LO & the new Sciences LO4938

shani.net@shani.net
Tue, 16 Jan 96 13:26:42 PST

Replying to LO4821 --

Doug, could you explain, specify and elaborate more on:

>I believe that the application of this to the Learning
Organizaation rests in achieving cultures wherin different
kinds of connectivity between individuals are encouraged,
especially in response to/ engaged with its environment, beit
market or service clients.

Responding to Bob Luttman LO4821...

Bob, you write that you have had discussions around Margeret
Wheatley's book. Do you have records when this took place so I
can easier find them in the archives.

Continuing the same subject, here are more quotes from the book
I mentioned in my former message. I hope they arouse interest
and will bring an exchange of views *in dialog form* that can
enrich all of us in understanding the application of these
ideas to Learning organizations.

Complex systems evolve themselves to the edge of chaos.
This is the state where the system needs to balance itself so
as not to fall into too much chaos on the one hand (as in the
present state of the former Soviet Union), and too much order
on the other hand (as in the centralized, totalitarian
Stalinist regime). In many coevolving complex systems, the
systems attain the state of being at the edge of chaos by
adjusting their degree of coupling. Systems reach the edge of
complexity by tuning their ties to other systems.

Stuart Kauffman says that "By selecting an appropriate
strategy, organisms tune their coupling to their environment to
whatever value suits them best. And if they adjust the coupling
to their own advantage, they will reach the boundary between
order and randomness--the regime of peak average fitness. The
bold hypothesis is that complex adaptive systems adapt to and
on the edge of chaos." He also says that "It now begins to
appear that systems in the complex regime can carry out and
coordinate the most complex behavior and adapt most readily and
can build the most useful models of their environments" (Ruthen
1993:117).

Research at Santa Fe Institute raises the following
possibilities: the edge of chaos is where complex systems are
best able to function adaptively. It is where they get better
at evolving and have the highest fitness. The edge of chaos is
where complex adaptive systems show lifelike behavior and can
best perform complex computations. This is where they acquire
the basic evolutionary competence of developing internal
models of the environment.

The edge of chaos is where complex adaptive systems
have the widest range of behaviors to choose from. This gives
them an advantage of being able to function effectively in a
varied and fast changing environment. They have a rich choice
of alternatives they can pick from when dealing with a
turbulent environment.

The behavioral and social sciences have a lot of
research ahead of them to understand how the systems they deal
with adjust and tune their couplings to their environments to
attain a regime of peak average fitness at the edge of chaos.
Biological species do this by tuning the degree of
interdependence/autonomy of their components and between
themselves as a whole and other systems. The way human systems
tune themselves to the edge of chaos needs thorough research.

We will need to learn how to design human systems that
have the ability to balance themselves at the edge of chaos.
Being at the edge of chaos is where information gets the upper
hand over energy, and information processing becomes an
important part of the system. Computation, which is a basic
characteristic of complex adaptive systems, is at an optimum at
the edge of chaos. Complex adaptive systems, in a never ending
process of adaptation and coevolution, through emergence and
natural selection, bring themselves to the edge of chaos. This
is where complex behaviors assume a lifelike character. It is
where complex adaptive systems try to be.

Being poised at the edge of chaos means not being
straitjacket in an unresilient structure of too much order. It
also means not passing a critical bifurcation into too much
irregularity, disorder, and anarchy. It means being poised in a
dynamic balance with sufficient nonlinear freedom to enhance
creativity, novelty, entrepreneurship, risk taking,
experimentation, and discontinuous change while not drowning in
totally chaotic confusion and uncertainty.

A system designed to balance at the edge of chaos
centers its identity around being a learning, changing system.
It knows that all structure-dependent solutions to problems are
short-lived, it is oriented to continuous accelerating rates of
inexorable change. It cherishes variety and diversity. It
encourages uniqueness and nonconformity. It is open to the new
and the novel. It takes risks and encourages risk taking.

While maintaining this climate it is careful to remain
dedicated to its vision and evolutionary mission as long as
they are still meaningful, and to redefine them when
they do not reflect the changed reality. The regularity and
order within it are maintained not so much by outside
penalties, structure and constrictions but mainly by
inner-conviction in the values and vision of the system.
Learning to design systems with the characteristics described
above is a major guideline for evolutionary design.

There is evidence to suggest that achieving a balance
at the edge of chaos can be better attained by tuning a number
of key parameters such as: The degree of internal complexity
needs to match external complexity. The degree and quality of
external communication and relationships needs to match the
level of mutual interdependence. The measure of component
autonomy needs to match the level of complexity of the system.
The degree and quality of internal communication needs to match
the degree of internal complexity. The quality of mutual
responsibility and cooperation needs to match the degree of
interdependence. Resource schisms should be maintained below
the Feigenbaum Point.

Creating an Identity as a Learning System

Having an image as a learning system means that the system
never sees itself as static but as constantly changing with
every new learning. Learning and changing complement each other
as part of the identity of the system. No structure is seen as
final and the only way to survive is to be able to move through
different forms. Moving through different forms entails the
ability to be self-reflectively aware of the processes of
change the system is going through and use the advances of the
New Sciences to attain this consciousness.

I hope these quotes can raise some brainstorming on this list
as to how to help organizations function at the edge of chaos
and to develop more concrete ideas about the forms it would
take.

--
Dr. Uri Merry
umerry@shani.net