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Stafford Beer 1926 – 2002
If, as will become the dominant theme of this blog, the Purpose of a System is What it Does ( POSIWID) what does it mean to mankind that so many of our systems appear broken to even unseasoned observers?
Stafford Beer of course had a lot to say on this subject in his many works but one example that often haunts me comes from his work of prose Chronicles of Wizard Prang.
Tags: cybernetics, design, freedom, POSIWID, software, systems
These are my links for November 12th from 22:34 to 22:38:
- POSIWID: Purpose of Reading 3 – If you search for the “Purpose of Books” you will find dozens of websites repeating (with small variations) a quotation from Christopher Morley stating that the real purpose of books is to trap (or perhaps to inspire) the mind into doing its own thinking.
- POSIWID: The Purpose of Reading 2 – But I still want to quibble with the way this “Bad-Dads-Don’t-Read” agenda is being presented, because it is confusing about the true purpose of bedtime reading. If the purpose of (bedtime) reading is defined solely in terms of the educational benefit to children, this is not sufficient reason why it has to be the father who does the reading.
Tags: Books, change, education, POSIWID, presentations, systems, thinking
Richard Veryard writes in POSIWID: Don’t Waste A Crisis that:
Rahm Emanuel, just appointed chief-of-staff by President-elect Barack Obama:
“You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid. In 1974 and 1978 we never dealt with it, and our dependence on foreign oil never changed.” [BBC News, 7 November 2008]
And goes on to reflect on this comment in light of the cybernetic principle that the Purpose Of a System Is What It Does and comes to the conclusion that “A cliché is a terrible thing to waste.“
Tags: crisis, POSIWID
Entymology:
Online Etymology Dictionary
Definitions:
c
consciousness cybernetics
i
ignorance insight intelligence inference intuition
m
maxims memory metaphor matching model
p
patterns pattern matching posiwid predictions presentations problem solving
s
self-awareness skills software synthesis systems systems thinking
Tags: aesthetics, archetypes, consciousness, cybernetics, design, discipline, education, experience, feedback, feeling, goals, holons, humour, ignorance, inference, insight, intelligence, intuition, knowledge, learning, maxims, memory, metaphor, model, pattern matching, patterns, POSIWID, predictions, presentations, problem solving, self-awareness, semantics, semiotics, skills, software, synthesis, systems, teaching, thinking, VSM
cybernetics
Cybernetics
tbd
3rd Places
3rd Places
tbd
Complex Event Processing
3rd Places
tbd
In Extremis
In Extremis
tbd
Tags: cybernetics, POSIWID
Carl Pope has an interesting piece
If you look far enough into the future you can devalue the worth of not just the human race but of everything (at least by using NPV techniques) to such an extent that the value of humanity, civilization and the environment today is nothing at all… it appears that this could be the basis of behind thinking of some well known politcal advisors…. As we must live in the best of times, lets devalue the worth of everything in the future to zip by acting in such a way as to make it happen exactly that way…with the future worse than now it truly can be said “we do live in the best of times” QED
Tags: error, POSIWID
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Anticipatory Viable Systems
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tafford Beer publishes Cybernetics and Management, considered the seminal work in management cybernetics. (1959)
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Tags: cybernetics, invention, inventions, management, POSIWID, systems, VSM
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Whether you’re a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you’ve been seeing more and more stories pop up every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post.
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is to do it anonymously. But being anonymous isn’t as easy as you might think. Let’s say you want to start a blog about your terrible work environment but you don’t want to risk your boss or colleagues discovering that you’re writing about them. You’ll wa
Tags: cybernetics, education, intelligence, POSIWID, self-awareness, software, teaching, thinking
