Proceedings of the 63rd Annual Meeting of the ISSS - 2019 Corvallis, OR, USA

SYSTEMS LITERACY Evolving our Power to Address the Issues of Our Time

William E Smith — 2021-04-27

Issues of complexity, governance, power, influence and control and climate among so many other issues are opportunities to develop systems literacy globally. Building on work in the systems sciences and social sciences we suggest an approach to inclusive design.

We seek to address the interests and needs of the whole society and environment that supports us. While we may not have intended these consequences, time has shown that our programs have resulted in societal threats to the ocean, earth, health, education, and infrastructure, political and social justice.This poster proposes evolutionary improvements in the process of social design by developing a five-dimensional organizing process drawn from the natural wisdom in our languages of science, our native languages, and our language of light, darkness, and color (LDC).

Link to the poster PDF

Model Coupling for Complex Systems Analysis

John Kineman — 2020-04-08

Adaptive Ecological Niche Modeling provides the missing link in current science for coupling potential and dynamical models as called for in global socio-ecological programs. Development of the Generalized Niche Model (GEN) completes the architecture of Relational Ecology based on the principles of R-theory.

Data Standards for Computational Ecology: constraining soft sub-systems to increase internal complexity for community resilience

Marco Cataffo — 2020-04-09

The Creative Systemic Research Platform at the Design and Innovation College of Tongji University in Shanghai focuses on facilitating learning of a diverse set of organizations, researching on the quality of interactions occurring among different agents, both human and non, and their context. A major communication channel available today employs sensors to observe otherwise invisible conditions of the environment, enabling a detailed understanding of how patterns of interactions among biological elements influence the global conditions. To address some of the most urgent need resulting from urbanization, industrialization and globalization processes, in 2018 we started working on computational ecology to support agricultural practices delivering self-organization capacity in diverse human settlements. The complex web of interactions occurring in such a context calls for a rich qualitative analysis of its conditions. To start building knowledge models that fit diverse range of human agents, a case-study methodology is employed. Boundaries have been set to describe the diversity of the analysed contexts, ranging from urban indoor greenhouses to agro-forestry management, working on the edges of these systems to address functional clustering and distribution. The first case study reflects a semi-controlled environment to constrain the space and time of natural cycles of vegetation and water and the number of observable interactions as preconditions for a university class of Design Students to interact with an indoor greenhouse. This process led to work on the development of data standards for collection and integration protocols to embed qualitative observation. Ontological constraints in computational agriculture as a sub-system of living communities is key element to enable access to self-monitoring practice into farm management, distributing learning and adaptation capacity as basis for autonomous, ecologically fitting human settlements ready to address internal transformations.

Workshop: Innovation and Optimization: Effective Paper Presentations

Sara Noemi Castiglioni — 2020-04-08

Enhance your presentation skills and develop strategies for communicating effectively with a variety of audiences through this workshop on effective paper presentations. Whether you are a seasoned presenter, or just starting out, this two-hour, hands-on session will provide valuable tools that you can adapt to every situation to engage audiences and make your presentation memorable.

The first part of the workshop will draw on strategies taken from nature to explore different types of presentations, structures, timing, and how to use visual thinking, as well as effective body language. In the second part, participants will collaborate to create mini-presentations using the skills and strategies covered in the first half. During this interactive session, participants will be grouped into teams to develop and practice their presentation skills, as well as play the role of stakeholders / audience members to give feedback.

This workshop is considered especially useful for students working on their dissertations, because it will provide a safe environment to co-create the dissertation journey using visual thinking tools and the input of colleagues.

Our GSTS Founders' Goal: a single grand encompassing theory embracing all systems. The First Proposal on the Table: James N Rose 'Integrity Paradigm'

James N Rose — 2020-04-08

Abstract

"Our universe harbors nothing 'alien' to its own existence."

(J N Rose, 1996)

The sentiment of this sentence embodies the ultimate validating quality of our universe, as proposed by the founders of a "(Single) General Theory of Systems". The universe is an existentially holistically related entity .. all of it. By necessity, there are qualities and relations shared by 'all possible behaviors and activities' in the universe. This implies that we should be capable of explicitly describing the underscoring shared properties of all events and instantiations of being.

Even in the most extreme conditions/qualia of existence possible, the universe has to be comprised in such a way that even the 'seemingly most antithetical' mutually exclusive incompatible properties .. actually can and do co-reside naturally within a larger perspective domain. Such as: "complete disorder" concurrently co-resident with "perfect ordering". At first, the properties of one of those sub-domains would seem to have no interaction~relational properties for correlating and accessing information, or data, from -or- to, the other. Yet, in a wholly consistent and coherent universe, we have to posit their essential familial connectability and reconcilability of attributes. And be able to enunciate them accurately - architectures, dynamics, behaviors - the instantiations -and- the extant descriptive models/languages.

This is a first-in effort to identify and enunciate those universal qualia, properties, relations, mechanisms and action drivers – the primal non-volitional and the volitional - together.

Science of a Living Universe

John Kineman — 2020-04-08

According to R-theory, a new meta-theory of whole systems based on the work of mathematical biologist Robert Rosen, the “Gaia hypothesis” may be better understood as a holistic worldview than a mechanistic hypothesis. The new perspective on nature provides a framework for studying closed systems, which has already yielded a definition of life itself, four organizational types of life, and sustainability as a systemic property of causal closure typical of organisms. These results raise the possibility of “Systemic Gaia”, the possibility of ecosystem sustainability and autevolution (influence of a system on its own evolution). This paper asks if the Earth as a whole can be modeled as a self-sustaining and self-evolving system. R-theory’s concept of causal closure in modeling relations (‘holons’), as a meta-model of natural organization, may be the key to answering such questions. Extension of this model to the global level addresses many of the criticisms on both sides of the Gaia debate. Rather than challenging the dominant mechanistic understanding of nature, it preserves that established territory and gives it a relational foundation capable of adding new factors of organization. With such new factors, the theory addresses many concerns that led to spiritual or theological speculations such as “intelligent design” and pre-destination, instead placing creative process inside natural systems rather than forcing external origins. Consequently, the theory supports causal explanations for stasis and punctuated novelty (punctuated evolution), apparent gaps and emergence in the evolutionary record that would be of concern from a gradualist perspective, and the impression of end-directed evolutionary processes (teleology) as implied by Gaia. Modeling relations are claimed to be a fundamental law of nature involving cyclical causality that had been known since Vedic times, but re-interpreted, for example by Aristotle, as a hierarchy of causes. A cycle of these four causes naturally requires that form and function co-evolve, as do mind and body, as unified dual aspects of holistic self-defining systems. The theory supports convergence of Western and Eastern science within a Vedic ontology of “cosmic order” (Rta).

Project Governance: A Systems Approach Towards Simpler, Better and Faster

Carin Venter — 2019-11-22

This paper describes an empirical study that analysed and improved project governance, in terms of health monitoring and reporting, and ultimately decision making capabilities relating to large capital (mega) projects. The researcher applied boundary critique to analyse monitoring, reporting and decision making mechanisms embedded in the governance process and system—she applied Werner Ulrich’s critical systems heuristics to confirm that the process/system is flawed, and identify shortcomings. These were improved upon, and the process as well as associated system were improved upon and streamlined.

ISSS2019: Program and Abstract Book

Jennifer Wilby — 2020-04-08

Contents and programme for the 63rd Annual Meeting

Recursive Reflections on Friendship and Conversation

Pille Bunnell — 2020-04-09

As Ranulph was a friend, an with whom I had many conversations on reflection and recursion it behoves me to choose this occasion to reflect further on these topics. The experience of friendship feels delicious and meaningful. How is this so? I turn to a fundamental of all living systems, that is living in a constant of structural coupling which maintains our systemic relational embeddedness wherein we change coherently with our niche which changes along with us. Our medium as a whole appears to change slower than we do, its apparent inertia resulting from its complexity of other connections. In a conversation our immediate niche of the other, in whatever domain, changes at the same pace as we ourselves. In friendship we have the experience of an intimate flow of these changes.

In this talk I consider the implications of “chunking” and “betweens” in language, the fluid flow of entailments in meaning and emotioning, and the role of the current situation as well as the accumulation of co-epigenic coherences. Even as we reflect on these notions in a conversation, or engage in reflexive conversation on friendship in conversation, the lived experience of conversation in friendship remains retains an aspect of mystery. The experience of friendship happens both in our reflections and in our living; as a kind of multilayered awareness.

Establishing a ‘systems identity’ for management and the social sciences equivalent to ‘systems engineering’ in the engineering world

Robert Cavana — 2020-04-08

This presentation will involve a discussion of some of the issues facing ‘systems scientists’ in the academic world in trying to better establish their ‘systems identity’ in commerce, business & social science faculties at universities or polytechnics (ie in tertiary sector educational institutions). The talk will draw on the author’s own experiences at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand over a nearly 30-year period, and his recent co-edited MDPI Systems journal special issue and book on ‘systems education for a sustainable planet (with Prof Ockie Bosch). The book contains contributions from Australia, UK, Europe, USA et al, and these will be briefly discussed. In addition, the author will try and draw on lessons learned from his co-authored paper recently published in System Dynamics Review on ‘a ‘power and influence’ political archetype: the dynamics of public support’. In that paper the focus is on how ‘communities for purpose’ build and lose power over time depending on a multitude of factors, some within control of the community and others outside the control of that community. If we consider the ISSS and systems thinking community at large as the ‘community for purpose’ we could begin to use the political archetype and concept model to help our community grow and build up momentum and influence over time helping to bring systems thinking knowledge and skills into the wider public arena over a reasonable timeframe (or before it is too late – eg from the adverse effects of climate change!). It is hoped that this approach will also add to the current ‘systems literacy’ projects being undertaken around the globe, including, for example, the theme of this conference and the project currently being curated by Peter Tuddenham at http://www.systemsliteracy.com.

Building a Global Superorganism: A New Paradigm for the Era of Climate Change

Peter Andrew Corning — 2020-04-08

The growth-oriented economic strategy that has largely prevailed in Western societies over the past two centuries is literally a dead-end. Nor is our global system of independent, deeply competitive nation states a viable strategy for the future, despite the current trend toward increased nationalism. As I argue at length in my forthcoming new book, we are facing a collective choice like none other in our long, multi-million-year history (and pre-history) as a ground-dwelling bipedal ape. We have only two paths going forward. We must either create a more integrated and cooperative global society and political order or else our species will very likely be consumed by lethal conflict and perhaps even devolve and go extinct. Only an organized process of cooperative social, economic, and political change on a global scale offers us genuine reason for hope. Many biologists use the analogy of a “superorganism” as a way of characterizing a socially organized group in the natural world. In my book (titled Superorganism), I provide an outline and a roadmap for how to achieve a new, more legitimate and sustainable economic and political order on a global scale -- a global “superorganism.” A key element of this roadmap is a proposal for a new “social contract” designed to create a legitimate and fair global society, along with increased global governance. Among other things, this would include a “universal basic needs guarantee.” If we follow the proven pathway in humankind of cooperation, innovation, and creating new synergies, there is every reason to hope that we can make the necessary changes and build a sustainable global society for the long term. But this will require bold leadership and broad public support, a very tall order. The supreme question before us, as the great Walter Lippmann put it 50 years ago, is “how men will be able to make themselves willing and able to save themselves.” The jury is still out.

Systems Thinking in an Age of Complexity

Michael Jackson — 2020-04-10

The world has become increasingly networked and unpredictable. Decision-makers at all levels are required to manage the consequences of complexity every day. Simple solutions to complex issues are usually inadequate and risk exacerbating the very problems they are designed to solve. Leaders of international bodies such as the UN, OECD, UNESCO and WHO – and of major business, public sector, charitable, and professional organizations – have all declared systems thinking an essential leadership skill for managing the complexity of the economic, social and environmental issues they face.

This presentation explains the need for a systems approach and charts the development of systems thinking as it has sought to come to terms with different aspects of complexity. It shows how different systems approaches have to be used in informed combinations to manage the interconnected problems that decision-makers currently face – an approach known as ‘critical systems thinking’.

From Systems to Patterns: Toward curated web-networks of shareable knowledge in the age of clickbait and fake news

Michael Mehaffy — 2020-04-09

One of the most urgent issues today is the need — too often unmet — to develop and apply useful shareable knowledge to work effectively to meet our growing challenges. This issue is especially urgent in light of the rise of social media, information “bubbles”, clickbait, and other disturbing trends on the World Wide Web. Yet Wikipedia and related resources offer intriguing counter-examples. They begin to show ways that knowledge can be gathered, curated and shared effectively within a larger community, in much the same way that scientific knowledge is curated through an open-source process of peer review. Wiki was actually a direct outgrowth of the work of the architect Christopher Alexander, who developed “pattern languages” to capture actionable knowledge in relational, flexible, language-like forms. This talk will explore the close relationship between systems science and pattern languages, and the remarkably fruitful output that is now converging in interesting and hopeful ways. The presenter is a long-time colleague of Alexander, and a scholar on his work and its implications.

Developing a systems thinking approach when it comes to developing possible solutions to climate change

Frank Niepold — 2019-11-22

Few issues facing society are more urgent than reducing our vulnerability to climate impacts, preparing for the staggering transition to a low-carbon economy, and building resilient communities. Yet K-12 schools, higher education, and free-choice learning institutions are often not prepared or focused on building awareness and inspiring action to care for our communities and our planet. Through activation of nations and communities extensive education systems with comprehensive climate change education, communities can more quickly embrace a low-carbon future, inspire future leaders, showcase their cities’ adaptability, and create stronger communities.

The need for comprehensive, interdisciplinary climate change education is more important now than ever before. Since 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an intergovernmental body of the United Nations, has provided the world with an objective, scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts. On October 8, 2018, the IPCC released the most important climate report to date. This IPCC special report, Global Warming of 1.5° C, provides insight into the collective global greenhouse gas emission choices that led to a warming of 1.5° C or higher above pre-industrial levels and serves as an urgent call to rapidly transition our global communities to low-carbon economies. It is also the first international climate report to provide a viable way to reach the goals set forth in the landmark Paris Climate Agreement to combat climate change, and accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low-carbon future.

The Climate Science and Education stated in the 2009 "Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science guide for Individuals and Communities” (USGCRP, 2009) why climate is key scientific issue that students need to address in their learning;

“To protect fragile ecosystems and to build sustainable communities that are resilient to climate change— including extreme weather and climate events—a climate-literate citizenry is essential. This climate science literacy guide identifies the essential principles and fundamental concepts that individuals and communities should understand about Earth’s climate system. Such understanding improves our ability to make decisions about activities that increase vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and to take precautionary steps in our lives and livelihoods that would reduce those vulnerabilities.”

The Climate Literacy Guide was used to create the climate related standards supporting the learning of more than three-quarters (84%) of U.S. students live in states that have education standards influenced by the Framework for K-12 Science Education and/or the Next Generation Science Standards.

To strengthen the learning related to climate change, we need to recognize and identify learning pathways that involves the complex, dynamic systems that demand a systems thinking approach when it comes to developing possible solutions. A systems thinking approach is increasingly recognized as a critical approach for education to address climate change. Climate change epitomizes a problem that demands a systems thinking and system dynamics approach: it is dynamic, complex, and crosses disciplines and societal sectors. Addressing the impacts and societal problems resulting from climate change requires an unprecedented level of integration and education across scientific, social science, civic/government, and humanities fields. Systems thinking offers an opportunity to integrate knowledge across disciplines and move society’s capabilities to rapidly transition to a low-carbon economy and address the impacts of climate change.

Sustainability Sublime: A networked approach

Shankar Sankaran — 2020-04-09

Several major cities in the world will face major issues, such as a shortage of clean water, due to unsustainable development, poor planning and political decision making. As a society supporting the United Nation’s sustainable development goals we need to act to promote both environmental and societal sustainability that can help to address these crises. However, we cannot do this alone due to our limited capacity and resources. We need to work with like-minded societies who are also supporting the UN’s SDG’s. But working together as a network is not easy even if we have good intentions. To do this effectively we need to find a way to govern the activities of the network to work towards a common goal. Work being done in network governance by organizational and project management scholars can guide us to manage a network-based approach to sustainable development. This plenary will discuss some of these issues and then introduce the theme proposed for the 64^th ISSS meeting. If we start collaborating with other organizations now with an aim to achieve some progress by the time we meet in 2020 we can carry this forward to contribute meaningfully to the society we live in.

Ocean Literacy: How the Concept of What Everyone Should Know about the Ocean Changed the World

Sarah E Schoedinger — 2019-11-22

Ocean literacy is an understanding the ocean’s influence on you and your influence on the ocean. Building public understanding and acknowledgement of the importance of the ocean to our daily lives was a motivating factor for a geographically distributed group of US-based scientists, formal and informal educators, and policy influencers coming together in the early 2000s to address the absence of ocean science content in US science education standards and our elementary and secondary classrooms. This convening and several others that came after it became the cornerstone of the Ocean Literacy Campaign, resulting in a definition of ocean literacy and the articulation of seven essential principles and 45 fundamental concepts that an “ocean literate” person would know. The definition, essential principles and fundamental concepts became the foundational pieces of the Ocean Literacy Framework, which now also comprises a scope and sequence for grades K-12 and an alignment to Next Generation Science Standards.

Despite the initial focus on K-12 education in the United States, this framework has been influential in ways never imagined by the initial leaders and participants of the campaign. In this presentation, Sarah Schoedinger will discuss a brief history of the Ocean Literacy Campaign, focusing both on how the framework was developed as well as the intended and unintended consequences that resulted as it became a model for the development of numerous other literacy frameworks (some of which will be discussed later in this conference) and has influenced both formal and informal education within the United States and abroad.

Global Ocean Science Education for the Human/Ocean System

Gail Scowcroft — 2020-04-10

Most global citizens are not aware of how the state of the ocean and its resources affect their daily lives. They are also not aware of the extent of the services that the ocean provides, which are related to environmental, human health, economic, social, and geo-political factors. The importance of ocean science research in support of these services is critical to society, yet the arena of ocean science and related marine enterprises remain a mystery for a large portion of the global population. The global ocean system can’t be extracted from the Earth’s complex intertwined Earth systems nor can it be separated from human health, social, or cultural systems.

The pressures of a growing human population, increased development and demand on natural resources, and climatic warming necessitate decision making in support of national, regional, and international goals. It is more important than ever for all citizens to be knowledgeable and aware of their relationship with the ocean, how it affects them, and the scientific research that is addressing pressing ocean-related concerns. This is the essence of ocean literacy (OL) - an understanding of the ocean’s influence on people and people’s influence on the ocean. The U.S. ocean science research and education community has worked together for over 25 years to expand and enhance ocean science education efforts. These efforts have included the national OL initiative, a collaborative undertaking of several U.S. organizations and institutions, which developed the Ocean Literacy Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts (OLPFC) for primary and secondary schools.

Recent collaborative efforts by COSEE (Consortium for Ocean Science Exploration and Engagement) and the College of Exploration have striven to move beyond a single sector/single nation approach to ocean education and literacy through the engagement of multiple sectors connected to the human/ocean system, specifically the research, education, business, and policy sectors. This work, initiated in 2015 via the Global Ocean Science Education (GOSE) Workshops, is intended to move the dialog beyond the knowledge requirements of the OLPFC toward an understanding of anthropogenic impacts on the ocean and attitudes toward important ocean-related activities and behaviors. Systems thinking across nations, sectors, and natural systems is critical if the global citizenry is to become ocean literate. In addition, an understanding of the complex relationships in the ocean/human system is imperative in achieving the goals of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (Deacde; 2021-2030). The 2019 GOSE Workshop will provide a forum for the international, cross-sector ocean science community to plan for the upcoming Decade and explore connections between ocean and systems literacy.

Integrating systems science perspective across various STEM literacies

Martin Storksdieck — 2020-04-09

Over the last decade various science literacy frameworks have been developed, including the Ocean Literacy Framework, The Essential Principles of Climate Literacy, or Energy Literacy: Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts for Energy Education. Common amongst these frameworks is an implicit or explicit focus on systems; conversely, without a systems perspective, the complex issues around ocean health, or the linked technology, society, nature issues that underlie climate change or energy use cannot be understood fully. Yet, systems thinking per se is difficult to convey, teach or communicate, and while included in new US science education standards, there is little indication that student indeed learn systems thinking as a cross-cutting practice. Complicating the matter is the issue of what reasonably can or should be expected of children around systems literacy, and in extension, what expectation we ought to have about appropriate systems literacy in adults. Martin Storksdieck will reflect on opportunities and challenges in creating a systems literacy framework that might serve as guide to formal and informal education.

2019 Bertalanffy Lecture: A Candidate GST: Systems Processes Theory (SPT)

Len Raphael Troncale — 2020-04-08

This talk begins with a concise overview of Ludwig von Bertalanffy as Founder of GST and the ISGSR, forerunner of the ISSS. His main contribution may have been his focus and emphasis on how systems work, the mechanics of systems dynamics, the isomorphies true of many different systems. The talk will begin with a citation of the original objectives of the SGSR as formulated by Founders like Bertalanffy and will cover as many of the following additional topics as possible within the allotted time (although all of the slides and handouts will be available whether delivered or not):

(1) The extent of Isomorphies developed by Bertalanffy; (2) Other Founders and their often-forgotten cross-disciplinary contributions; (3) Overview of >100 GST Sources; (4) Dispersion or Fragmentation of Theories: Half Century Need for Unification; (5) Desirability of debating Criteria for a GST and for a Science of Systemness to increase rigor and acceptance of our approaches;

(6) My LifeWork in ISSS: Origin of & Intention for SIGS & Change of Name to ISSS; (7) Conflating Systems Thinking [ST] & Systems Science [SS]; (8) Need for A Science of Systems; (9) Odum, Miller, Haken as Prototype Sciences of Systems & benefits; (10) Brief Analysis of Current SIGs in ISSS; (11) Need to Know Systems Mechanisms to Fix or Better Design Systems;

(12) Shortest Intro Possible to Troncale SPT as a GST & SS; (13) What Is An Isomorphy in SPT; (14) Alternative Lists of Isomorphies in SPT; (15) Sample of Extent of Natural Science Literature on Isomorphies, Utility of Harvesting or Incorporating into GST attempts; (16) Linkage Proposition Advance of SPT; (17) TEN SPT Spin-Off’s;

(18) Systems Archival Resources at new Claremont Office; (19) Current Modeling Attempts; Odum to NPS to ?; (21) SPT as Model of Models; Library of Models for each Isomorphy; (20) Exemplar Applications of SPT to Engineering, Industries, Natural Systems; (21) SPT as Descriptive, Prescriptive, AND Normative; (22) Science-Based Values for Tech Era from SPT: From Tao of Systems Science to Emergence of Meta-Humans; (23) Announcement of the newly forming International Society for Systems Pathology (ISSP), ISGE & USSO Workshops.

Natures Enduring Patterns as a Path to Systems Literacy

Peter David Tuddenham — 2020-04-09

Background and Year in Review Overview

This conference marks the end of my time as president of ISSS. It has been a busy and interesting year. Time to review and look forward.

Unfortunately, I was unable to be at the 2018 annual meeting at the beginning of my year as president as I had a minor stroke. However as fall began I recovered well and launched into my time as president with energy and enthusiasm. I began to implement a plan to explore Systems Literacy with ISSS members, to explore contributions of the ISSS Special Integration Groups (SIGs) by holding weekly video conferences online, applying digital technologies and to exploring the purpose and practices of the Society.

Connections with ISSS Partners

Turning to the organization of ISSS I will review the year and the actions I have taken on behalf of the organization. We renewed and reinforced our relationship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and attended the Annual meeting in Washington DC in February 2019.

I will report on our connections with International Council for Systems Engineering (INCOSE) and the several presentations ISSS members made at INCOSE in California in January 2019.

ISSS Members Management, Communications, Organization Development and Members Website

Implementation of a membership management system and website called myisss.org will be described. The SIG Sessions on Saturday have produced many new initiatives. By creating a program of meetings every Saturday online on a video conferencing system bluejeans we have begun to develop resources and understanding about each of the SIGs. The presentation will review the many surveys of members that have been completed including on the vision for system science, a request for suggestions for five-year action ideas for this society, opinions about annual conference location and developing models of relation between the SIGs and the relevance to ISSS society mission and purpose.

As a result of my stroke I began to explore natural patterns and pathologies concerned with the role of the brain in human experience. I will explore these biological models and their relevance for organizations. and touch on developments and personal experience in brain training.

Member education and learning through Saturday SIG Sessions

I was curious to learn more about the nature and happenings of the Special Integration Groups and I developed a plan to showcase each SIG. Each Saturday morning and sometimes later in the evening to reach members in India, Australia and New Zealand. Over 74 members at one time or another joined the video conversation with a core group of about 20 participating every week. Each SIG Chair was offered the opportunity to summarize the activities of the SIG. A different SIG was featured each week. Recordings of the sessions are viewable by members at myisss.org

This Years Conference Theme

Turning to the theme of the conference natures enduring patterns as a path to system literacy I will outline the work to date on systems literacy and identify the opportunities to develop systems literacy in the future.

Finally the presentation will give an outline of the conference in Corvallis in 2019 and introduce our plenary speakers and their relationship to systems approaches, natures enduring patterns, the ocean and to science education, and to the intent of this 2019 meeting to further develop approaches to systems literacy. I will also outline the hopes for the one hour workshop plenary session each day at the end of the morning and introduce the work of William Smith PhD who will assist me with these collaborative sessions to explore the relation between ISSS and Systems Literacy.

Next steps towards Systems Literacy

Reflecting on my journey though life with an awareness of cybernetics and systems ideas I will encourage the continued co-development and research in both areas of inquiry and coordination between ISSS and the American Society for Cybernetics, INCOSE, IFSR, AAAS and Systems Dynamics Society.

Networks and Data: Adventures in Literacy and Learning

Stephen Miles Uzzo — 2020-04-09

As the understanding of science increasingly requires thinking about complex interconnected systems and data-driven ideas (such as ocean science, genomics, ecosystems ecology and social, political and economic networks), there is a need for basic literacy in data and network science for all people. This talk will cover efforts to build consensus between the network and data science interdisciplinary communities of practice for developing essential concepts and core ideas related to both network and data literacy. The speakers will discuss the processes with which these literacies were developed and distributed, and important factors that contributed to their success.

Based on the success of the Ocean Literacy Principals, a series of workshops were held at UC Berkeley, Boston University and the New York Hall of Science with groups of network scientists, learning researchers, teaching and curriculum specialists and students, in order to devise a draft set of Network Literacy essential concepts that were then reviewed and edited by the global network science community of practice. This year-long process resulted in a published set of 7 Network Literacy Essential Concepts and Core Ideas. These have since been translated into over 20 languages and have been used for instruction across all grade bands and throughout the world.

This led to a similar movement in data science, which is still in process. The New York Hall of Science, in collaboration with the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub of the Columbia University Data Science Institute, are collaborating with academia, researchers, non-profits, libraries and industry to develop a set of essential concepts needed to achieve data literacy for all people. Issues of equity and interdisciplinarity will be discussed along with barriers and opportunities in data science across sectors.

MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA ARRAY WITH LMS ADAPTIVE ALGORITHM FOR 2.4 GHZ WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

Alejandro Iturri-Hinojosa — 2020-04-08

The design and simulation of microstrip patch antenna array with Least Mean Square (LMS) adaptive algorithm is presented. The antenna design is oriented for 2.4 GHz wireless communication system. LMS is a gradient based algorithm that was studied recently to adaptively track incident signals from satellites and its application on wireless communication systems. This adaptive technique is based on minimization of mean-square error of the LMS algorithm. The calculated variable weights are introduced in order to automatically steer the main beam to a desired direction and reject interfering signals from specific directions. The LMS algorithm is used to obtain the corresponding weights for the element planar microstrip array designed for the operation frequency of 2.4 GHz. The desired signal direction is set to 30° with an interfering signal at -20°, both on H-Plane radiation.

MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA FOR WIDEBAND WIRELESS WEARABLE SYSTEMS

Alejandro Iturri-Hinojosa — 2020-04-08

A microstrip patch antenna for 5.6 GHz wireless wireless wearable systems is presented. Cotton substrate with 3 mm of high and 1.5 of relative permittivity has been considered for the patch antenna. The available band reached by the patch antenna is 1.12 GHz, from 5.24 GHz to 6.36 GHz. The antenna has an omnidirectional radiation pattern.

TRENDS IN SMALL SATELLITE SYSTEM IN MEXICO

CIRILO GABINO LEÓN VEGA — 2020-04-08

A technological development of space in Mexico is proposed. Up to date, satellites are design, build and launch to the space by other countries. Satellites worked at an academic level to achieve this objective, a State policy is necessary to integrate basic and applied scientific research carried out by the country's institutions in the productive sector.

Small satellites for education institutions and research centers are currently being designed and built because of the relatively low cost compared to the geostationary ones that cover the American Continent. However, there was a lack of regulatory management, permits, launching bases, and systemic integration in companies.

Therefore, in order to obtain a Systemic Model was the production of a situation diagnosis with the corresponding planning.

Including Generative Mechanisms in Project scheduling using Hybrid Simulation

Jeff Scales — 2019-11-22

Scheduling is central to the practice of project management and a topic of significant interest for the operations research and management science academic communities. However, a rigour-relevance gap has developed between the research and practice of scheduling that mirrors similar concerns current in management science. Closing this gap requires a more accommodative philosophy that can integrate both hard and soft factors in the construction of project schedules. This paper outlines one interpretation of how this can be achieved through the combination of discrete event simulation for schedule construction and system dynamics for variable resource productivity. An implementation was built in a readily available modelling environment and its scheduling capabilities tested. They compare well with published results for commercial project scheduling packages. The use of system dynamics in schedule construction allows for the inclusion of generative mechanisms, models that describe the process by which some observed phenomenon is produced. They are powerful tools for answering questions about why things happen the way they do, a type of question very relevant to practice

https://code.research.uts.edu.au/10660963/hybrid-simulation-scheduling-engine

Platform for (Nonlinear) System of Accounts for Global Entropy Production, SAGE-P

Marcus Friend, AMF — 2019-11-22

Objective: to create an open access platform for (nonlinear) accounting algorithms enabling the construction of the LEF for any well-defined dynamical economic, social and natural systems (see Appendix I). The central idea is the seamless mapping of ordinal-valued objects/function upon any well-defined topographical domain space of the Econosphere, where values are conserved-in-exchange or prices, the Sociophere, where values are conserved-in-use or participation rates and the Ecosphere, where values are conserved-inthemselves or existential, (Friend, 2016). 2 Unique to SAGE-P is the discovery of algorithms of entailment which enables the matrix mapping of propositional logic, (i.e., qualities of the accounting objects/functions measured in ordinal values) on empirical evidence, (i.e., quantities of the accounting objects/functions measured in cardinal values). The 3 analysis of qualities permits the development of a hierarchical-structured value system: objects/functions conserved-in-existence > conserved-in-use > conserved-in-exchange. The accounts, and thus the algorithms employed, are set-theoretic nested structures.

Nonlinear Systemic Thinking: Synergic Epistemology

Yeon-soo(Youn-soo) Shim(Sim) — 2020-04-08

Quantum physicists studying the essence of existence have discovered the connection between the constituent quarks and gluons within atomic particles. The interconnected synergy of rationality, sensibility, understanding, intuition, and imagination as components of the human mind is equally important, even if not as yet scientifically proven. The environment in which humans are located is a nonlinear system, but humans can grasp even nonlinear systems because the human pure spirit connects consciousness and comprehensive awareness with objects to be known.

FACILITATING ORGANIZATION AND CONTROL OF MULTI-MEDIA PRESENTATIONS BY GENERALIZING A NEW DIGITAL MEDIUM (EDDSWEMM)

Richard Lee Buckner — 2019-11-22

ABSTRACT

This paper shows how a new, green, paperless, digital medium, EDDSWEEM (Electronic Digital Display With Embedded Multi-Media), may be generalized to facilitate organization and control of multimedia and avoid difficulties observed in a human speaker and multi-media presentation recently. At an Easter program this year, multi-media were used in a presentation of oral, musical, lighting and large screen digital displays where there were problems getting a video to work. A presenter used a remote clicker and read from a digital screen when progressing through his talk with some periods of difficulty because of the distractions of using those means of control. EDDSWEEM was recently described at a presentation at the 2018 annual conference of the International Society for the Systems Sciences in Corvallis, Oregon, as applied to literature and the theatre.

The new medium uses the Microsoft Windows operating system and Microsoft Office Word--standard on many PC based computers--as a display medium. As pointed out in 2018, many media may be embedded in Word document and controlled and displayed by continuous of the. Using the new medium, Word documents are controlled and displayed by continuous scrolling of the Word file without page boundaries and with appropriate clicking of icons or links. Such media may include other MS Office APPs. Testing of such "scripts" before a presentation/performance ensures freedom from the difficulties noted above; this principle may be applied more generally--limited only by imagination of the script author. The action of using the new medium and the varied content provides increased stimulation of the audience central nervous system (cool-ness). With it there are also productivity gains, and increased information communicated in the same amount of time by paralleling oral presentation with the digital display. Obviously this format is deaf inclusive.

This paper includes a cursory review of past media and asserts that, generally, they are subsumed by a new medium--at least over time--a new addition to media theory.

As shown in the 2018 paper, a new medium requires a new format, and the new format spurs creation of new content. As applied to augmentation of contemporary theatre and a new, stand alone literary genre, this new content may move away from storytelling only, and move more toward delivery of information about ideas. As an example (but in no way example-limited), the idea of an emotional situation may be dramatized in theatre or displayed for a single "reader" on a computer monitor. This idea orientation is generalized in a simple idea oriented play production model augmented by EDDSWEMM--an addition to theatre theory. That model is then generalized for any live speaking presentation augmented by multi-media. This subject affords opportunities for new research in the fields of Information Science, Media Studies, Communication, English, Cultural Change, Deaf Education, Drama and presentations.

System Risk visualization and mitigation methodology and its application to ICT system failures

Takafumi Nakamura — 2020-04-09

A method is presented for mitigating system failures. Current state-of-the-art methodologies and frameworks have strength as a common language to understand system failures holistically with various stakeholders. On the other hand there is a shortcoming in quantitative aspects. This is major obstacle to assess effectiveness of various measures to mitigate system risk. In order to overcome this shortcoming, this paper express system risk numerically through a coupling and an interaction factors between system configuration elements as well as system failures frequency rate, this three numerical number (i.e. coupling, interaction and frequency) create three dimensional space, and measuring its trajectory through time visualize system risk trends which are the targets to create an effective preventative measures to system failures. A root cause of a system failure is discovered by using a System Dynamics technique to a trajectory of a system risk location, then based upon the root cause, the effective counter measures are extracted. Lastly this methodology is applied to the system failures cases with various ICT systems and counter measures are extracted. An application example of ICT system failures exhibits the effectiveness of this methodology.

APPLYING A SYSTEMS AND COMPLEXITY FRAMEWORK TO TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING

Marty Jacobs — 2020-04-08

Our ability to adapt to the relentless change of modern society and to transform how we see the world are essential to our survival in these complex times. However, we are rapidly losing that race as increasing complexity overtakes our ability to build our adaptive and transformative capacity. Transformative learning and systems literacy are essential components to turning that tide. This paper gives an overview of transformative learning theory and applies a systems and complexity framework to that process to create a foundation for transformative change. It covers the concepts of the disorienting dilemma, critical reflection, dialogue, and meaning making at the edge of chaos.

Progressing Towards Developed Country Status: The Sustainability of Ghana’s Cocoa Supply Chain in Focus

John Kwesi-Buor — 2020-04-08

There is mixed feeling and mixed reaction from various quarters in recent times towards the perception that Ghana is progressively crawling into a developed country status. Generally, one would expect the change in status to rain in foreign companies to build factories and to provide essential services commensurate with economic growth and development. However, industrialisation (particularly of an unplanned economy) could aggravate rural-urban migration, urban congestion, and inevitably escalate disputes relative to labour, society, and environment. We anticipate that the agriculture sector in general, and the cocoa supply chain in particular would be the most hit by the change to a developed country status. Already in recent times, the cocoa industry is threatened with farm abandonment, migration, crop replacement perhaps due to the perceived unsustainability of the cocoa industry, and land capture by mining concessionaires. This research proposes the use of complex interdependent, multidisciplinary investigative approach, or decision-making tools to investigate how downstream chain partners (manufacturers - local, foreign, and multinational companies) could work with their upstream members (suppliers and farmers) to achieve sustainability in the cocoa supply chain. Thus a longitudinal study is proposed as we adopt an embedded case study approach by employing a combination of research designs (interviews, focus groups, observations, surveys, and ethnography research). Data will be sourced from both the upstream and downstream key cocoa industry players and stakeholders, including: the Cocoa Board, Produce Buying Companies, Farmers, Research Institutes, Extension Officers, Port Operators, Cocoa product Haulage Companies, Cocoa Product Manufacturing Companies and any others. A preliminary result suggests that cocoa yield and the health of its supply chain could grow weaker in the years to come, even though government records shows increase in yield by tonnage in recent years. Cocoa farming appears to becoming a disincentive to farmers. The farmers feel excluded from decisions that bothered on their own welfare and do not get a fair-share from their toil. Our findings could therefore awaken the various stakeholders and thus result in designing pragmatic policies that will improve lives of the upstream cocoa supply chain partners, as a departure from the current situation where arguably, the downstream arm-chaired air-conditioned officers and politicians become the sole beneficiaries of cocoa proceeds. Our contribution could encourage rehabilitation of the cocoa landscapes, the conservation and expansion of cocoa forest, and the creation of forest buffer zones and corridors. Cocoa farmers would be incentivised enough to adopt and own the environmentally friendly best practices. Improve cocoa production is also expected to increase research into forest plant medicine, result in better ecosystem management and possibly pave way for ecotourism. Furthermore, improve cocoa production can reduce employment pressure on the state, reduce rural-urban migration, city congestion, urban waste management and inorganic waste pollution. As the quality of rural life improves through policies that can lead to poverty alleviation, revenue generation, income redistribution, and availability of amenities (good roads, schools, health facilities and electricity), the tendency to migrate to urban cities and subsequently to abroad would reduce.

Innovativeness of the Judiciary Power. A case study using the Viable System Model (VSM)

Sara Noemi Castiglioni — 2020-04-08

For several years, the use of technology, open data and customer focus as innovation engines has been imposed worldwide. And the Judiciary Power as a key player in the system of administration of justice of the Argentine Republic do not escape this tendency. As a consequence of this, it has implemented innovative processes in order to reduce their management times, improve the user-citizen experience and bring transparency to the process. Never the less, in Argentina these innovations are rare exceptions. In this paper the case of the “Judiciary Power of Tucumán Province” will be use as a leading case for its high level of innovativeness during the last ten years. The main objective of this paper is to model using Beer’s Viable System Model approach the system in which this case is embedded, discuss and determine whether the system is a viable one or not, and compare the findings with the theoretical framework associated with the “new public management”.

A VIABLE SYSTEM MODEL FOR MANAGEMENT OF THE ECONOMIC GROWTH

Francisco Jaime García-Barrios — 2020-04-08

In this paper we present a Viable System Model (VSM) approach in the field of economics with the purpose of bettering the understanding of this macroeconomic phenomenon. This paper contributes with the design of an VSM in economic science. Economic growth has been modelled to test main inputs that explain it, and to understand its behaviour. Most countries seek to increase economic growth because other economic variables improve, for example, the number of jobs increases, wages increase, or poverty decreases. The investigation first reviews the state-of-the-art, secondly it explains the methodology and the process followed, and finally it presents results. An alternative model to manage and understand economic growth is obtained. The results contribute to the economic growth theory.

Polymorphism: What Can Businesses Systems Learn from Living Systems?

Stanislas Bigirimana — 2020-04-08

The concept of polymorphism which is popular in natural sciences has been used by Walmsley (2008) emphasizing the polymorphism of consciousness in Lonergan (1972)’s sense. There is a possibility of introducing a polymorph model of reality based on the notion of information. Going back to Wiener (1948)’s definition of information as “negative entropy” i.e. “negative disorder” or “degree of organization”, information is defined as patterns of (self)-organising matter and energy at the micromolecular, neural, cultural, bureaucratic levels and in artifacts such farms, social and economic systems, corporations and software. Information creates an ecological continuity between the inorganic, the organic, and the artificial through a parallelism between levels of control (Beniger, 1986) and levels of consciousness (Fuchs-Kittowiski, 1991).

This ecological continuity implies that reality(metaphysics), knowledge (epistemology) and behavior (ethics) are problems of information because they conform to a cybernetic model that views “things social as interacting processing systems” (Beniger, 1986) and “appreciate[s] the importance of communication and control in all such systems.” (Beniger, 1986) Polymorphism implies integrating substantive (subject matters and their representation or data), semantic (meaning), behavioural (procedures) and teleological (or goal-oriented, functional) aspects in both organisational structures and business processes. This can be done through information processing i.e. enriching the immediate data of experience with meaning and value for the purpose of decision-making. In the context of polymorphism, business systems can learn from important features of living systems:

(1) Businesses as holographic systems i.e. favoring integration over fragmentation through embedding vision, systems and structures and corporate culture in each component of the organisation through the Stafford Beer’s principle of recurrence.

(2) Focusing on throughputs rather than outputs: designing businesses as value networks rather than value chains and ensuring flawless processes at each level of value creation through Total Quality Management (TQM).

(3) From universality to transversality: traditional business models imply top-down linear bureaucratic models which implies a “ command and control” management style and standardization for the sake of mass production. Polymorphism implies that each customer is unique and a “sense and respond” (to customer needs) approach is better than a “make and sell’ strategy;

(4) From hierarchies to heterachies: This implies basing decision-making and problem-solving not on power and ownership but on knowledge. This change leads to different patterns of empowerment and sharing of rewards. The distinction between management and staff becomes irrelevant because power is no more at the top of a pyramid but at different nods of complex networks where different members of a team share resources and information. This creates a flat, networked model of organisation that is ruled by equality rather than domination.

(5) From Cutting Edges to Cutting Across: This implies shifting from designing organisations as stable closed entities to dynamic open systems through disruptive innovations, outsourcing and establishing organisational structures which go beyond the boundaries of one single organisation such as joint-ventures, consortia, conglomerates and strategic alliances;

(6) From competition to collaboration: When value creation is based on knowledge rather than ownership or power there is a different understanding of the relationships between different players. The crude individualistic understanding of competitions isreplaced by vertical integration (the suppression of hierarchical barriers) and horizontal integration (the formation of cross-functional teams). This new way of doing business has been called by Burn et al. (2002:xv) “coopetition”.

From warfare to trust: The marketplace is no longer conceived as a battleground or a dangerous place, where one must be very careful in order to brave the fury of the enemy and unveil the enemy’s traps. Polymorphism implies inter-organisational systems that link organisations to their customers and suppliers.

Social engagement to redress the banality of evil and the limitations of the social contract to protect habitat

Janet McIntyre-Mills — 2020-04-08

‘Existential risk’ continues to escalate and the crime of ‘ecocide’ is not yet recognised as part of international law even though it poses a new form of ‘genocide’. Politically fragmentation and populism have become the new order driven by capitalism, anthropocentrism, speciesism, nationalism and racism. The case is made that liberalism has progressed too far in undermining collective (cosmopolitan) responsibility. The result is a form of state control and governance that is more closely linked with the nation state and the market than with protecting habitat or the needs of all those who fall outside the mantel of the social contract, such as young people, asylum seekers, the disabled and other sentient beings. The frontiers of justice need to be extended to protect living systems. The concept ‘species’ is a central concern in relation to the issue of categorization, membership, displacement and decision-making (in terms of state sovereignty, territory, colonization and its implications for human, animal and plant life). As urbanisation encroaches on the wild spaces and displaces other forms of life, relationships that are Anthropocentric need to be re-framed to enable re-generation and sustainable living that is non-Anthropocentric.

Key considerations are whether new forms of engagement could encourage people to think carefully through their options, rather than making rash decisions:

Does discursive democracy and more engagement inevitably lead to populist decisions, polarization or narcissism? The need for democracy to re-engage with critical thinking is vital.
Is it possible for groups to be held responsible in the same way that an individual can be held responsible? Arendt argues that collective responsibility is upheld when each individual engages critically with their everyday decisions.
Could balancing individual and collective needs be achieved through new processes and structures to help transform values and to address ‘the banality of evil’? Some researchers argue it is indeed possible to engage in large groups that foster collective decision making for the common good.

This paper makes the case that critical engagement could be assisted through enabling people to think through the implications of their everyday choices and that this could help to foster an ‘ecological mindset’ to protect living systems. Balancing individual rights and collective responsibility for this generation of life and the next requires governance to protect the common good. This requires considering the consequences of decisions by considering the multispecies rights of living beings (Kirksey and Helmreich 2010, Raikhel, 2010, Rose, 2015). The minimum requirement is re-balancing society to ensure that rights of the minority do not override the interests of the majority of living systems in this generation and the next. This requires a collective effort to re-create social and economic processes and structures to protect habitat.

The three patterns of engagement that could foster the human stewardship of habitat are: 1. Recognition of the interdependency of living systems, 2. Making (ongoing) policy adjustments in context. In policy terms this requires new forms of organizational relationships that redress power imbalances that result in social, economic and environmental injustice and ‘existential risk’. 3. Appreciation of cycles for re-generation in designs that sustain living systems are needed. This requires rural-urban balance to protect habitat for domestic, farm and wild life,based on the requisite variety for multiple species and their diverse habitats. The barriers to achieving these three pattern goals include power imbalances within and across species which requires an intersectional understanding of the way in which species membership, gender, race, culture and abilities shape the power dynamics that underpin social and environmental injustice.

A way forward is perhaps to focus on what matters within and across many species, namely a safe, inclusive environment, water to drink, food to eat, being able to keep cool or warm enough to sustain life and a sense of fulfilled purpose. This is upheld by the proposed new law on ecocide that ‘protects all inhabitants of a territory’.

The potential of eco-facturing to re-generate rural-urban balance through eco-villages and city hubs: promoting social and environmental justice through vocational education and training hubs

Janet McIntyre-Mills — 2020-04-08

The paper proposes an alternative cyclical economy based on eco-villages supporting urban hubs to re-generate rural-urban balance based on eco-facturing, to use Gunter Pauli’s concept. Africa and Asia are two of the fastest urbanising areas globally.

The development of eco-villages supporting the ‘one village many enterprises’ concept currently applied in Indonesia relies on responsive design.

The development of eco-facturing using local products such as cassava for bioplastics, bamboo for biochar and fair trade, free range luwark coffee are discussed as three examples of ecofacturing that are currently being developed in Indonesia. The potential for eco-facturing to be applied in Southern Africa and Ghana is currently being explored using bamboo and cassava in appropriate areas and exploring a suitable cash crop. Coffee is one option, but many others such as red bush tea, aloes as well as a host of local herbs could be explored with Indigenous holders of wisdom. Some core design principles are suggested outlined by Christakis and members of Global Agoras community of practice and affiliates. Salience, trust and engagement to protect living systems and the people who are affected need to be involved in the decision-making process

These principles are discussed in the paper together with the importance of ‘being the change’ through expanding pragmatism to consider the social, economic and environmental implications of choices. Systemic Ethical decisions honour ‘freedom and diversity’ to the extent that freedom and diversity are not undermined by power imbalances. The paper reflects on the content of two forthcoming volumes, namely:

Mixed Methods and Cross Disciplinary Research: Towards Cultivating Ecosystemic Living. Springer, New York.
Democracy and Governance for Resourcing the Commons: Theory and Practice on Rural-Urban Balance. Springer, New York.

The policy approach could be said to be informed by the principle of subsidiarity and Ashby’s rule , namely that policy decisions need to be made at the lowest level possible and the complexity of design decisions need to match the complexity of the local residents. The papers in the two volumes make the case for residents to act as caretakers for local living systems. The paper maps out design principles and makes the case that all living systems are in constant motion and design needs to respond in ways that generate energy, rather than extracting energy at the expense of this generation and the next.

Profit is nothing less than energy extracted at the expense of people and the planet. Alternative forms of organisation are possible to support ‘wellbeing stocks’ to cite Joseph Stiglitz.

ASSESSING THE BEHAVIOR OF HUMAN ACTIVITY SYSTEMS THROUGH THE OBSERVATION AND INTERPRETATION OF SOCIOTECHNICAL SIGNS

Sage McKenzie Kittelman — 2020-04-08

The study of communication as a system is largely unexplored in both literature and empirical research, however its role in human activity systems is critical for understanding and adapting organizational behavior. Currently most literature on organizational indicators or signs do not make a connection back to a system of communication or delve into the theoretical virtues of signs as they pertain to the human activity system; building a message that can be understood by and between analysts of the system under observation. Signs are the most basic elements of communication, indicating properties about the system from which the signs emerge. Signs can be conceptual or concrete in form and provide the means for assessing system behavior. When combined with context, signs become information about the system and the information is used to develop a message and transmit from a sender to one or more receivers regarding the necessity for change. This research shall focus on signs are and how they can contribute to change initiatives through their relationship to system behavior. Furthermore, a case study on organizational change will be employed to illustrate the use of signs to indicate whether management is balancing organizational intelligence (thinking) and organizational practices (doing), as indicated by Sir Geoffrey Vickers concept of appreciative systems, in change management initiatives. This research will lay the foundations for system analysts to assess how a perspective system is doing, from the observation and interpretation of its signs, and what needs to change in order for a system to reach its intended goal.

CLINICAL SYSTEMICS: TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY FOR ALLEVIATING PATHOLOGIES IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS

Peter L Roolf — 2019-11-22

Clinical systemics is a framework and methodology induced from Western medicine for the purpose of identifying and treating pathologies in complex living systems. Motivated by climate change and other significant trends in the 21^st century, clinical systemics is envisioned as a means of science-based, multidisciplinary collaboration and practice not only in social-ecological systems, but in other natural and artificial living systems as well. This paper will outline the philosophical underpinnings of such a framework and methodology, provide a contextual overview of the systems and complexity science project, and will describe the features of complex living systems, health, pathology, and healing. Building on these ideas, a vision for a clinical systemic framework and methodology will be articulated by drawing on examples from the history of Western medicine. And lastly, benefits and challenges of such a framework and methodology will be identified, followed by a suggested sequence of development and implementation.

“Systems Pathology: Review of Conflicts within Historically Unquestioned Concepts”

James N Rose — 2020-04-08

Historically revered concepts could be the focal problems preventing developing a successful single General Theory of Systems. Certain previously accepted ideas need to be re-analyzed for possible logical incompleteness, for harboring errors based on limited information, or containing logically or relationally based conflicting principles. Conflicting math axioms and hypotheses, conflicted philosophical premises, dysfunctional interpretations of historically accepted models of what was observed and devised using ancient limited knowledge – require re-analysis, reconsideration and correction, based on expanded logic and coordination, in consideration of later knowledge improvements and scientific developments.

The author discusses problematic logic conflicts he identifies in - and between - the systems relations models of Plato, Descartes, Gödel, Mandelbrot, and Prigogine. He also describes previously unconsidered relations that exist in certain conventional statistics models that are based on too-narrowly defined real physical systems (including previously omitted important constraint conditions), putting into question the mathematics, which math any viable General Theory of Systems must include to be considered valid.

The thesis of this analysis is an extension of the Biological Systems Pathology SIG premise that imperfect mechanisms and irregular systems relations also have to be considered, in expansion from modeling only “healthy functioning” (organic) systems. Logic irregularities and concept deductions based on incomplete information sets are also issues that need to be addressed when composing/achieving a General Theory of Systems, and need to be explicitly considered.

==============

2019 Systems Pathology SIG – approved by Len Troncale ; – pending Journal acknowledgment. (emailed abstract submission May 22, 2019)

A computational model for recovery from traumatic brain injury

Wayne Wakeland — 2019-11-22

A computational simulation model calculates estimated recovery trajectories following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Prior publications include a multi-scale conceptual framework for studying concussion, a systems-level causal loop diagram (CLD) and an analysis of key feedback processes. A set of first order ordinary differential equations and their associated parameters determines recovery trajectories. The model contains 15 state variables, 73 auxiliary variables, and 50 parameters describing TBI pathology in an aggregate fashion at the cellular, network, cognitive and social levels. There are 1200 feedback loops, which give rise to a variety of behavior modes, many of which are highly nonlinear. Exogenous parameters include patient and injury characteristics, treatments, and time constants for recovery processes. Model testing has focused on reviewing the causal diagram with subject matter experts and determining sensitivity of model results to injury severity and patient characteristics, especially the time constants associated with healing/recovery processes. The model produces outcome trajectories that represent quick or slow recovery with no deficits, partial recovery, and the patient remaining indefinitely in a pathological state. While highly speculative, the model serves to demonstrate the potential utility of computational models in this context and to further discussion about the complex dynamics involved in recovery from TBI. The model also generates counterintuitive results, as is characteristic of complex systems. Much more research will be needed to create a properly supported research model that could be used or for precision medicine or to aid clinical trial design.