared in sauces that seems lighter than those I have recently recalled. Dessert with birthday song for RDI. (Sala Modern Thai Kitchen, Danforth Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20190918Lukumum: Enjoying gelato and tea at sidewalk cafe, after dinner at Greek restaurant a little further west. Friends dating back to university days, discussing our children living away from home, and places in the world that we’ve travelled. Temperatures warmer than usual, anticipating potentially the last of days of small pleasures outside. (Lukumum, Danforth Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20190921
325 Muskoka Road S.: In the 1960s and 1970s, the sign facing east used to read Kent Tv, Furniture & Appliances. The second window upstairs on the south side is the bedroom that my brother Ben and I shared through primary and high school. I left town in 1976 for university, came back briefly in 1984 with DY after leaving graduate school (the first time), and hadn’t slept here again overnight until last month. We’re clearing out artifacts of a generation that is passing. (325 Muskoka Road S., Gravenhurst, Ontario) 20190929
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 […]
On my May trip through the UK, I accepted an offer to lead an Expert-Led Session at the University of Hull. I had previously been a Research Fellow of the Centre for Systems Studies, but haven’t travelled to the Hull for some years. As we worked out the arrangements, I found out that the seminar […]
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 […]
