Category: Systems theory

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Digital Economy is capitalism at its worst

It is one pf the promises of digital transformation to bring equality and wealth to both producers and users of material and non-material goods, services, etc. It seems that the WWW and  new technologies provide openness and better accessibility for everyone; however, the self-reinforcing (feedback and exponential) dynamics of algorithms fosters a (n economy of) monoculture and promotes only a relatively small group of “winners” (winner-takes-all dynamics). Actually, it gates access and advances bias. The speed and frictionlessness of these technologies even increase the divide between winners and losers in this game.

Only breaking up this monoculture and replacing it by sustainable ecosystems with a high degree of diversity may change this misguided dynamics of digital economy.

see article by Douglas Rushkoff: https://medium.com/team-human/the-digital-economy-is-capitalism-at-its-worst-230b2eeb38d4

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How to make uncertainty your friend

In this conversation Margaret Heffernan offers a critical perspective on our assumption and obsession that we can control (almost) everything. We are living in an age of big data, machine/deep learning, etc. pretending that we can predict almost everything and that these predictions empower us to control reality. M.Hefferman seriously questions these assumptions and shows how we could possibly deal and embrace uncertainty in an optimistic and future-oriented manner.

see:
https://dldnews.com/managing-uncertainty-margaret-heffernan-dld-sync/
https://youtu.be/EyPEvPllsPg


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Dancing with systems in unpredictable complex situations

What can we learn from  COVID-19 crisis and almost every other bigger crisis?
We are not in control, at least not to such a degree as we have thought.

The solution is not despair or fight against something that can be barely changed, but to assume a humble and open attitude, to try to “dance with the system”.

Have a look at Donella Meadows´ really inspiring ideas about dealing with complex unpredictable systems by way of “dancing with the system”

→ http://donellameadows.org/archives/dancing-with-systems/

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Towards a culture of flourishing. Reflections on designing our complex future with machines, exponentiality, and singularity

How should we design our futures? What is the role of technology, and, more specifically, of Artificial Intelligence and cognitive technologies in this context?

In his manifesto “Resisting Reduction”, Joichi Ito points us a way—not blindly following the “new religion” of singularity and exponentiality—into a future that is taking seriously the insights from complex adaptive systems and second-order cybernetics. He describes how we can transform complex, self-adaptive systems by intervening not primarily with a strategy of problem solving and optimizing, but by following a more organic and evolutionary approach aiming at regulating growth, increasing diversity and complexity, and enhancing the system´s  own resilience, adaptability, and sustainability. It turns out that changing parameters or even rules is not nearly as powerful as changing the system’s purpose, goals, and paradigms, if we want to engage in creating a culture of flourishing.

https://jods.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/resisting-reduction