Brain of the Firm – Stafford Beer
“IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A CHANGE, you must challenge not only the models of Unreality, but the paradigms that underwrite them.” – Stafford Beer
General Systems Theory — Ludwig von Bertalannfy
“General system theory, therefore, is a general science of wholeness” — Ludwig von Bertalannfy
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Tags: change, complexity, cybernetics, models, science, systems, Systems theory
Noted scientist Stephen Wolfram shares his perspective of how the unexpected results of simple computer experiments have forced him to consider a whole new way of looking at processes in our universe…
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Tags: science
“However, I’d [Brandon Keim]like to suggest another way of looking at the findings below, which range from the moray eel’s remarkable second jaw to the unexpected plumage of dinosaurs. They are, quite simply, wondrous — glimpses through an evolutionary frame of life’s incredible narrative, expanding to fill every possible nook and cranny of Earth’s biosphere.”
via 12 Elegant Examples of Evolution | Wired Science from Wired.com.
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“In 1948, Norbert Wiener pondered a new science in his classic book Cybernetics, one that flirted with the “boundary regions of science.” Sustainability today occupies a similar state, but the concept is used more as a policy guide and buzzword than as a true science.”
via The New Science of Sustainable Dynamics: ENN — Know Your Environment.
Tags: cybernetics, Ecology, science, Sustainability, systems
“Astronomy is arguably the most beautiful of the sciences. I’m biased, of course, but it’s nearly impossible to gaze upon a picture of a galaxy, a moon, a nebula, and not see in it something compellingly artistic. Sometimes it’s the color, sometimes the shape, and sometimes it’s the knowledge that we can understand the subject of the picture itself.”
40 Years Ago today, the Astronauts of Apollo 8, the first humans to circumnavigate the moon, finally turned their eyes from the lunar surface (on their fourth orbit) to observe the “earthrise.” Writing about it in “Happy Birthday, ‘Earthrise‘ ( NY Times), Andrew C. Revkin includes a video he compiled to mark the occasion.
As Frank Borman shifted the orientation of the capsule to see the horizon Bill Anders was moved to blurt out “Oh my God, look at that picture over there. Here’s the Earth coming up!”
“We have become, by the power of a glorious evolutionary accident called intelligence, the stewards of life’s continuity on earth. We did not ask for this role, but we cannot abjure it. We may not be suited to it, but here we are.”— Stephen Jay Gould
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Tags: evolution, intelligence, science
When delays with the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) threatened to slow the program (which was trying to meet JFK’s audacious goal of putting a man on the moon ‘before decade’s end’) NASA decided to rewrite several mission plans and sent Apollo 8 on a circumnavigation of the moon (without the LEM) on the first manned launch of the Saturn V rocket.
“Those thinking that online social networking is a substitute for face-to-face interactions might want to think again. Recent research in psychology suggests there are some benefits to real-life socializing that the Internet just can’t provide; researchers at Stanford University have published a report in Psychological Science called “Synchrony and Cooperation” that indicates engaging in synchronous activities (e.g., marching, singing, dancing) strengthens social attachments and enables cooperation”
via Asynchrony in social networking could spell trouble | Technimentis.
…. the enterprise of knowledge is consistent surely with science; it should be with religion, and it is essential for the welfare of the human species.”
- Carl Sagan
In “The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search For God” Sagan covers his thoughts on the relationship between religion and science and describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos.
Tags: intelligence, knowledge, religion, science
