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| making things work yaneer bar yam: Making Things Work Yaneer Bar-Yam, 2004 The science of complexity has revolutionized our understanding of everything from the brain to the economy to the weather. This book shows how it can change the way we approach our most persistent social problems. It introduces key concepts like emergence, self-organization and networks, and uses them to propose novel solutions to problems that affect us all. Suitable for anyone struggling to cope with complex challenges. Written by Yaneer Bar-Yam the leading expert in the use of complexity science in solving real world problems in healthcare, education, military, engineering, ethnic violence and terrorism. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Complex Engineered Systems Dan Braha, Ali A. Minai, Yaneer Bar-Yam, 2007-06-24 Recent advances in science and technology have led to a rapid increase in the complexity of most engineered systems. In many notable cases, this change has been a qualitative one rather than merely one of magnitude. A new class of Complex Engineered Systems (CES) has emerged as a result of technologies such as the Internet, GPS, wireless networking, micro-robotics, MEMS, fiber-optics and nanotechnology. These complex engineered systems are composed of many heterogeneous subsystems and are characterized by observable complex behaviors that emerge as a result of nonlinear spatio-temporal interactions among the subsystems at several levels of organization and abstraction. Examples of such systems include the World-Wide Web, air and ground traffic networks, distributed manufacturing environments, and globally distributed supply networks, as well as new paradigms such as self-organizing sensor networks, self-configuring robots, swarms of autonomous aircraft, smart materials and structures, and self-organizing computers. Understanding, designing, building and controlling such complex systems is going to be a central challenge for engineers in the coming decades. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Engaging Emergence Peggy Holman, 2010-09-13 Change is everywhere these days—at times it seems like barely controlled chaos. Yet within this turmoil are the seeds of a higher order. When a new system arises from the ashes of the old, science calls the process “emergence.” By engaging it, you can help yourself and your organization or community to successfully face disruption and emerge stronger than ever. In this profound book, Peggy Holman offers principles, practices, and real-world stories to help you work with compassion, creativity, and wisdom through the entire arc of change—from disruption to coherence. You'll learn what to notice, what to explore, what to try, and what mindset opens new possibilities. This work can be challenging but also tremendously rewarding. It enables new and unlikely partnerships and develops breakthrough projects. You become part of a process that transforms the culture itself. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: The Ingenuity Gap Thomas Homer-Dixon, 2010-01-29 “Human beings have been smart enough to turn nature to their ends, generate vast wealth for themselves, and double their average life span. But are they smart enough to solve the problems of the 21st century?” -- Thomas Homer-Dixon In The Ingenuity Gap, Thomas Homer-Dixon, global guru (the Toronto Star), asks: is our world becoming too complex, too fast-paced to manage? The challenges facing us converge, intertwine, and remain largely beyond our ken. Most of suspect the experts don't really know what's going on; that as a species we've released forces that are neither managed nor manageable. We are fast approaching a time when we may no longer be able to control a world that increasingly exceeds our grasp. This is the ingenuity gap -- the term coined by Thomas Homer-Dixon -- the critical gap between our need for practical, innovative ideas to solve complex problems and our actual supply of those ideas. Through gripping narrative stories and incidents that exemplify his arguments, he takes us on a world tour that begins with a heartstopping description of the tragic crash of United Airlines Flight 232 from Denver to Chicago and includes Las Vegas in its desert, a wilderness beach in British Columbia, and his solitary search for a little girl in Patna, India. He shows how, in our complex world, while poor countries are particularly vulnerable to ingenuity gaps, our own rich countries are not immune, and we are caught between a requirement for ingenuity and an increasingly uncertain supply. When the gap widens, political disintegration and violent upheaval can result, reaching into our own economies and daily lives in subtle ways. In compelling, lucid, prose, he makes real the problems we face and suggests how we might overcome them. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm Stephen Harrod Buhner, 2014-05-14 A manual for opening the doors of perception and directly engaging the intelligence of the Natural World • Provides exercises to directly perceive and interact with the complex, living, self-organizing being that is Gaia • Reveals that every life form on Earth is highly intelligent and communicative • Examines the ecological function of invasive plants, bacterial resistance to antibiotics, psychotropic plants and fungi, and the human species In Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm, Stephen Harrod Buhner reveals that all life forms on Earth possess intelligence, language, a sense of I and not I, and the capacity to dream. He shows that by consciously opening the doors of perception, we can reconnect with the living intelligences in Nature as kindred beings, become again wild scientists, nondomesticated explorers of a Gaian world just as Goethe, Barbara McClintock, James Lovelock, and others have done. For as Einstein commented, “We cannot solve the problems facing us by using the same kind of thinking that created them.” Buhner explains how to use analogical thinking and imaginal perception to directly experience the inherent meanings that flow through the world, that are expressed from each living form that surrounds us, and to directly initiate communication in return. He delves deeply into the ecological function of invasive plants, bacterial resistance to antibiotics, psychotropic plants and fungi, and, most importantly, the human species itself. He shows that human beings are not a plague on the planet, they have a specific ecological function as important to Gaia as that of plants and bacteria. Buhner shows that the capacity for depth connection and meaning-filled communication with the living world is inherent in every human being. It is as natural as breathing, as the beating of our own hearts, as our own desire for intimacy and love. We can change how we think and in so doing begin to address the difficulties of our times. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Unifying Themes in Complex Systems Ali A. Minai, Yaneer Bar-Yam, 2007-08-06 In recent years, scientists have applied the principles of complex systems science to increasingly diverse fields. The results have been nothing short of remarkable: their novel approaches have provided answers to long-standing questions in biology, ecology, physics, engineering, computer science, economics, psychology and sociology. The Third International Conference on Complex Systems attracted over 400 researchers from around the world. The conference aimed to encourage cross-fertilization between the many disciplines represented and to deepen our understanding of the properties common to all complex systems. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: History Has Begun Bruno Maçães, 2020 Popular consensus says that the US rose over two centuries to Cold War victory and world domination, and is now in slow decline. But is this right? History's great civilizations have always lasted much longer, and for all its colossal power, American culture was overshadowed by Europe until recently. What if this isn't the end? In History Has Begun, Bruno Maçães offers a compelling vision of America's future, both fascinating and unnerving. From the early American Republic, he takes us to the turbulent present, when, he argues, America is finally forging its own path. We can see the birth pangs of this new civilization in today's debates on guns, religion, foreign policy and the significance of Trump. Should the coronavirus pandemic be regarded as an opportunity to build a new kind of society? What will its values be, and what will this new America look like? Maçães traces the long arc of US history to argue that in contrast to those who see the US on the cusp of decline, it may well be simply shifting to a new model, one equally powerful but no longer liberal. Consequently, it is no longer enough to analyze America's current trajectory through the simple prism of decline vs. progress, which assumes a static model-America as liberal leviathan. Rather, Maçães argues that America may be casting off the liberalism that has defined the country since its founding for a new model, one more appropriate to succeeding in a transformed world. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: The Black Swan Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2009-10-13 In the author's point of view, a black swan is an improbable event with three principal characteristics - It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don't know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the 'impossible'. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: The Long Shadow of Temperament Jerome Kagan, Nancy Snidman, 2009-06-15 We have seen these children—the shy and the sociable, the cautious and the daring—and wondered what makes one avoid new experience and another avidly pursue it. At the crux of the issue surrounding the contribution of nature to development is the study that Jerome Kagan and his colleagues have been conducting for more than two decades. In The Long Shadow of Temperament, Kagan and Nancy Snidman summarize the results of this unique inquiry into human temperaments, one of the best-known longitudinal studies in developmental psychology. These results reveal how deeply certain fundamental temperamental biases can be preserved over development. Identifying two extreme temperamental types—inhibited and uninhibited in childhood, and high-reactive and low-reactive in very young babies—Kagan and his colleagues returned to these children as adolescents. Surprisingly, one of the temperaments revealed in infancy predicted a cautious, fearful personality in early childhood and a dour mood in adolescence. The other bias predicted a bold childhood personality and an exuberant, sanguine mood in adolescence. These personalities were matched by different biological properties. In a masterly summary of their wide-ranging exploration, Kagan and Snidman conclude that these two temperaments are the result of inherited biologies probably rooted in the differential excitability of particular brain structures. Though the authors appreciate that temperamental tendencies can be modified by experience, this compelling work—an empirical and conceptual tour-de-force—shows how long the shadow of temperament is cast over psychological development. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Living in Data Jer Thorp, 2021-05-04 Jer Thorp’s analysis of the word “data” in 10,325 New York Times stories written between 1984 and 2018 shows a distinct trend: among the words most closely associated with “data,” we find not only its classic companions “information” and “digital,” but also a variety of new neighbors—from “scandal” and “misinformation” to “ethics,” “friends,” and “play.” To live in data in the twenty-first century is to be incessantly extracted from, classified and categorized, statisti-fied, sold, and surveilled. Data—our data—is mined and processed for profit, power, and political gain. In Living in Data, Thorp asks a crucial question of our time: How do we stop passively inhabiting data, and instead become active citizens of it? Threading a data story through hippo attacks, glaciers, and school gymnasiums, around colossal rice piles, and over active minefields, Living in Data reminds us that the future of data is still wide open, that there are ways to transcend facts and figures and to find more visceral ways to engage with data, that there are always new stories to be told about how data can be used. Punctuated with Thorp's original and informative illustrations, Living in Data not only redefines what data is, but reimagines who gets to speak its language and how to use its power to create a more just and democratic future. Timely and inspiring, Living in Data gives us a much-needed path forward. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Implications of Modern Decision Science for Military Decision-support Systems Paul K. Davis, Jonathan Kulick, Michael Egner, 2005 A selective review of modern decision science and implications for decision-support systems. The study suggests ways to synthesize lessons from research on heuristics and biases with those from naturalistic research. It also discusses modern tools, such as increasingly realistic simulations, multiresolution modeling, and exploratory analysis, which can assist decisionmakers in choosing strategies that are flexible, adaptive, and robust. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Psychology's Ghosts Jerome Kagan, 2012-03-27 This book is the product of years of thought and a profound concern for the state of contemporary psychology. Jerome Kagan, a theorist and leading researcher, examines popular practices and assumptions held by many psychologists. He uncovers a variety of problems that, troublingly, are largely ignored by investigators and clinicians. Yet solutions are available, Kagan maintains, and his reasoned suggestions point the way to a better understanding of the mind and mental illness. Kagan identifies four problems in contemporary psychology: the indifference to the setting in which observations are gathered, including the age, class, and cultural background of participants and the procedure that provides the evidence (he questions, for example, the assumption that similar verbal reports of well-being reflect similar psychological states); the habit of basing inferences on single measures rather than patterns of measures (even though every action, reply, or biological response can result from more than one set of conditions); the defining of mental illnesses by symptoms independent of their origin; and the treatment of mental disorders with drugs and forms of psychotherapy that are nonspecific to the diagnosed illness. The author's candid discussion will inspire the debate that is needed in a discipline seeking to fulfill its promises. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Unifying Themes in Complex Systems Ali A. Minai, Dan Braha, Yaneer Bar-Yam, 2010-06-02 In recent years, scientists have applied the principles of complex systems science to increasingly diverse fields. The results have been nothing short of remarkable: their novel approaches have provided answers to long-standing questions in biology, ecology, physics, engineering, computer science, economics, psychology and sociology. Unifying Themes in Complex Systems is a well established series of carefully edited conference proceedings that serve the purpose of documenting and archiving the progress of cross-fertilization in this field. About NECSI: For over 10 years, The New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) has been instrumental in the development of complex systems science and its applications. NECSI conducts research, education, knowledge dissemination, and community development around the world for the promotion of the study of complex systems and its application for the betterment of society. NECSI hosts the International Conference on Complex Systems and publishes the NECSI Book Series in conjunction with Springer Publishers. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Design and Control of Self-organizing Systems Carlos Gershenson, 2007-09-05 Complex systems are usually difficult to design and control. There are several particular methods for coping with complexity, but there is no general approach to build complex systems. In this book I propose a methodology to aid engineers in the design and control of complex systems. This is based on the description of systems as self-organizing. Starting from the agent metaphor, the methodology proposes a conceptual framework and a series of steps to follow to find proper mechanisms that will promote elements to find solutions by actively interacting among themselves. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Complexity Carlos Gershenson, 2008 Contributions de : Peter M. Allen, Philip W. Anderson, W. Brian Arthur, Yaneer Bar-Yam, Eric Bonabeau, Paul Cilliers, Jim Crutchfeld, Bruce Edmonds, Nigel Gilbert, Hermann Haken, Francis Heylighen, Bernardo A. Huberman, Stuart A. Kaufman, Seth Lloyd, Gottfried Mayer-Kress, Melanie Mitchell, Edgar Morin, Mark Newman, Grégoire Nicolis, Jordan B. Pollack, Peter Schuster, Ricard V. Solé, Tamás Vicsek, Stephen Wolfram. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Textbook of Patient Safety and Clinical Risk Management Liam Donaldson, Walter Ricciardi, Susan Sheridan, Riccardo Tartaglia, 2020-12-14 Implementing safety practices in healthcare saves lives and improves the quality of care: it is therefore vital to apply good clinical practices, such as the WHO surgical checklist, to adopt the most appropriate measures for the prevention of assistance-related risks, and to identify the potential ones using tools such as reporting & learning systems. The culture of safety in the care environment and of human factors influencing it should be developed from the beginning of medical studies and in the first years of professional practice, in order to have the maximum impact on clinicians' and nurses' behavior. Medical errors tend to vary with the level of proficiency and experience, and this must be taken into account in adverse events prevention. Human factors assume a decisive importance in resilient organizations, and an understanding of risk control and containment is fundamental for all medical and surgical specialties. This open access book offers recommendations and examples of how to improve patient safety by changing practices, introducing organizational and technological innovations, and creating effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable care systems, in order to spread the quality and patient safety culture among the new generation of healthcare professionals, and is intended for residents and young professionals in different clinical specialties. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: The Cult of Trump Steven Hassan, 2020-09-01 *As featured in the streaming documentary #UNTRUTH—now with a new foreword by George Conway and an afterword by the author* A masterful and eye-opening examination of Trump and the coercive control tactics he uses to build a fanatical devotion in his supporters written by “an authority on breaking away from cults…an argument that…bears consideration as the next election cycle heats up” (Kirkus Reviews). Since the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s behavior has become both more disturbing and yet increasingly familiar. He relies on phrases like, “fake news,” “build the wall,” and continues to spread the divisive mentality of us-vs.-them. He lies constantly, has no conscience, never admits when he is wrong, and projects all of his shortcomings on to others. He has become more authoritarian, more outrageous, and yet many of his followers remain blindly devoted. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert and a major Trump supporter, calls him one of the most persuasive people living. His need to squash alternate information and his insistence of constant ego stroking are all characteristics of other famous leaders—cult leaders. In The Cult of Trump, mind control and licensed mental health expert Steven Hassan draws parallels between our current president and people like Jim Jones, David Koresh, Ron Hubbard, and Sun Myung Moon, arguing that this presidency is in many ways like a destructive cult. He specifically details the ways in which people are influenced through an array of social psychology methods and how they become fiercely loyal and obedient. Hassan was a former “Moonie” himself, and he presents a “thoughtful and well-researched analysis of some of the most puzzling aspects of the current presidency, including the remarkable passivity of fellow Republicans [and] the gross pandering of many members of the press” (Thomas G. Gutheil, MD and professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School). The Cult of Trump is an accessible and in-depth analysis of the president, showing that under the right circumstances, even sane, rational, well-adjusted people can be persuaded to believe the most outrageous ideas. “This book is a must for anyone who wants to understand the current political climate” (Judith Stevens-Long, PhD and author of Living Well, Dying Well). |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: The Art of City Making Charles Landry, 2012-05-16 City-making is an art, not a formula. The skills required to re-enchant the city are far wider than the conventional ones like architecture, engineering and land-use planning. There is no simplistic, ten-point plan, but strong principles can help send good city-making on its way. The vision for 21st century cities must be to be the most imaginative cities for the world rather than in the world. This one change of word - from 'in' to 'for' - gives city-making an ethical foundation and value base. It helps cities become places of solidarity where the relations between the individual, the group, outsiders to the city and the planet are in better alignment. Following the widespread success of The Creative City, this new book, aided by international case studies, explains how to reassess urban potential so that cities can strengthen their identity and adapt to the changing global terms of trade and mass migration. It explores the deeper fault-lines, paradoxes and strategic dilemmas that make creating the 'good city' so difficult. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Skin in the Game Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2018-02-20 From the bestselling author of The Black Swan, a bold book that challenges many of our long-held beliefs about risk and reward, politics and religion, finance and personal responsibility 'Skin in the game means that you do not pay attention to what people say, only to what they do, and how much of their neck they are putting on the line' Citizens, artisans, police, fishermen, political activists and entrepreneurs all have skin in the game. Policy wonks, corporate executives, many academics, bankers and most journalists don't. It's all about having something to lose and sharing risks with others. In his most provocative and practical book yet, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows that skin in the game, often seen as the foundation of risk management, in fact applies to all aspects of our lives. In his inimitable style, Taleb draws on everything from Antaeus the Giant to Hammurabi to Donald Trump, from ethics to used car salesmen, to create a jaw-dropping framework for understanding this idea. Among his insights: For social justice, focus on symmetry and risk sharing. Minorities, not majorities, run the world. You can be an intellectual yet still be an idiot. Beware of complicated solutions (that someone was paid to find). Just as The Black Swan did during the 2007 financial crisis, Skin in the Game comes at precisely the right moment to challenge our long-held beliefs about risk, reward, politics, religion and business - and make us rethink everything we thought we knew. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: The Watchman's Rattle Rebecca Costa, 2010-10-12 Why can't we solve our problems anymore? Why do threats such as the Gulf oil spill, worldwide recession, terrorism, and global warming suddenly seem unstoppable? Are there limits to the kinds of problems humans can solve? Rebecca Costa confronts- and offers a solution to-these questions in her highly anticipated and game-changing book, The Watchman's Rattle. Costa pulls headline for today's news to demonstrate how accelerating complexity quickly outpaces that rate at which the human brain can develop new capabilities. With compelling evidenced based on research in the rise and fall of Mayan, Khmer, and Roman empires, Costa shows how t ht tendency to find a quick solutions- leads to frightening long term consequence: Society's ability to solve its most challenging, intractable problems becomes gridlocked, progress slows, and collapse ensues. A provocative new voice in the tradition of thought leaders Thomas Friedman, Jared Diamond and Malcolm Gladwell, Costa reveals how we can reverse the downward spiral. Part history, part social science, part biology, The Watchman's Rattle is sure to provoke, engage and incite change. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Quality, Involvement, Flow Domenico Lepore, Angela Montgomery, Giovanni Siepe, 2016-08-05 Current organizations underperform due to silo thinking. Artificial barriers frustrate efforts and perpetuate an organizational model no longer adequate for the complexity of the current business world. Leaders and managers must acquire a whole-system perspective for their organizations to be sustainable. This book provides the overview, knowledge and tools to create a practical shift for 21st century management. The “Theory of everything” for management; an evolved and more scientific Fifth Discipline plus field book for contemporary managers. It follows on from Deming and Goldratt: The Decalogue that continues to sell today and is based on over ten years of implementation. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Combating Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults Steven Hassan, PhD, 2015-03-28 This 2018 30th anniversary edition honors the 40th anniversary of the tragedy in Jonestown, Guyana. On November 18th, 1978, over 900 people including a U.S. congressman Leo Ryan died because of Cult Leader Jim Jones. Over 300 were children forced to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid by their parents who believed they were doing God’s will. The techniques of undue influence have evolved dramatically, and continue to do so. Today, a vast array of methods exist to deceive, manipulate, and indoctrinate people into closed systems of obedience and dependency. If you are reading this updated book for the first time, please know that you have found a safe, respectful, compassionate place. This book can help you protect or regain your sanity, freedom, and health. It can also help you protect others from the use of mind control techniques. In this 30th anniversary volume you will find: • New stories of people who fell under the sway of cults and other forms of undue influence but who were able to break free. • New information on the many sophisticated ways that social media are now used for mind control. • Updates on the many types of organizations that use mind control. • Information on the neuroscience behind mind control. • A look at what legislators, courts, mental health professionals, and ordinary citizens can do to resist mind control and make our world a safer place. Sadly, the essential information in this book is still not widely known or understood. People around the world remain largely unprepared for the new realities of mind control. But you are far from helpless. There is a great deal you can do to stay safe, sane, and whole - and to help the people you care about to do the same. And if someone you love is already part of a mind control group, there is much you can do to help them break free and rebuild their life. This book will give you the tools you need. As you read this book, you will learn to develop, use, and trust your critical thinking skills; your intuition; your bodily and emotional awareness; your ability to ask the right questions; and your skill at doing quick, useful research. You will also learn to create a healthy balance of openness and skepticism. As you will see, the entire process begins and ends with discernment. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Networks of the Brain Olaf Sporns, 2016-02-12 An integrative overview of network approaches to neuroscience explores the origins of brain complexity and the link between brain structure and function. Over the last decade, the study of complex networks has expanded across diverse scientific fields. Increasingly, science is concerned with the structure, behavior, and evolution of complex systems ranging from cells to ecosystems. In Networks of the Brain, Olaf Sporns describes how the integrative nature of brain function can be illuminated from a complex network perspective. Highlighting the many emerging points of contact between neuroscience and network science, the book serves to introduce network theory to neuroscientists and neuroscience to those working on theoretical network models. Sporns emphasizes how networks connect levels of organization in the brain and how they link structure to function, offering an informal and nonmathematical treatment of the subject. Networks of the Brain provides a synthesis of the sciences of complex networks and the brain that will be an essential foundation for future research. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Empowerment on an Unstable Planet Daniel C. Taylor, Carl E. Taylor, Jesse O. Taylor, 2011-11-17 Since World War II, development projects have invested more than two trillion dollars towards health services, poverty alleviation, education, food security, and environmental initiatives around the world. Despite these efforts, 20% of the world still lives on less than $1.50 a day and the environment within which all live declines dramatically. There are clear limits to what further investments at this rate can achieve. This book advances the thesis that a more effective and universal foundation for social change and environmental restoration is not money, but human energy. Using this approach Tibet recovered from being nearly deforested to having over 40% of its land area protected under conservation management. Using principles outlined in this book mothers in northeast India implemented a package of life-changing actions that halved child mortality. They parallel the way New York City has created a citywide conservation program over three-and-a-half centuries. Each of these examples is particular to its time and place, yet a shared set of principles is at work in all of them. Improving the quality of life for a community starts by strengthening successes already operating. It involves local knowledge and a relatively simple set of principles, tasks, and criteria designed to empower communities. This highly readable account demonstrates how a comprehensive process for social change harnesses the energy of a community and scales it up with a rising number of participants becoming invested in increasingly high-quality work. Richly illustrated with photographs and stories of innovative people and programs in communities ranging from Nepal to Afghanistan to the South Bronx, it provides practical, proven guidelines for creating profound and sustained social change that begins in individual communities and grows to scale. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Omoluwabi 2.0 Adéwálé Àjàdí, Káyòde Fáyemí, 2012 In Omoluwabi 2.0, Adewale Ajadi lays out a new way of organising and transforming, organisations, countries and continents, based on the Yoruba principle of Omoluwabi, updated for the 21st century. There are not many original thinkers who dare to explore new territories with creative mental tools and attentiveness to details and still come up with a reader friendly book. Adewale Ajadis book comes with freshness. Omoluwabi 2.0 is long overdue and it should fill the knowledge gap created by an apparent lack of codification and wide dissemination of imo ijinle (deep knowledge) Kole Odutola: Lecturer at the University of Florida, Author of Diaspora and Imagined Nationality There have been ideas about two publics, the formal and informal worlds in Africa and their contradictory dynamics. Other have framed it as disorder but no one has pointed the way. As it was we were doomed to engineered solutions. Omoluwabi 2.0 comes with a torrent of meaning-making systems in a stream of post modern solutions to the challenges of the 21st century inspired by an abiding creativity in Africa's complexity and history. Sylvester Odio Akhaine, Member of the Guardian Editorial Board |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Social Computing and Behavioral Modeling Huan Liu, John Salerno, Michael J. Young, 2009-04-05 Social computing is concerned with the study of social behavior and social c- text based on computational systems. Behavioral modeling reproduces the social behavior, and allows for experimenting, scenario planning, and deep understa- ing of behavior, patterns, and potential outcomes. The pervasive use of computer and Internet technologies provides an unprecedented environment of various - cial activities. Social computing facilitates behavioral modeling in model building, analysis, pattern mining, and prediction. Numerous interdisciplinary and inter- pendent systems are created and used to represent the various social and physical systems for investigating the interactions between groups, communities, or nati- states. This requires joint efforts to take advantage of the state-of-the-art research from multiple disciplines, social computing, and behavioral modeling in order to document lessons learned and develop novel theories, experiments, and methodo- gies in terms of social, physical, psychological, and governmental mechanisms. The goal is to enable us to experiment, create, and recreate an operational environment with a better understanding of the contributions from each individual discipline, forging joint interdisciplinary efforts. This is the second international workshop on Social Computing, Behavioral ModelingandPrediction. The submissions were from Asia, Australia, Europe, and America. Since SBP09 is a single-track workshop, we could not accept all the good submissions. The accepted papers cover a wide range of interesting topics. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Complexity Science in Healthcare Jeffrey Braithwaite, Kate Churruca, Louise A. Ellis, Janet c Long, Robyn Clay-Williams, Nikki Damen, Jessica Herkes, Chiara Pomare, Kristiana Ludlow, 2017-08 Many people believe that healthcare is the example par excellence of a complex adaptive system (CAS). It has a daunting range of diverse stakeholders (citizens, taxpayers, politicians, policymakers, providers, managers, clinicians, patients and patient groups), spans the public and private sectors and delivers care across many settings and through varied types of organisations (public health settings, community centres, hospitals, aged-care facilities, and family or general practices, for example). The individuals delivering care, and the groups, teams, networks, bodies and organisations through which they provide services, interact in intricate configurations, longitudinally. Said that way, certain consequences arise. The system, of necessity, will be adapting to circumstances over time, behaviours won't necessarily be predictable, the sum of the parts will be greater and different from the individual elements making up the system, and the inputs and outputs will not match because relationships within the system are not straightforward-they are non-linear. The complexity science approach to understanding, acting on, and researching health systems is becoming increasingly popular. It is therefore timely to release an analysis of complexity and its characteristics, and apply them to healthcare.--Website. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Unifying Themes in Complex Systems VII Ali A. Minai, Dan Braha, Yaneer Bar-Yam, 2012-12-22 The International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS) creates a unique atmosphere for scientists of all fields, engineers, physicians, executives, and a host of other professionals to explore common themes and applications of complex system science. With this new volume, Unifying Themes in Complex Systems continues to build common ground between the wide-ranging domains of complex system science. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Blood and Earth Kevin Bales, 2016-01-19 For readers of such crusading works of nonfiction as Katherine Boo’s Beyond the Beautiful Forevers and Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains comes a powerful and captivating examination of two entwined global crises: environmental destruction and human trafficking—and an inspiring, bold plan for how we can solve them. A leading expert on modern-day slavery, Kevin Bales has traveled to some of the world’s most dangerous places documenting and battling human trafficking. In the course of his reporting, Bales began to notice a pattern emerging: Where slavery existed, so did massive, unchecked environmental destruction. But why? Bales set off to find the answer in a fascinating and moving journey that took him into the lives of modern-day slaves and along a supply chain that leads directly to the cellphones in our pockets. What he discovered is that even as it destroys individuals, families, and communities, new forms of slavery that proliferate in the world’s lawless zones also pose a grave threat to the environment. Simply put, modern-day slavery is destroying the planet. The product of seven years of travel and research, Blood and Earth brings us dramatic stories from the world’s most beautiful and tragic places, the environmental and human-rights hotspots where this crisis is concentrated. But it also tells the stories of some of the most common products we all consume—from computers to shrimp to jewelry—whose origins are found in these same places. Blood and Earth calls on us to recognize the grievous harm we have done to one another, put an end to it, and recommit to repairing the world. This is a clear-eyed and inspiring book that suggests how we can begin the work of healing humanity and the planet we share. Praise for Blood and Earth “A heart-wrenching narrative . . . Weaving together interviews, history, and statistics, the author shines a light on how the poverty, chaos, wars, and government corruption create the perfect storm where slavery flourishes and environmental destruction follows. . . . A clear-eyed account of man’s inhumanity to man and Earth. Read it to get informed, and then take action.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “[An] exposé of the global economy’s ‘deadly dance’ between slavery and environmental disaster . . . Based on extensive travels through eastern Congo’s mineral mines, Bangladeshi fisheries, Ghanian gold mines, and Brazilian forests, Bales reveals the appalling truth in graphic detail. . . . Readers will be deeply disturbed to learn how the links connecting slavery, environmental issues, and modern convenience are forged.”—Publishers Weekly “This well-researched and vivid book studies the connection between slavery and environmental destruction, and what it will take to end both.”—Shelf Awareness (starred review) “This is a remarkable book, demonstrating once more the deep links between the ongoing degradation of the planet and the ongoing degradation of its most vulnerable people. It’s a bracing reminder that a mentality that allows throwaway people also allows a throwaway earth.”—Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: 1177 B.C. Eric H. Cline, 2014-03-23 A bold reassessment of what caused the Late Bronze Age collapse In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the Sea Peoples invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No more Trojans, Hittites, or Babylonians. The thriving economy and cultures of the late second millennium B.C., which had stretched from Greece to Egypt and Mesopotamia, suddenly ceased to exist, along with writing systems, technology, and monumental architecture. But the Sea Peoples alone could not have caused such widespread breakdown. How did it happen? In this major new account of the causes of this First Dark Ages, Eric Cline tells the gripping story of how the end was brought about by multiple interconnected failures, ranging from invasion and revolt to earthquakes, drought, and the cutting of international trade routes. Bringing to life the vibrant multicultural world of these great civilizations, he draws a sweeping panorama of the empires and globalized peoples of the Late Bronze Age and shows that it was their very interdependence that hastened their dramatic collapse and ushered in a dark age that lasted centuries. A compelling combination of narrative and the latest scholarship, 1177 B.C. sheds new light on the complex ties that gave rise to, and ultimately destroyed, the flourishing civilizations of the Late Bronze Age—and that set the stage for the emergence of classical Greece. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Conflict and Complexity Philip Vos Fellman, Yaneer Bar-Yam, Ali A. Minai, 2014-12-09 This book follows the methodologies of complex adaptive systems research in their application to addressing the problems of terrorism, specifically terrorist networks, their structure and various methods of mapping and interdicting them as well as exploring the complex landscape of network-centric and irregular warfare. A variety of new models and approaches are presented here, including Dynamic Network Analysis, DIME/PMESII models, percolation models and emergent models of insurgency. In addition, the analysis is informed by practical experience, with analytical and policy guidance from authors who have served within the U.S. Department of Defense, the British Ministry of Defence as well as those who have served in a civilian capacity as advisors on terrorism and counter-terrorism. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Elements and Relations Martin Zwick, 2023-07-03 This book develops the core proposition that systems theory is an attempt to construct an “exact and scientific metaphysics,” a system of general ideas central to science that can be expressed mathematically. Collectively, these ideas would constitute a nonreductionist “theory of everything” unlike what is being sought in physics. Inherently transdisciplinary, systems theory offers ideas and methods that are relevant to all of the sciences and also to professional fields such as systems engineering, public policy, business, and social work. To demonstrate the generality and importance of the systems project, the book structures its content in three parts: Essay, Notes, and Commentary. The Essay section is a short distillation of systems ideas that illuminate the problems that many types of systems face. Commentary explains systems thinking, its value, and its relation to mainstream scientific knowledge. It shows how systems ideas revise our understanding of science and how they impact our views on religion, politics, and history. Finally, Notes contains all the mathematics in the book, as well as scientific, philosophical, and poetic content that is accessible to readers without a strong mathematical background. Elements and Relations is intended for researchers and students in the systems (complexity) field as well as related fields of social science modeling, systems biology and ecology, and cognitive science. It can be used as a textbook in systems courses at the undergraduate or graduate level and for STEM education. As much of the book does not require a background in mathematics, it is also suitable for general readers in the natural and social sciences as well as in the humanities, especially philosophy. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: The Postnormal Times Reader Ziauddin Sardar, 2019-01-01 IIIT Books-In-Brief Series is a valuable collection of the Institute’s key publications written in condensed form to give readers a core understanding of the main contents of the original. Postnormal times are best defined as ‘an in-between period where old orthodoxies are dying, new ones have yet to be born, and very few things seem to make sense’. or, as Ezio Mauro puts it: ‘we are hanging between the “no longer” and the “not yet” and thus we are necessary unstable –nothing around us is fixed, not even our direction of travel.’ The postnormal times theory attempts to make sense of a rapidly changing world, where uncertainty is the dominant theme and ignorance has become a valuable community. The Postnormal Times Reader is a pioneering anthology of writings on the contradictory, complex and chaotic nature of our era. It covers the origins, theory and methods of postnormal times; and examines a host of issues, ranging from climate change, governance, Middle East to religion and science, from the perspective of postnormal times. By mapping some of the key local and global issues of our transitional age, the Reader suggests a way of navigating our turbulent futures. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Working Ethics Marvin T. Brown, 2000 |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: The Systems Work of Social Change Cynthia Rayner, François Bonnici, 2021 The issues of poverty, inequality, racial injustice, and climate change have never been more pressing or paralyzing. Current approaches to social change, which rely on linear thinking and traditional power dynamics to 'solve' social problems, are not helping. In fact, they may only be entrenching the status quo.Systemic social challenges produce bewildering results when we try to solve them due to their complexity, scale, and depth. While strategies to tackle complexity and scale have received significant attention and investment, challenges that arise from deeply-held beliefs, values, and assumptions that no longer serve us well have been largely overlooked. This book draws on stories of committed social changemakers to uncover a set of principles and practices for social change that dramatically depart from the industrial approach. Rather than delivering solutions or being lured by grander visions of 'systems change', these principles and practices focus on the process of change itself. Simple yet profound, these stories distil a timely set of lessons for leaders, scholars, and policymakers on how connection, context, and power sit at the heart of the change process, ensuring broader agency for people and communities while building social systems that are responsive in a rapidly-changing world. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Empires of Food Andrew Rimas, Evan Fraser, 2010-06-15 We are what we eat: this aphorism contains a profound truth about civilization, one that has played out on the world historical stage over many millennia of human endeavor. Using the colorful diaries of a sixteenth-century merchant as a narrative guide, Empires of Food vividly chronicles the fate of people and societies for the past twelve thousand years through the foods they grew, hunted, traded, and ate—and gives us fascinating, and devastating, insights into what to expect in years to come. In energetic prose, agricultural expert Evan D. G. Fraser and journalist Andrew Rimas tell gripping stories that capture the flavor of places as disparate as ancient Mesopotamia and imperial Britain, taking us from the first city in the once-thriving Fertile Crescent to today’s overworked breadbaskets and rice bowls in the United States and China, showing just what food has meant to humanity. Cities, culture, art, government, and religion are founded on the creation and exchange of food surpluses, complex societies built by shipping corn and wheat and rice up rivers and into the stewpots of history’s generations. But eventually, inevitably, the crops fail, the fields erode, or the temperature drops, and the center of power shifts. Cultures descend into dark ages of poverty, famine, and war. It happened at the end of the Roman Empire, when slave plantations overworked Europe’s and Egypt’s soil and drained its vigor. It happened to the Mayans, who abandoned their great cities during centuries of drought. It happened in the fourteenth century, when medieval societies crashed in famine and plague, and again in the nineteenth century, when catastrophic colonial schemes plunged half the world into a poverty from which it has never recovered. And today, even though we live in an age of astounding agricultural productivity and genetically modified crops, our food supplies are once again in peril. Empires of Food brilliantly recounts the history of cyclic consumption, but it is also the story of the future; of, for example, how a shrimp boat hauling up an empty net in the Mekong Delta could spark a riot in the Caribbean. It tells what happens when a culture or nation runs out of food—and shows us the face of the world turned hungry. The authors argue that neither local food movements nor free market economists will stave off the next crash, and they propose their own solutions. A fascinating, fresh history told through the prism of the dining table, Empires of Food offers a grand scope and a provocative analysis of the world today, indispensable in this time of global warming and food crises. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: The Origins of Order Stuart A. Kauffman, 1993-06-10 Stuart Kauffman here presents a brilliant new paradigm for evolutionary biology, one that extends the basic concepts of Darwinian evolution to accommodate recent findings and perspectives from the fields of biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics. The book drives to the heart of the exciting debate on the origins of life and maintenance of order in complex biological systems. It focuses on the concept of self-organization: the spontaneous emergence of order that is widely observed throughout nature Kauffman argues that self-organization plays an important role in the Darwinian process of natural selection. Yet until now no systematic effort has been made to incorporate the concept of self-organization into evolutionary theory. The construction requirements which permit complex systems to adapt are poorly understood, as is the extent to which selection itself can yield systems able to adapt more successfully. This book explores these themes. It shows how complex systems, contrary to expectations, can spontaneously exhibit stunning degrees of order, and how this order, in turn, is essential for understanding the emergence and development of life on Earth. Topics include the new biotechnology of applied molecular evolution, with its important implications for developing new drugs and vaccines; the balance between order and chaos observed in many naturally occurring systems; new insights concerning the predictive power of statistical mechanics in biology; and other major issues. Indeed, the approaches investigated here may prove to be the new center around which biological science itself will evolve. The work is written for all those interested in the cutting edge of research in the life sciences. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Lean Logic David Fleming, 2016 Lean Logic is David Fleming's masterpiece, the product of more than thirty years' work and a testament to the creative brilliance of one of Britain's most important intellectuals. A dictionary unlike any other, it leads readers through Fleming's stimulating exploration of fields as diverse as culture, history, science, art, logic, ethics, myth, economics, and anthropology, being made up of four hundred and four engaging essay-entries covering topics such as Boredom, Community, Debt, Growth, Harmless Lunatics, Land, Lean Thinking, Nanotechnology, Play, Religion, Spirit, Trust, and Utopia. The threads running through every entry are Fleming's deft and original analysis of how our present market-based economy is destroying the very foundations--ecological, economic, and cultural-- on which it depends, and his core focus: a compelling, grounded vision for a cohesive society that might weather the consequences. A society that provides a satisfying, culturally-rich context for lives well lived, in an economy not reliant on the impossible promise of eternal economic growth. A society worth living in. Worth fighting for. Worth contributing to. The beauty of the dictionary format is that it allows Fleming to draw connections without detracting from his in-depth exploration of each topic. Each entry carries intriguing links to other entries, inviting the enchanted reader to break free of the imposed order of a conventional book, starting where she will and following the links in the order of her choosing. In combination with Fleming's refreshing writing style and good-natured humor, it also creates a book perfectly suited to dipping in and out. The decades Fleming spent honing his life's work are evident in the lightness and mastery with which Lean Logic draws on an incredible wealth of cultural and historical learning--from Whitman to Whitefield, Dickens to Daly, Kropotkin to Kafka, Keats to Kuhn, Oakeshott to Ostrom, Jung to Jensen, Machiavelli to Mumford, Mauss to Mandelbrot, Leopold to Lakatos, Polanyi to Putnam, Nietzsche to Næss, Keynes to Kumar, Scruton to Shiva, Thoreau to Toynbee, Rabelais to Rogers, Shakespeare to Schumacher, Locke to Lovelock, Homer to Homer-Dixon--in demonstrating that many of the principles it commends have a track-record of success long pre-dating our current society. Fleming acknowledges, with honesty, the challenges ahead, but rather than inducing despair, Lean Logic is rare in its ability to inspire optimism in the creativity and intelligence of humans to nurse our ecology back to health; to rediscover the importance of place and play, of reciprocity and resilience, and of community and culture. ------ Recognizing that Lean Logic's sheer size and unusual structure could be daunting, Fleming's long-time collaborator Shaun Chamberlin has also selected and edited one of the potential pathways through the dictionary to create a second, stand-alone volume, Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy. The content, rare insights, and uniquely enjoyable writing style remain Fleming's, but presented at a more accessible paperback-length and in conventional read-it-front-to-back format. |
| making things work yaneer bar yam: Complexity Explained Peter Erdi, 2007-11-09 This book is, of course about complexity. The title of the book, as you may recognize was motivated (excuse me for using this very mild expression) by Daniel Dennett’s Consciousness Explained [130]. Dennett’s intention was to explain consciousness as the emergent product of the interaction among c- stituents having physical and neural character. The goal of this book is to explain how various types of complexity emerge due to the interaction among constituents. There are many questions to be answered, how to understand, control, decompose, manage, predict the many-faced complexity. After tea- ing thissubjectforseveralyearsIfeelthatthe time hascome toputthe whole story together. The term “complex system” is a buzzword, but we certainly don’t have a single de?nition for it. There are several predominant features of compl- ity. Complex processes may show unpredictable behavior (which we still try to predict somehow), may lead to uncontrolled explosion (such in case of epilepsy, earthquake eruptions or stock market crashes). One of the char- teristic feature of simple systems is, that there is a single cause which implies a single e?ect. For large class of complex systems it is true that e?ects are fed back to modify causes. Biological cells belong to this class. Furthermore they are open to material, energetic and information ?ow by interaction with their environment, still they are organizationallyclosed units. Another aspect of complexity is the question how collective phenomena emerge by some se- organized mechanisms. |
MAKING Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of MAKING is the act or process of forming, causing, doing, or coming into being. How to use making in a sentence.
MAKING | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
MAKING definition: 1. the activity or process of producing something: 2. the things used to make or build something…. Learn more.
MAKING definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
The making of something is the act or process of producing or creating it. ...the director's book about the making of this movie. American English : making / ˈmeɪkɪŋ /
making noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes ...
Definition of making noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.
Making - definition of making by The Free Dictionary
making - (usually plural) the components needed for making or doing something; "the recipe listed all the makings for a chocolate cake"
MAKING Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of MAKING is the act or process of forming, causing, doing, or coming into being. How to use making in a sentence.
MAKING | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
MAKING definition: 1. the activity or process of producing something: 2. the things used to make or build something…. Learn more.
MAKING definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
The making of something is the act or process of producing or creating it. ...the director's book about the making of this movie. American English : making / ˈmeɪkɪŋ /
making noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes ...
Definition of making noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.
Making - definition of making by The Free Dictionary
making - (usually plural) the components needed for making or doing something; "the recipe listed all the makings for a chocolate cake"
What does maKing mean? - Definitions.net
Making refers to the process of creating, producing, or constructing something by using one's skills, knowledge, and resources. It typically involves taking raw materials, components, or ideas and …
Making or Makeing – Which is Correct? - Two Minute English
Nov 28, 2024 · For example, the verb ‘make’ becomes ‘making’, not ‘makeing’. This rule helps in other cases too, such as ‘write’ becoming ‘writing’. Remembering this simple rule can improve …
MAKING Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com
Making definition: the act of a person or thing that makes.. See examples of MAKING used in a sentence.
making - WordReference.com Dictionary of English
making / ˈmeɪkɪŋ / n. the act of a person or thing that makes or the process of being made (in combination): watchmaking; be the making of ⇒ to cause the success of; in the making ⇒ in the …
208 Synonyms & Antonyms for MAKING - Thesaurus.com
Find 208 different ways to say MAKING, along with antonyms, related words, and example sentences at Thesaurus.com.
