Andreas

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Andreas
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Problems
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Structure

• Abstinence
• CV, Resumee, Cover Letter Monday
• Comments on Dojo Project

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Important Entries
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The Daily Hardvark Blogito Ergo Sum

• I would not have been a poet except that I have
  been in love and alive in this mortal world, or
  an essayist except that I have been bewildered
  and afraid, or a storyteller had I not heard
  stories passing to me through the air, or a
  writer at all except I have been wakeful at night
  and words have come to me out of their deep caves
  needing to be remembered. The following are my
  most recent creations and inspirations in a
  moretraditional format.

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Requirements for any Meta-Model

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.org/andr
  eas/blog/archives/2003_08.html000144
• These are the initial criteria for an Adequate
  Meta-Model that describes the world as we see,
  feel, and experience it.
• 1. ComplexityThe meta-model must possess a high
  degree of complexity. If the model is to be used
  to relate observers, then it must be at least as
  complex as the most complex existing model
  relating observers. Perhaps this should rather be
  expressed such that the model should possess
  sufficient ordered complexity to be able to
  contain complexity without imposing upon it a
  degree of orders lower than that which it
  warrants and which is essential
• (a) for the model to be credible
• (b) to avoid creating the impression of a rigid
  framework which would inhibit individual
  creativity, spontaneity and unpredetermined
  fulfillment.
• If it is not more complex than the most complex
  existing model then the processes that the latter
  describe or rather the perspective on variety
  from which the model originated will not be
  effectively contained given that the social
  process in which we are embedded is the most
  complex phenomena of which we know, one must make
  use of the most complex model that man has been
  able to develop to contain it adequately

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Logic of Interface Dynamics

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.org/andr
  eas/blog/archives/2003_08.html000143
• The interface between two radically different
  styles of logic must necessarily prove extremely
  challenging to the continuity and
  comprehensibility of any communication in
  society. This has been best described by
  mathematician Ron Atkin (Multidimensional Man,
  1981) HYPERLINK "http//www.uia.org/strategy/141
  alt.htm" more . A major difficulty is to
  distinguish between the coherence of an
  alternative perspective (which may well appear
  incoherent) and a perspective that is inherently
  incoherent (even though allowance may erroneously
  be made for difficulties of comprehension). Such
  challenges are notably evident in the case of
  fundamental physics and cosmology, of which it
  has been said that it is not a question of
  whether, as remarked by Niels Bohr, a theory is
  "crazy" but of whether "it is crazy enough"

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Literal and Metaphorical Amnesia

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.org/andr
  eas/blog/archives/2003_08.html000142
• You may ask yourself, "How could anyone forget
  what the truth is?" or something to that effect
  since there is a unilateral quality to truth as
  most people conceive it. This is not to be
  confused with relativism my quickly agitated
  friends. So, as a first step towards clarifying
  the range of defects to which collective memory
  may be vulnerable, it is appropriate to consider
  those of individual memory. In each case below
  these are described in such a way as to point to
  the nature of the possible equivalent in the case
  of collective memory. The order is not
  significant.
• Analogous phenomena may occur in the case of
  collective memory as a result of physical
  destruction of portions of an information system,
  uncontrolled hyper-development of such a system,
  or the subjection of such a system to frequent
  overload beyond the breakdown threshold. Or, "How
  can the United States have such a poor cultural
  memory for how they get themselves into these
  messes?"

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Truth

• Truth about Truth
• Seductive
• Theories of Truth
• Games
• Unwrapping the Truth
• The assumption is easily made that there is only
  a single form of truth. However in the complex
  global society of today, this is not the case.
• Truth about truth The contasting understandings
  of truth are helpfully explored by Walter Truett
  Anderson (The Truth about Truth de-confusing and
  re-constructing the postmodern world. 1995) whose
  central point is that
• ...we are in the midst of a great, confusing,
  stressful and enormously promising historical
  transition, and it has to do with a change no so
  much in what we believe as in how we believe it.
  (p. 2)
• In endeavouring to summarize the views of a
  range of authors, Anderson indicates that this
  transition has four main dimensions

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Umentionables

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.org/andr
  eas/blog/archives/2003_08.html000132
• The vast majority of studies and concerns with
  regard to social change and conceptual innovation
  focuses on "abstractions". Such abstractions
  include philosophies, theories, conceptual
  frameworks, belief systems, values, models of
  human and social development, and the like. Many
  concrete issues with which these are concerned
  may also be subject to definitional game-playing
  that converts them into abstractions.
  "Sustainable development" has become one such
  abstraction "sustainable community" another.
• Most organizations designed to deal with issues
  in some way may also be seen as abstractions that
  mainly derive their "existence" in reality from
  legal documents. There is a significant gap
  between the pattern of relations between people
  in a building and the coherence and
  substantiality implied by a statement such as
  "that is the UN Secretariat". In this sense the
  UN as such cannot be "seen" and must necessarily
  be understood as an abstract pattern through
  which some people choose to manage their affairs.
  

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Love American Style

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.org/andr
  eas/blog/archives/2003_08.html000135
• From "one man, one vote" to "one gun, one vote"
• Democracy has traditionally been promoted under
  the slogan "one man, one vote" -- now presumably
  to be corrected for its sexist bias.
  Unfortunately as elections in most democratic
  countries are now indicating, the degree of voter
  apathy is effectively triggering a democratic
  deficit. There is widespread concern that
  citizens do not sense that their participation in
  the electoral process is meaningful. This is
  notably the case in the USA and the UK -- two of
  the world's leading democracies whose governments
  are highly motivated to bring democracy to
  countries whose peoples are deprived of any
  effective form of expression.

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Global Governance Self Governance

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.org/andr
  eas/blog/archives/2003_08.html000119
• To what extent is the world around me merely a
  mirror of my very own successes and failures in
  world governance -- in governing "my world"? It
  may indeed suit me to hold the world at arm's
  length -- as an object with its own dynamics
  quite beyond any responsibility of mine. And
  there may be many ways that this can be
  understood to be a useful, healthy, minimally
  presumptuous, perspective.
• But there is some value in reflecting on the
  ways in which every thing I encounter in "the
  world" is engendered by me. This may be
  especially useful with respect to the values I
  attach to phenomena of the world -- whether rain
  is "good" or "bad", for example. But there are
  ways in which it is also the case with respect to
  how I organize and group features of the world --
  whether those I perceive as part of "my people"
  (tribe, ethnic group, peer group, etc) or those
  most definitely not ("aliens" , etc). There are
  ways in which people with whom I regularly
  interact carry significance which derives
  primarily from what I project onto them -- as the
  psychotherapeutic professions spend much time in
  demonstrating. And of course, physicists delight
  in pointing out how objects like a "table" (which
  are particular configurations of atoms) acquire
  the shape on which we agree through a very
  complex process. Hence the interest in the social
  construction of reality.
• The approach taken here assumes that the
  challenge of the times may be associated more
  with how they are understood rather than what
  they are understood to be -- more with how they
  condition, and are determined by, thinking and
  less with the effects they appear individually to
  produce.

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Networking

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.org/andr
  eas/blog/archives/2003_08.html000118
• The problem for transnational organizations is to
  develop a way of increasing the dynamism and
  strength of their networks without retreating to
  the unsuccessful formula of the coordinating
  umbrella body -- which is probably following the
  dinosaurs into social history. The following
  sections attempt to identify some characteristics
  of the new approach required. The challenge is to
  develop in formation systems which facilitate and
  catalyze (rather than organize) the development
  of such networks to the benefit of all
  participating bodies and the social system within
  which they function.

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Complex Systems and the Blackout

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.org/andr
  eas/blog/archives/2003_08.html000116

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8.14 Group dysfunction

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.org/andr
  eas/blog/archives/2003_08.html000117
• Qualities Each person is much appreciated by the
  others for their personal qualities and skills --
  although each has very strong reservations about
  the limitations and blindspots associated with
  these skills Interpersonal skills Each person
  favours, and uses very skilfully, a different
  interpersonal style -- which others appreciate in
  many situations but find totally inappropriate in
  othersConflict avoidance Each person has
  particular skills for avoiding overt conflict or
  engaging in ways they do not personally favour
  effectively undermining consensus on collective
  action or discussion of these issuesVision
  Each person has particularly valuable insights
  into the way forward and a vision of a desirable
  future but is effectively blind or indifferent
  to the insight and vision of othersArticulation
  Each person has unusual skills in articulating
  the way forward and its associated opportunities
  but has limited capacity to appreciate the
  articulation of others, notably because of
  failure by their proponents to acknowledge the
  limitations of such alternative articulations

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8.10 Why visualize Information

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.org/andr
  eas/blog/archives/2003_08.html000104
• The information revolution, a late 20th and 21st
  century phenomenon, promised to transform our
  social, economic, and political lives. Not only
  has the amount of information expanded rapidly
  but, in addition, the cost to access that
  information has dropped even faster. A number of
  technological changes are driving this
  revolution, including the dramatic improvement in
  computer speed and storage capacity, and
  communications bandwidth, as well as advances in
  the production, retrieval, and distribution of
  information.
• In the past, a process of "natural selection"
  prevented the publication of all but the most
  important information because of the difficulty,
  time and cost of its dissemination. However, at
  the very time in history when we live in an
  environment in which information is increasingly
  available and accessible, we are now overwhelmed
  with more data than we can sensibly process. We
  are losing our ability to comprehend data.
  Information has become too chaotic and voluminous
  to be retrieved and analyzed. Data, so carefully
  and extensively collected and stored, becomes
  functionally worthless. Such information smog is
  entropic unless managed effectively

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8.08 Seeking Uncommon Ground

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.org/andr
  eas/blog/archives/2003_08.html000098
• Binary thinkingAccording to Colin Powell (16th
  September 2001), the response required of other
  governments is "yes or no". It is "binary" he
  asserts -- reflecting the "excluded middle"
  pattern that characterizes the poverty of western
  conceptualization in comparison with others. Do
  the intellectual elites of the USA genuinely
  believe that using this highly restricted
  conceptual framework is adequate to address
  cultures notably characterized by the higher
  dimensionality of three- and four-fold logics?

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Dialogue?!?!Trialogue? Quatralogue anyone???

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.org/andr
  eas/blog/archives/2003_08.html000098
• According to Colin Powell (16th September 2001),
  the response required of other governments is
  "yes or no". It is "binary" he asserts --
  reflecting the "excluded middle" pattern that
  characterizes the poverty of western
  conceptualization in comparison with others. Do
  the intellectual elites of the USA genuinely
  believe that using this highly restricted
  conceptual framework is adequate to address
  cultures notably characterized by the higher
  dimensionality of three- and four-fold logics?
• Tony Blair asserts (3 October 2001) that "It is
  to be a battle with only one outcome -- our
  victory, not theirs". Constrained by the binary
  thinking of the coalition, is he willfully
  ignorant of the other "outcomes" of previous
  conflicts undertaken with such enthusiasm -- such
  as World War I and the Gulf War (from which the
  CIA estimated that a million civilians
  subsequently died, and without removing Saddam
  Hussein)? What will be the equivalent of the
  other unforeseen outcomes in the case of the "war
  against terror"? Was the derogation of vital
  clauses in human rights treaties and legislation
  a foreseen outcome

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8.07 creating a context

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.org/andr
  eas/blog/archives/2003_08.html000095
• Much dialogue consists of presentations of
  competing perspectives which are in effect
  complementary and need to be understood together
  in a broader and more subtle framework that they
  together sustain. But when the focus is on any
  one such perspective, the existence and nature of
  that broader framework can only be brought into
  the dialogue by opposing some other perspective.
  Other than for the discussion of particulars
  which invite ready consensus, this does not make
  for an especially satisfactory dialogue process.
• The following guidelines endeavour to clarify a
  pattern of constraints through which more
  meaningful and fruitful dialogue may prove
  possible.Beyond unimaginative tinkering,
  paradigm hops and risk aversionUnless the
  imagination is stretched, it is questionable
  whether the matter is worth consideration at this
  time.

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Information of Higher Quality

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.org/andr
  eas/blog/archives/2003_08.html000096
• Increasingly I find that I have more to learn
  from how I respond to information of a higher
  quality rather than from the information content
  itself. By "higher quality" I mean integrative
  knowledge suggesting higher orderings from
  unforeseen perspectives. In particular the
  musings below are evoked by readings of recent
  issues of Network (of the Scientific and Medical
  Network). But I experience the same challenges
  with other journals and books with whose content
  I would wish to be associated.
• The Zen of Gardening allows me, gracefully, to
  allow the garden to do its own thing to a very
  high degree -- and the more I can comprehend how
  it is doing so the better. I give form to that
  ecosystem in my own consciousness. My only
  challenge is then to discover exactly what I am
  doing there and whether there is any situation in
  which I should intervene -- and how to do so, if
  I am able. This is surely the ultimate Sufi art
  -- could I but understand it

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Recent Maps
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The Book of Conflict

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.com/andr
  eas/Hugh
• "Human affairs are admittedly in a deplorable
  state. This, however, is no novelty. As far back
  as we can see, human affairs have always been in
  a deplorable state... After Darwin we know that
  we share our origin with the lower members of the
  animal kingdom, and worms as well as elephants
  have to bear their daily share of trials,
  predicaments, and ordeals. Human beings, however,
  are privileged in so far as they have to bear an
  extra load - an extra dose of tribulations
  originated daily by a group of people within the
  human race itself. This... is an unorganised
  unchartered group which has no chief, no
  president, no bylaws and yet manages to operate
  in perfect unison, as if guided by an invisible
  hand, in such a way that the activity of each
  member powerfully contributes to strenghten and
  amplify the effectiveness of the activity of all
  other members. The nature, character and
  behaviour of the members of this group are the
  subject of the following pages."

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STM-480

• See document http//siliconyogi.com/andreas/
  STM480
• This is a course for general managers AND
  technology managers, for problems where both must
  understand and work with each other more
  effectively. As with war and generals, this
  course is for issues that are too important to be
  delegated to "the experts."If you are confident
  that technology is over-hyped, or needs expertise
  but not leadership, or is too long-term and risky
  for your personal attention, this is not your
  course. This course is for those who will manage
  the "change agenda" that is increasingly wrapped
  in and around the capabilities of information
  technology and networked organizations and
  societies.

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Portland Leadership Conference

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.com/AHEC
  
• An international authority on leadership, from
  Harvard University will engage participants to
  consider, in an interactive sessionhe
  characteristics of adaptive situations, the
  dynamics of authority, stress responses of social
  systems, strategic principles of leadership and
  staying alive in a leadership role. He also
  teaches courses in leadership and conflict
  resolution at the John F. Kennedy School of
  Government. For four years he was Program
  Director at the Glencree Center for Peace and
  Reconciliation in Ireland, directing dialogue
  workshops that brought together grassroots and
  middle-ranking political party activists with the
  goal of creating an environment conducive to
  negotiation of the conflict in Northern Ireland.
  From 19957, he directed the Northern Ireland
  Inter-Group Relations Project, an initiative
  bringing together political and community leaders
  in Ireland to establish protocols for political
  dialogue. From 1997-99 he directed the Ireland-US
  Public Leadership Program at the James McGregor
  Burns Academy of Leadership, University of
  Maryland, a leadership program for
  ?mergingleaders from all the political parties
  in Ireland, North and South. During this same
  period he also directed the College Park Scholars
  Program in Public Leadership. He earned a BEd
  from Manchester University in England, an MA from
  the Irish School of Ecumenics, and an MEd and EdD
  from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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Theo Linda Dawson

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.com/Theo
  
• Dear Theo,
•  After hearing more about your work from my
  friend Alex, it became clear that I should
  inquire about any potential positions. This
  webpage is a fuller letter of introduction to
  what I know about your work thus far and a brief
  introduction to the aspects of my research that
  could be of use.  
• Knowledge Management, Leadership, and Complex
  Systems have been at the core of my work at
  Harvard and I have included links to the work
  that I have produced thus far, including papers.
  I am certain that I can be of use to your
  research and I only hope that there is sufficient
  fundings to support it.

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Inblogging

• See document http//siliconyogi.com/andreas/
  INBLOGGING
• If you can not see it how can you believe it.
  These are the unseen relationships that have
  existed without our knowing it. The shadow
  community that exists whether we acknowledge or
  not. Whether or not you communicate with the
  group you are always communicating.

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Blog Visualization

• See document http//siliconyogi.com/andreas/
  Chris

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Yo

• See document http//www.siliconyogi.com/andr
  eas/Yo
• Welcome to YO
• Yo is the world's first open source religion. We
  believe that people's beliefs must be consistent
  with their own experience and sense of what's
  right. This is the only viable path toward Truth.
  Yoan beliefs are not based on some received
  wisdom from some long-dead, special authority.
  Rather, they are based on the consensus of the
  Yoan community.
• This consensus is the foundation upon which we
  build our communities, and upon which we strive
  to improve our world. We are united in our goals
  world wide justice, environmental sanity, and
  healthier communities. In short, a sustainable
  humanity.

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Graduation

• A last gathering of everyone that we had
  come to know and the images that they took to
  help us remember a remarkable time shared here
  together.

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