Most of these blogs have been concerned with the progress (or regress) of society, where most of us notice that our communications, demands, and obligations seem to be increasing. As noted by Gleick, society and daily living are changing, and the rate of change is increasing, too. That is, the rate of change of the rate of change is increasing. Continue reading
Blog Posts and Writings Tagged: complex systems
Blog 43. Making molehills or mountains
From small molehills, big mountains grow. Sometimes. If the feedback is positive, that is—if the mole is rewarded with more food just for digging that molehill, and if his children are likewise rewarded. We’re not moles eating carrots, so how does this relate to us? Continue reading
Blog 39. Is federal regulation legal?
In drafting the federal constitution, the founding fathers didn’t foresee a government involved in administering diverse things like air travel, radio waves, rivers, and food purity. The Constitution specifically allows regulation of interstate commerce and postal roads, but, for example, does it allow federal regulation of pollution in rivers? Continue reading
Blog 35. Complex Terrorism
Terrorism doesn’t work, but fear of terrorism works very well.
Scientific American on terrorism.
The August, 2013 Scientific American offered an article, “Five Myths of Terrorism,” by Michael Shermer. Shermer says terrorism doesn’t work because the terrorists have reason to perpetrate violence; they aren’t under central control, they are not unique geniuses, and they are not deadly compared to the annual average of 13,700 homicides. Shermer notes that most terrorist groups failed to attain their strategic goals.
Shermer is wrong because he ignores the effectiveness of the terrorist acts of 9/11. Continue reading
Blog 34. Ancient Greeks and Current Monetocracy
When life gets chaotic
I have suggested that, when daily living becomes sufficiently chaotic, people will look for simple solutions and welcome dictatorial control that promises simplicity. There’s some ancient Greek wisdom to support this view, although the Greeks didn’t have our mathematical notion of complexity that emerged during the last thirty years. Continue reading
Blog 33. A New Civil War or Only Old Chaos?
Tea Party Rebellion
This month, the federal government was deliberately shut down by the Tea Party, a minor faction in the House of Representatives that controls the larger Republican Party. The objective was to stop implementation of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA” or “ObamaCare”), which had already been passed by Congress and declared constitutional by the Supreme Court. That’s extreme—to hold everything hostage to a particular narrow objective. Continue reading
Blog 24. Sustainability and the NRC
On June 28, 2013, the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) issued a report saying the White House should establish a national policy on sustainability by executive order. Now how can an order on paper generate sustainability?
Blog 23. Looking Good and Being Right
Complex systems are collections of many actors interacting by nonlinear rules. In this post, we’ll examine Looking Good and Being Right as two of those rules of interaction among the persons and institutions in the complex system that is society.