Doug, I'm going to have to do some homework on "discrete chaos" - thanks.
I'm familiar with the condition but not the particular theories that you
are using to look at the condition.
There are programmes being run at the Santa Fe Institute that model this
phenomenon so that it can be observed in action with things like traffic
flow that any manager can relate to. The models show how the condition
forms from very simple sets of rules. When I first saw it, I realised
that all of my "theories" about traffic tie-ups on freeways - there must
have been an accident or, or, or - were not the case. Its just the way it
is under conditions that Doug has described in his way and SFI has
demonstrated in their way. (The main point of this is it might provide a
useful part of training and development for managers to see this "live"
model and to try and "fix" it.)
I also have a question for those who have put in their time with systems
dynamics. Does the operational definition of a "component system" apply
to the production problems mentioned? If so, then can System Dynamics
provide anything useful given that "in a component-system we cann know but
a fraction of all components, and this fraction does not represent well
the whole, since the components are all so different"? This statement
implies that "Component-systems produce new elements but dynamics can only
be written down for the known elements." (Quote from 'Self-Modifying
Systems in Biology and Cognitive Science by G. Kampis, Pergamon Press)
Thanks for the stimulating material,
--
Mike McMaster <Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk>
"Intelligence is an underlying organisational principle
of the universe. The 'logos principle' is hidden and
perceptible only to the intelligence." Heraclitus