[OSList] Summer research project idea: 'self organisation'

Sun Nov 30 23:34:50 PST 2014

Hi John ~
The more I’ve been thinking about the relationship between self-organizing with self-correcting and self-rightening, the more complex it all looks.  Take cancer for example, or gangs.  Are these both examples of self-organization?  Self-organization that is destructive (not self-correcting or self-rightening) rather than constructive?  So maybe self-organizing is not inherently good, but is only good if done in a way that is self-rightening and self-correcting?

As for Adi Da’s use of the term “system”, note that he talks about bits of the system in 6.2 and then references the system as a totality in 6.6.  This essay is about the bits interfering with the totality.  Exactly like cancer, or gangs.  This fragmentation of bits in opposition to the totality is a key aspect of what there is to understand.  In another part of the book, Adi Da says “fragmentation leaves people open to being controlled and manipulated…. fragmentation is what power-seekers exploit….”  

The totality of humankind has not yet recognized itself (ourselves) as a single system.  We, everybody-all-at-once, do not yet see ourselves as a single totality, a single system.  Because we are not acting as a single system, we have not yet identified the rules and accountability that would enable our continued co-existence.  Not-Two Is Peace was written to help us see humanity as a single system that has the power and the responsibility to act for the common good.  If we don’t participate in this expanding awareness and responsibility, we will continue careening downhill with a stave in the wheels, headed toward destruction.  

My comments are my best understanding in this moment, but they fall far short of the teaching in Not-Two Is Peace, which is profound.  I typed in just that one brief essay.  The book contains a great deal more.

Julie

> On Nov 30, 2014, at 9:16 PM, John Baxter <john at jsbaxter.com.au> wrote:
> 
> Hi Julie
> 
> An interesting and very engaging essay.  I could imagine a substantial discussion from ruminating on it.
> 
> I am inclined to analytically 'umbrella' self righting and self correcting as examples of self organisation... but I would be pleased for this to prove simplistic.  They both look like 'self organisation towards a particular end' (righting / correcting).
> 
> I have some reservation with the quote you pull out... the message is solid, but it confuses 'the system'... 'the system' cannot be bypassed, as it encompasses every effort to bypass it... by intersecting with the system, an intervention becomes part of it.  What is bypassed is the formal system, the rules and structures.
> 
> Still the messages are solid and that's going straight into the bookmarks re consideration of global self organisation.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> 
> John Baxter
> Cocreation Consultant & CoCreate Adelaide Facilitator
> jsbaxter.com.au <http://www.jsbaxter.com.au/> | CoCreateADL.com <http://cocreateadl.com/>
> 0405 447 829 | @jsbaxter_ <http://twitter.com/jsbaxter_>
> 
> Thank you to everyone who came, helped or spread the good word about City Grill!
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> 
> 
> On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 4:47 AM, Julie Smith <jsmith at mosquitonet.com <mailto:jsmith at mosquitonet.com>> wrote:
> Dear all ~
> 
> In Not-Two Is Peace Adi Da sometimes lists self-organizing with self-rightening and self-correcting in a way that infers these are complementary concepts.  I wonder if in some ways these terms are interchangeable.  I’m thinking about this question because I recently noticed this statement about the relationship between systems and self-correction:
> 
> “Systems self-correct, but when you bypass the system, as is now the case globally, then the system cannot correct itself anymore.  It is just careening downhill with a stave shoved in the wheels.  It is inevitable that it is going to self-destruct.”
> 
> The context for this comment is an essay on rightening the current global instability, but perhaps there is something in the essay that may move the more general conversation about self-organization forward.  This is a brief essay, so I’ll share it in its entirety here for anyone who might be interested:
> 
> On Establishing Rules of Participation For A Global Cooperative Order
> 
> 6.1  Presently, the international community has no effective way of dealing with geopolitical issues, because it is fundamentally about “tribes” in competition with one another.  There is no force that embodies everybody and that, therefore, can effectively deal with the system as a whole.
> 
> 6.2  Bits of the system are always confronting one another.  Therefore, those who hold out or want to “play it hard” wind up controlling the whole system.
> 
> 6.3  In general, the so-called “big powers” are bypassing rules and playing for dominance.  But everybody is playing their part in the “tribal” struggle-game, which is not in the interest of humankind, and it is not survivable.
> 
> 6.4  Rules and accountability are essential for any system.  Any notion that you can bypass such accountability is a lie in the name of serving some kind of “self”-interest.  And this disposition is creating every crisis.
> 
> 6.5  Systems self-correct, but when you bypass the system, as is now the case globally, then the system cannot correct itself anymore.  It is just careening downhill with a stave shoved in the wheels.  It is inevitable that it is going to self-destruct.
> 
> 6.6  Therefore, the international power-struggles have to be replaced by a systems-based order with rules and limits established.  It is only when the system can represent itself as a totality and keep its rules in front of everyone that the system can correct itself.
> 
> 6.7  A rational and positive global situation requires rules for participation, based on global interdependence and prior unity—rather than being based on nation-states or other groups engaging in reactive measures in the face of being provoked or (otherwise) acting aggressively to extend their influence.
> 
> 6.8  The process for dealing with global realities should not be merely punitive.  Rules for participation should be established—and then doors would be either opened or closed, based on whether any given nation-state or other entity abides by those rules.
> 
> 6.9  Participation should be the one thing everybody values—not competition, not dominance and victory over all, but participation in a global system that allows every nation-state, every human domain, to survive and enjoy essential well-being and the growth potential and benefits of participation in the whole.
> 
> 6.10  The rules of participation in the global community should not be arbitrary, or set up to favor certain parties over others.  The rules of participation should establish positive and equal participation for everyone, with no double standards that require some to obey the rules while others do not.
> 
> 6.11  The Global Cooperative Forum is the system of everybody-all-at-once reasserting itself and establishing rules of participation that put all matters of global business equitably on the table—including matters of severe chronic conflict, competition for resources, degradation of the environment and disruption of weather-patterns, poverty, disease, and so forth.
> 
> 6.12  Right rules of participation will establish an entirely different principle than nation-state competitiveness.  It will allow humankind as a whole to become a functioning system—a system to which all parties get access by fulfilling certain obligations and responsibilities, which apply everywhere.
> 
> The full text of Not-Two Is Peace is available through bookstores, via Kindle download, or at http://www.da-peace.org <http://www.da-peace.org/>.
> 
> All best wishes ~
> 
> Julie
> 
> 
>> On Nov 29, 2014, at 6:46 AM, Harrison Owen via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> John – the literature on self organization is massive, and to be honest a number of years have passed since I felt myself to be marginally informed. That said, there are three books that I found to be most helpful, and all – to the best of my knowledge – are still in print. In historical order they are: “Order out of Chaos,” Ilya Prigogine, “Chaos,”  James Gleick, and “At home in the Universe” Stuart Kauffmann. I would suggest starting with “Chaos” – which is the best written and pulls together lots of wonderful strands. 
>>  
>> Harrison
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>>  
>> From: OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org>] On Behalf Of John Baxter via OSList
>> Sent: Friday, November 28, 2014 10:49 PM
>> To: Daniel Mezick; World wide Open Space Technology email list
>> Subject: Re: [OSList] Summer research project idea: 'self organisation'
>>  
>> Great idea Daniel
>>  
>> Stigmergy I am familiar with (from Mark et al from Collabforge in Melbourne - did his PhD on stigmergy and collaboration! Public book in the works now), but I know there is much more there.
>>  
>> The main references to self organisation in the sciences I have come across so far, I have not been able to track down due to being out of print and the like...
>>  
>> Tracking down such refs and mapping the gems from them is exactly the kind of thing I imagine myself doing over summer.
>>  
>> I've now saved those links to my reference list : )
>>  
>> If anyone can recommend a good primer or iconic text in self-org systems from the sciences (or otherwise) I'd appreciate your recommendation.
>>  
>> Cheers
>> 
>>  
>> John Baxter
>> Cocreation Consultant & CoCreate Adelaide Facilitator
>> jsbaxter.com.au <http://www.jsbaxter.com.au/> | CoCreateADL.com <http://cocreateadl.com/>
>> 0405 447 829
>>  | 
>> @jsbaxter_ <http://twitter.com/jsbaxter_>
>>  
>> Thank you to everyone who came, helped or spread the good word about City Grill!
>> Summary and links: cocreateadl.com/localgov/grill-summary/ <http://cocreateadl.com/localgov/grill-summary/>
>>  
>>  
>> On Fri, Nov 28, 2014 at 10:50 PM, Daniel Mezick via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>> wrote:
>> There are many well-established words that are used to more precisely discuss self "organization" in the biological and social sciences. I wonder if actively using some of these well-defined words might be helpful in the discussion.
>> 
>> Example: stigmergy
>> https://www.google.com/search?q=define+stigmergy <https://www.google.com/search?q=define+stigmergy>
>> Stigmergy is a mechanism of indirect coordination between agents or actions. The principle is that the trace left in the environment by an action stimulates the performance of a next action, by the same or a different agent.
>> 
>> More details
>> http://www.evolutionofcomputing.org/Multicellular/Stigmergy.html <http://www.evolutionofcomputing.org/Multicellular/Stigmergy.html>
>> http://www.evolutionofcomputing.org/Multicellular/StigmergyAndSelf.html <http://www.evolutionofcomputing.org/Multicellular/StigmergyAndSelf.html>
>> http://www.evolutionofcomputing.org/Multicellular/FourPrinciples.html <http://www.evolutionofcomputing.org/Multicellular/FourPrinciples.html>
>> http://www.evolutionofcomputing.org/Multicellular/IntertwinedPrinciples.html <http://www.evolutionofcomputing.org/Multicellular/IntertwinedPrinciples.html>
>> 
>> Daniel
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On 11/26/14 8:25 PM, John Baxter via OSList wrote:
>>> Hello facilitators of self organisation
>>>  
>>> Let's take a moment to consider self organisation, as 'field' or 'practice'.
>>>  
>>> I am scoping a summer project at the moment (in the southern hemisphere!).
>>>  
>>> I have been reading and learning all I can about self org.  There is less than I expected at the heart of self org practice, but much more than I realised in intersecting fields (e.g. in governance, democracy, community organising, management, change, systems...).  There are also unanswered Qs about what 'self org' is (indeed, if it is anything at all).
>>>  
>>> It might be worthwhile formalising this, through a focused research project, and sharing the results in a report or the like.
>>>  
>>> Possible focus questions that come to mind for me are
>>> - what does someone need to know to say "I do self organisation"?
>>> - what would someone need to know to be an 'expert' in self org?
>>>  
>>> Would appreciate your perspective, as a practitioner-facilitator-fellow wave rider:
>>>  
>>> What (if anything) do you think deserves to be done?
>>> Who should be involved in doing it?
>>>  
>>> Thank you for contributing to the quest!
>>>  
>>> John Baxter
>>> Cocreation Consultant & CoCreate Adelaide Facilitator
>>> jsbaxter.com.au <http://www.jsbaxter.com.au/> | CoCreateADL.com <http://cocreateadl.com/>
>>> 0405 447 829
>>>  | 
>>> @jsbaxter_ <http://twitter.com/jsbaxter_>
>>>  
>>> Thank you to everyone who came, helped or spread the good word about City Grill 
>>>  
>>> !
>>> Summary and links: cocreateadl.com/localgov/grill-summary/ <http://cocreateadl.com/localgov/grill-summary/>
>>>  
>>>  
>>> 
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