New tools for understanding a turbulent world - Thomas Homer-Dixon

Today's social sciences have difficulty providing conceptual, analytic and predictive tools that help policy-makers and the public address contemporary global problems such as financial crises, energy shocks, food price spikes and climate change. In his Big Thinking lecture at Congress 2012, Thomas Homer-Dixon provides some guideposts to understanding complexity science and its potential relevance to practical social science. He suggests that policy advice from the social sciences often assumes individual rationality, an aggregation of individual rational choice into group behavior, the progression of social systems towards equilibrium, and, ultimately, calculable risk. Homer-Dixon argues that humankind's most critical problems arise from emergent complex social and natural systems marked by deep uncertainty, positive and negative feedbacks and frequent instability.

 

Thomas Homer-Dixon holds the CIGI Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Canada. He is Director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation and Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise, and Development in the Faculty of Environment. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, he received his PhD from MIT in international relations and defense and arms control policy in 1989. His books include The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization (2006), which won the 2006 National Business Book Award, The Ingenuity Gap (2000), winner of the 2001 Governor General's Non-fiction Award, and Environment, Scarcity, and Violence (1999), which won the Caldwell Prize of the American Political Science Association. His recent research has focused on threats to global security in the 21st century and how societies adapt to complex economic, ecological, and technological change.

DeLanda on Deleuze

Deleuze and the Open-ended Becoming of the World

by Manuel DeLanda

With the final mathematization of classical physics in the nineteenth century, a certain picture of the world emerged dominant, one in which clockwork determinism reigned supreme and time played no creative role, so that the future was effectively closed, completely given in the past. Although the set of equations with which Hamilton was able to unify all the different fields of classical physics (mechanics, optics, and the elementary theory of electromagnetism) did contain a variable for time, this variable played only an extrinsic role: once the equations were defined for a specific instant, both the past and the future were completely determined, and could be obtained mechanically by simply integrating the equations.

To be sure, this static, timeless picture of reality did not go unchallenged within science, since thermodynamics had already introduced an arrow of time which conflicted with the symmetric conception of classical mechanics, where the past and the future were interchangeable. Nevertheless, as the history of statistical mechanics makes it clear, much scientific effort has been spent in our century to reconcile time asymmetry at the level of large aggregates with the still accepted time symmetry at the level of individual interactions.

Thus, it would become the task of philosophers and social scientists to attempt to reconceptualize the world in order to give time and history a creative role, with the vision of an open future that this implies. Although there have been a variety of strategies to achieve this open future, here I would like to concentrate on two contrasting approaches. The first is perhaps best illustrated by the intellectual movement that is today known as "social constructivism", but which roots lie in linguistic and anthropological theories which go back to the turn of the century.

At the risk of oversimplifying, we may say that the core of this approach is a neo-Kantian theory of perception, in which individual experience is completely structured by the interplay of concepts and representations, but one in which Kant's transcendental concepts (of space and time) have been replaced by the conventional concepts of a given culture. The guiding image of this strategy may be said to be "each culture lives in its own world", an image central to many theoretical approaches in this century, from the cultural relativism of Margaret Mead and Franz Boas, to the linguistic relativism of Edward Sapir and Benjamin Worf, to the epistemological relativism of Thomas Khun's theory of scientific paradigms. Again, oversimplifying somewhat, the key idea in all these theories is one of "incommensurability" across worlds, each conceptual scheme constructing its own reality so that bridges between worlds are hard, if not impossible, to build.

More: Here

A (Partial) Defense of AQAL Contingency

A (Partial) Defense of AQAL Contingency
by Chris Dierkes

According to Wilber, when Western Europe entered into the rational-modern stage, what we term The Enlightenment (itself a contingent enterprise), The West (contingently) chose to deny Spirit as a truth procedure, thereby repressing Spirit and sending Spirit underground, only to have it re-surface in the truth procedure of Science, creating a spiritually-charged Science (now scientism as an ideology). According to Wilber, this modern spiritually- supercharged Science proceeded to take over (“colonize”) the realms of Arts and Morals, leaving what Wilber terms flatland (or really scientistic-land). The world became dominated by the ideology of the market (“The Science of Economics”).

Now that account undoubtedly has a heavy idealistic flair (again recalling idealism does not mean optimism here but causality via consciousness). As per Daniel Anderson's writings, one can reject idealism wholesale in favor of materialism. As such, one would therefore (like Daniel has) criticize Wilber's narrative philosophical reconstruction on historical materialist grounds against Wilber's more idealistic position. I'm not a historical materialist, but I appreciate the consistency of that criticism nonetheless.

In contrast I find the notion of Michael's critique of Wilber's view as having a teleological necessity to be ultimately unfair to Wilber's actual work, as shown above. Again one may not accept his presuppositions of levels, the quadrants (especially including consciousness as a fundamental dimension of existence), but contingency is radically built into his philosophy. Most especially so in his (so-called Wilber-5), post-metaphysical work.

Read More Here: Beams and Struts

100 Incredible Lectures

100 Incredible Lectures from the World’s Top Scientists
By Sarah Russel
Unless you’re enrolled at a top university or are an elite member of the science and engineering inner circle, you’re probably left out of most of the exciting research explored by the world’s greatest scientists. But thanks to the Internet, and our list of 100 incredible lectures, you’ve now got access to the cutting edge theories and projects that are changing the world.

Read More: Here

Here are some our favorties:

Richard Dawkins on our "queer" universe: Listen to this talk from biologist Richard
Dawkins to consider the strangeness of our universe, and how there are so many
things out there we can’t comprehend.

Kary Mullis on what scientists do: Biochemist Kary Mullis references the 17th century as he talks about the nature of discovery and experimentation.

Lee Smolin on science and democracy: Physicist Lee Smolin discusses how democratic (or not) the scientific community it.

A Passion for Discovery: Peter Freund of the University of Chicago considers the
entanglement of physics experiments and their effect on the behavior of
scientists.

A New Age of Exploration: From Earth to Mars: This video isn’t just about space exploration: it’s about the new age of experimentation and research.

A New Kind of Science – Stephen Wolfram: Stephen Wolfram’s talk A New Kind of Science, credits simple computer experiments with challenging him to look at research in a new way.

WTC Lecture – collapse of WTC Buildings: Steven E. Jones discusses the collapse of the World Trade Towers from a physics perspective.

Machine Learning: Discover how machines "learn" due to statistical patterns, learning theory, adaptive control and more.

The Second Law and Energy: Listen to Steven Chu’s talk about thermodynamics.

Molecular Biology: Macromolecular Synthesis and Cellular Function: Qiang Zhou from Berkeley discusses new findings in DNA research.

Evolution of the Human Species: The discussion about evolution is still active. This lecture considers evolution from genetic and fossil records.

Craig Venter on DNA and the sea: Biodiversity and genomics scientist Craig Venter
talks about starting to writing the genetic code instead of just reading it.

How Bacteria Cause Disease: Warren Levinson explains how bacteria are transmitted.

The Origin of the Human Mind: Insights from Brain Imaging and
Evolution: Find out how the human mind continues to evolve.

Biological Principles of Swarm Intelligence: Guy Theraulaz discusses animal psychology and swarm intelligence.

Psychology, Sex and Evolution: This lecture combines psychology and
biology to find an answer to how preoccupied we are with sex.

Dynamics on and of Biological Networks: Case Studies on the Machinery of Life: Stefan Bornholdt discusses molecular networks in this lecture.

The Physical World: Topics in these lectures from The Open University include
quantum physics, Einstein, helicopter flight and more.

The Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy: Nobel Prize-winning Charles H. Townes talks about what’s next in terms of deep galaxy exploration.

What is the simplest quantum field theory?: In this lecture, Freddy Cachazo brings forth ideas of simpler quantum field theories.

Stephen Hawking asks big questions about the universe: Stephen Hawking asks questions about the beginnings of the universe, where humans came from and more.

The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether and the Unification of Force: Anticipating a New Golden Age: Frank Wilczek introduces listeners to his new physics theory.

The Second Law and Cosmology: Max Tegmark asks questions about entropy, temperature and equilibrium when studying the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

David Deutsch on our place in the cosmos: Scientist David Deutsch urges the greater scientific community to seriously consider global warming.

Planet Water: Complexity and Organization in Earth Systems: Rafael Bras is credited with launching the science of hydrology and discusses water complexity here.

E.O. Wilson on saving life on Earth: Biologist E.O. Wilson entreats society to become more educated on natural life on Earth.

The U.S. Energy Crisis and the Role of New Nuclear Plants: Thomas A. Christopher considers the effects of nuclear plants on the energy and environmental crises.

CO2 beyond tomorrow: a fundamental approach: This panel featuring Helmut List aims to predict future CO2 emissions effects.

In Antarctica: The Global Warming: Sebastian Copeland explains how Antarctica is a microcosm for what will happen to the rest of the world due to global warming.

Climate change from the scientific point of view: Listen to a scientist’s view of what’s
going on in the development in climate change.

Saul Griffith on everyday inventions: Listen to inventor Saul Griffith discuss the importance and elegance of designing everyday materials.

Ray Kurzweil on how technology will transform us: Ray Kurzweil introduces the idea of a future populated with nanobots.

Technology and Social Responsibility: Larry Page and Sergey Brin hold technology projects, researchers and companies to a higher standard in this lecture.

Living with Catastrophic Terrorism: Can Science and Technology Make the U.S. Safer?: Lewis M. Branscomb is actually a public policy professor and co-chair at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, but this lecture takes on a critical debate about the importance of science and technology in government.

Juan Enriquez shares mindboggling science: Juan Enriquez explains how forward
thinking and science are going to pull us out of any crises or disasters.

Craig Venter is on the verge of creating synthetic life: Discover how synthetic
chromosomes may be in the future.

To upgrade is human: How can technology help human evolution? Gregory Stock
considers customized human babies and the future of adoption.

Helen Fisher studies the brain in love: If you’ve ever wondered about the physical
changes that the brain goes through when you’re in love, watch this lecture.

Science Education in the 21st Century: Using the Tools of Science to Teach Science:
Dr. Carl Wierman is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who comments on the future of science education.

Probability for Life Science: This mix of math and life science covers probability and beyond.

Psychology in Human-Computer Interaction: David Kieras considers human-computer interaction in this talk.

Renaissance Physicists: Steven Weinberg isn’t too optimistic about the future of science and discusses the characteristics that define a truly ambitious scientist.

Enjoy!

Kevin Bales on Modern Slavery

How much does a human cost in today's global economy? About $10 U.S dollars. In this moving yet pragmatic talk, Kevin Bales explains the business of modern slavery, a multibillion-dollar economy that underpins some of the worst industries on earth. He shares stats and personal stories from his on-the-ground research -- and names the price of freeing every slave on earth right now: [Duration: 18:01]

Recorded at TED2010, February 2010 in Long Beach, CA.

Dr. Kevin Bales is an expert on modern slavery and President of Free the Slaves, the US Sister organization of Anti-Slavery International (the world’s oldest human rights organization). He is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Roehampton University in London, Visiting Professor at the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of Hull, as well as serving on the Board of Directors of the International Cocoa Initiative.

Bales's book Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy published in 1999, has now been published in ten other languages. Archbishop Desmond Tutu called it "a well researched, scholarly and deeply disturbing expose of modern slavery". A revised edition was published in 2005.

This book was based on the first-hand in-depth study of five slave-based "businesses" in five different countries: Thailand (prostitution); Mauritania (water selling); Brazil (charcoal production); India (agriculture); and Pakistan (brick making). His book was the basis for, and he worked on, the film "Slavery: A Global Investigation" (2000).

Zero Point Collapse

Zero Point of Systemic Collapse

By Chris Hedges

We stand on the cusp of one of humanity’s most dangerous moments. Aleksandr Herzen, speaking a century ago to a group of anarchists about how to overthrow the czar, reminded his listeners that it was not their job to save a dying system but to replace it: “We think we are the doctors. We are the disease.” All resistance must recognize that the body politic and global capitalism are dead. We should stop wasting energy trying to reform or appeal to it. This does not mean the end of resistance, but it does mean very different forms of resistance. It means turning our energies toward building sustainable communities to weather the coming crisis, since we will be unable to survive and resist without a cooperative effort.

These communities, if they retreat into a pure survivalist mode without linking themselves to the concentric circles of the wider community, the state and the planet, will become as morally and spiritually bankrupt as the corporate forces arrayed against us. All infrastructures we build, like the monasteries in the Middle Ages, should seek to keep alive the intellectual and artistic traditions that make a civil society, humanism and the common good possible. Access to parcels of agricultural land will be paramount. We will have to grasp, as the medieval monks did, that we cannot alter the larger culture around us, at least in the short term, but we may be able to retain the moral codes and culture for generations beyond ours. Resistance will be reduced to small, often imperceptible acts of defiance, as those who retained their integrity discovered in the long night of 20th-century fascism and communism.

We stand on the cusp of one of the bleakest periods in human history when the bright lights of a civilization blink out and we will descend for decades, if not centuries, into barbarity. The elites have successfully convinced us that we no longer have the capacity to understand the revealed truths presented before us or to fight back against the chaos caused by economic and environmental catastrophe. As long as the mass of bewildered and frightened people, fed images that permit them to perpetually hallucinate, exist in this state of barbarism, they may periodically strike out with a blind fury against increased state repression, widespread poverty and food shortages. But they will lack the ability and self-confidence to challenge in big and small ways the structures of control. The fantasy of widespread popular revolts and mass movements breaking the hegemony of the corporate state is just that – a fantasy.

Read More: Here

Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times, is the author of several books including the best sellers War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning and his latest, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. He is married to the Canadian actress Eunice Wong. They have a son, Konrad, who is also a Canadian.

WorldChanging Team

From WorldChanging Team:

Crackdown against 'environmental criminals' follows Greenpeace report

Slaughtering the Amazon from Greenpeace UK on Vimeo.

Some of the world's top footwear brands, including Clarks, Adidas, Nike and Timberland, have demanded an immediate moratorium on destruction of the Amazon rainforest from their leather suppliers in Brazil.

The move is the first major development since the Guardian revealed a three-year undercover investigation by Greenpeace in June. The investigation said leading Brazilian suppliers of leather and beef for products sold in Britain had obtained cattle from farms involved in illegal deforestation.

An Integral Approach to Team Performance

From Integral Leadership Review:

Integral Top Team Alignment

By Pleuntje van Meer

It is possible to evolve top-teams for the twenty-first century, even in today’s turbulent and challenging times. Achieving high performance at the most senior executive level of company divisions and business units requires a team to engage in an alignment process that takes time, focus and personal commitment. The task is not an onerous one, though it does require a clear mindset and a sharpening of skills and capabilities that go beyond many executives’ previous individual business achievements.

We have conducted research with the executive management teams of some of the largest companies in Europe, Asia and the Americas over the last 7 years. Observing and working with global teams, we have identified three pre-requisites for achieving high-performance amongst these senior echelons of corporate divisions and business units:

1. Authenticity—Individual congruence of thought, speech and action for each individual.

2. Alignment—Working effectively as a group. Overcoming different agendas and investing in each other’s success.

3. Action—Contribution to the outside world. A strategic dialogue leading to a common agenda, support structure and collaborative actions.

This article describes top team development as reflected in three concentric circles, that represent stages towards optimal collaboration. These stages are not linear or independent, yet they are interdependent, impacting on the individual, the team and on the organisation.

Read More: Here

PLEUNTJE VAN MEER is an economist and political scientist who entered the financial industry in 1993, working in Management Development and Change Management. She has worked as a facilitator of change and transformation for over a decade, and founded her own company in 2001.

Tribes, Institutions, Markets and Networks

Tribes, Institutions, Markets and Network: A Framework About Societal Evolution

By David Ronfeldt

A key proposition about the information revolution is that it favors and strengthens “network” forms of organization. This makes sense because the new information and communications technologies—e.g., fax machines, electronic mail (e-mail), and computer conferencing systems—enable dispersed, often small actors to connect, coordinate, and act jointly as never before. The proposition is increasingly validated by the rise of web-like networks among environmental, human-rights, and other activist nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), among businesses that form strategic partnerships, and among interagency groups that operate at many levels of government around the world. In general, nonstate actors are ahead of state actors at using the new network designs.

Power and influence appear to be migrating to actors who are skilled at developing multiorganizational networks, and at operating in environments where networks are an appropriate, spreading form of organization. In many realms of society, they are gaining strength relative to other, especially hierarchical forms. Indeed, another key proposition about the information revolution is that it erodes and makes life difficult for traditional hierarchies.

This trend—the rise of network forms of organization—is still at an early stage, but it is already a very important topic for theoretical research and policy analysis. A lot of interesting work can be done just by focusing on this trend by itself. At the same time, the trend is so strong that, projected into the future, it augurs major transformations in how societies are organized—if not societies as a whole, then at least key parts of their governments, economies, and especially their civil societies.

Read More (PDF): Here

An Integral View on Money and Finance

An Integral View on Money and Financial Crashes

By Bernard Lietaer

There are many ways to approach as complex a topic as money or a financial crash. An integral view would require it to be approached from both the inner and the outer viewpoints. Such inner and outer dimensions of reality are synthetically summarized in Ken Wilber’s classical four quadrant analysis.

All fields of knowledge are classified by distinguishing between the Interior (the domains where the aim is the interpretation of meaning) vs. the Exterior dimensions (where the purpose is description of behavior). This approach is completed by distinguishing between the Individual vs. the Collective aspects.

Read More (PDF): Here

BERNARD LIETAER is an economist, author and college professor at Naropa University. His work on monetary systems and currency is recognized internationally. Bernard is the author of The Future of Money: Beyond Greed and Scarcity and cofounder of GaiaCorp - one of the largest and most successful currency management firms in the world. Business Week named him “the world’s top currency trader” in 1992. Lietaer currently lives in Boulder, Colorado.