Information Society – Page 14 – Public Intelligence Blog

Russell Ackoff

5.0 out of 5 stars “There are no simple solutions to complex problems”., August 21, 2000

ByTurgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) – See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

“This book is a product of applying systems thinking to the management and organization of enterprises”. Russel L. Ackoff writes, “therefore, an understanding of the nature of systems and systems thinking is essential for understanding what this book is about. Although most people can identify many different systems, few know precisely what a system is. Without such knowledge, one cannot understand them, and without such an understanding, one cannot be aware of their implications for their management and organization and for treatment of the most important problems that currently face them” (p.5).

Thus, he firstly argues that a system is a whole consisting of two or more parts that satisfies the following five conditions:

(1). The whole has one or more defining properties or functions.

(2). Each part in the set can affect the behavior or properties of the whole.

(3). There is a subset of parts that is sufficient in one or more environments for carrying out the defining function of the whole; each of these parts is necessary but insufficient for carrying out this defining function.

(4). The way that each essential part of a system affects its behavior or properties depends on (the behavior or properties of) at least one other essential part of the system.

(5). The effect of any subset of essential parts on the system as a whole depends on the behavior of at least one other such subset.

Continue reading “Review (Guest): Re-Creating the Corporation – A Design of Organizations for the 21st Century”

2011/06/272011/06/27

Review (Guest): Turning Learning Right Side Up – Putting Education Back on Track

5 Star, Complexity & Resilience, Culture, Research, Education (General), Information Society, Intelligence (Public), Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design

Russell Ackoff 5.0 out of 5 stars Taking learning seriously, December 12, 2008 By Scott D. Gray (Marlborough, MA United States) – See all my reviews In modern America, everyone and his brother believes that the educational system is broken. But most people suggest responding with more of the same, rather than rethinking what learning is actually about. When the economy does well, people claim that it must be because of the education system and propose spending more money. When it does poorly, people say that it must be because we don't spend enough on education and propose spending more. Ackoff and Greenberg go back to first principals, and to daily experiences, to consider how people learn, and how education might be restructured. What they propose really does turn the modern vision of school on its head. Why do schools in the US — the land of the free and the home of the brave — condition children to be passive and to wait on authority? There is only one suggestion or conclusion that I question. There is an argument posited by one of the authors (Ackoff, I think) for an elaborate voucher system. However, the history of governments' tendency to want to manage how government money is spent would likely crush the innovation that is needed — pushing and encouraging private schools to recoil further from innovation and the cutting edge, and thereby eliminating the laboratories for reform of education. That said, the appeal for a voucher system is a very secondary aspect of the book, and does not distract from the arguments, message, and information.

AA Mind the Gap — Vote and/or Comment on Review

2011/05/272011/05/27

Review (Guest): Alone Together — Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other

4 Star, Civil Society, Communications, Consciousness & Social IQ, Culture, Research, Information Society, Information Technology, Intelligence (Wealth of Networks), Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design

Sherry Turkle

4.0 out of 5 stars Whoa! Let's not get carried away, February 6, 2011

By Martin Zook “Martin Zook” (Virginia) – See all my reviews

There is much insight to be gained about our relationship with digital technology in reading Alone Together…but it's equally informative to consider some of what's not covered in Turkle's book. When viewed through a broader perspective, perhaps we needn't be as alarmed as one might think after finishing AT.

Sherry Turkle's research indicates a loop. People design digital machines that make demands on us, their users. But people program digital technology such as robots and games to appeal to vulnerabilities. Turkle is most concerned with demands digital makes on our vulnerabilities, to the extent that some people are so attracted to the digital world that they run the risk of not being able to differentiate between reality 101 and digital illusions.

Continue reading “Review (Guest): Alone Together — Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other”

2011/05/22

Review: The World Sensorium — The Social Embryology of World Federation 1946

5 Star, Civil Society, Communications, Complexity & Resilience, Culture, Research, Education (Universities), Games, Models, & Simulations, Information Operations, Information Society, Intelligence (Collective & Quantum), Intelligence (Extra-Terrestrial), Intelligence (Public), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks), Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Philosophy, Priorities, Public Administration, Strategy, Survival & Sustainment, Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity

Oliver L. Reiser

A Gem–Easy to Read, A Foundation Book for World Brain and Global Game, May 22, 2011

I bought this book on a whim, sensing that despite its 1946 publication date it might be inspirational and I have been *very* glad to go through this. It was a half-century ahead of its time. This book, which does cite H.G. Wells and World Brain (Adamantine Classics for the 21st Century), is a wonderful core reading for any age including high school but certainly going all the way to PhD programs. I consider it a SUPERB start to any semester of dialog in this domain.

Quick overview and appreciation by the chapter:

2011/05/152011/05/15

MUST READ CAPSTONE WORK: Noosphere — The Next Stage in the Evolution of Human Consciousness, A Testimony by Jose Arguelles

11 Society, 6 Star Top 10%, About the Idea, Advanced Cyber/IO, Augmented Reality, Consciousness & Social IQ, Cosmos & Destiny, Culture, Research, Ethics, Historic Contributions, InfoOps (IO), Information Society, Intelligence (Extra-Terrestrial), Intelligence (Public), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks), Methods & Process, Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Officers Call, Philosophy, Real Time, Strategy, Strategy, Truth & Reconciliation, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)

Phi Beta Iota: We reproduce the excerpt in order to add links to all of the books and individuals mentioned. Tip of the Hat to Reality Sandwich for this offering, and to Evolver Editions (North Atlantic/Random House) for their new Manifesto series in support of human consciousness and planetary synthesis.

Noosphere: The Next Stage in the Evolution of Human Consciousness, A Testimony

José Argüelles

Source (without links)

To mark the recent passing of José Argüelles, we offer an excerpt from his upcoming book Manifesto for the Noosphere: The Next Stage in the Evolution of Human Consciousness, available from Evolver Editions/North Atlantic Books in October 2011.

EXCERPT:

We must enlarge our approach to encompass the formation taking place before our eyes … of a particular biological entity such as has never existed on earth-the growth, outside and above the biosphere, of an added planetary layer, an envelope of thinking substance, to which, for the sake of convenience and symmetry, I have given the name of the Noosphere. –Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Man

Manifesto for the Noosphere is the result of forty years of study, contemplation, investigation, and synthesis. While the noosphere may be beyond the grasp of conventional science, it is a deep and pervasive intuition that has gripped the minds of scientists, philosophers, poets, and artists since the concept first emerged in 1926. It is an evolutionary concept posited by studies in both biogeochemistry and paleontology. It is a whole-systems paradigm that melds prophecy and analysis of current world trends. It is a perception that the transformation of the biosphere is inevitably leading to a new geological epoch and evolutionary cycle, and it is due to the impact of human thought on the environment that this new era — the Noosphere — is dawning.

Continue reading “MUST READ CAPSTONE WORK: Noosphere — The Next Stage in the Evolution of Human Consciousness, A Testimony by Jose Arguelles”

2011/05/142011/05/14

Review (Guest): Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining America — From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff

5 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Capitalism (Good & Bad), Complexity & Catastrophe, Corruption, Crime (Corporate), Crime (Government), Culture, Research, Environment (Problems), Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Impeachment & Treason, Information Society, Justice (Failure, Reform), Misinformation & Propaganda, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Public Administration, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Threats (Emerging & Perennial), True Cost & Toxicity, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)

James B. Stewart

Product Description

Bestselling author James B. Stewart's newsbreaking investigation of our era's most high-profile perjurers, revealing the alarming extent of this national epidemic.

Our system of justice rests on a simple proposition: that witnesses will raise their hands and tell the truth. In Tangled Webs, James B. Stewart reveals in vivid detail the consequences of the perjury epidemic that has swept our country, undermining the very foundation of our courts.

With many prosecutors, investigators, and participants speaking for the first time, Tangled Webs goes behind the scene of the trials of media and homemaking entrepreneur Martha Stewart; top White House political adviser Lewis “Scooter” Libby; home-run king Barry Bonds; and Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff.

Guest Review

5.0 out of 5 stars A first-rate story teller takes on the lying addiction of the rich and famous, April 19, 2011 By F. Hayes-Roth (Monterey, CA USA) – See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

Lying seems epidemic in American society. Stewart focuses his superb writing skills on the general problem of perjury and lying under oath by highlighting the cases of four celebrated liars: Martha Stewart (no apparent relation to the author), Scooter Libby, Barry Bonds, and Bernie Madoff. For each of these, he asks the same question: “Why would people with so much to lose put so much at risk by lying under oath?” Ultimately, the answer becomes obvious: “They thought they could get away with it.”

Continue reading “Review (Guest): Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining America — From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff”

2011/04/072011/04/07

Review: The Beginning of All Things–Science and Religion

5 Star, Consciousness & Social IQ, Cosmos & Destiny, Culture, Research, Information Society, Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Philosophy, Religion & Politics of Religion, Science & Politics of Science, True Cost & Toxicity, Truth & Reconciliation

cover beginning of all things — Amazon Page

Hans Kung

Deeper and more Complex of Three Books on Same Topic

April 7, 2011

I tend to read in threes, and this is the deeper and more complex of the three. The first, the one I gave 6+ stars to for its simplicity and coherence, was God and Science: Coming Full Circle?. The second–and also recommended as the second to buy and read if you do two– was Questions of Truth: Fifty-one Responses to Questions About God, Science, and Belief. The latter, by John Polkinghorne, perhaps the most prolific and qualified of authors on the subject of science and religion, is with Hans Kung a Nobel-level contributor.

My reading of this book certainly benefited from the reading of the other two first. This is more of a graduate-level book, and the references to many other authors and works “in passing,” as if one were already familiar with them, makes this book one best appreciated by those who have invested time in the topic and the related writings by others.

Continue reading “Review: The Beginning of All Things–Science and Religion”