Pegasus: Wheatley Keynote LO10896

Michael McMaster (Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk)
Thu, 7 Nov 1996 21:05:47 +0000

Replying to LO10866 --

I think this is major error in emergence, self-organisation, complexity
and chaos theory approaches when applied to human organisations.

"If we take Emergence seriously, we give up control/predictable."

We certainly give up DETAILED control and DETAILED, CERTAIN
predictability. But we don't actually need to give up either control or
predictability understood on different levels or scales.

That is, we get increasing predictability the more general (rather than
specific) that we get.

I had conversation with Murray Gell-Mann the other week where he was
concerned that what consultants and the general public was doing with
"this complexity stuff". His concern was that the ideas of control,
organisation, design were being totally rejected and "self-organisation"
was being proposed without any idea of design, etc.

He said, "They don't understand the work we are doing. There is still
organisation and predictability. They are just at a diffent scale." His
happy term for this is that we can take a "crude look at the whole" and
make predictions (crude) from that. More, we can make crude interventions
and have crude influences.

He was bothered by the approach or thinking that rejected organisation and
design.

I suggested that there was indeed something missing from those who
suggested "self-organisation" existed independently of design or
(pre-existing) organisation in the arena of human organisation at least.
That is, there are "attractors" that can be created as well as structure
or organisation that encourages learning, adaptation and knowledge
creation.

He was excited by this. The term he used, where I used "attractors" was
"selection criteria". That is, we have something to say about what is
selected or paid attention to and what is ignored. And that has influence
- but not control in any detailed sense.

--
Michael McMaster :   Michael@kbdworld.com
web:http://www.vision-nest.com/BTBookCafe/TIA/TIAmap.html
"I don't give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity 
but I'd die for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." 
            attributed to Chief Justice Brandeis
 

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>