Re: Thinking about the Rosennean challenge

[Dan Fiscus <***>]

Jack,

These links/docs are great. The PDF is so perfect for
what I need right now - also working in Appalachia,
also seeking ways to use networks for sustainability,
etc. Thanks a ton!

I think I agree with you when I say that rather than
argue with physics (or with anyone for that matter),
as if to seek some external validation for Rosennean
complexity and relational systems theory, why not go
on ahead and self-validate, assert that we know and
believe this stuff to have value and validity (both have
some word root meaning, re: strength and power)
and get on with starting to embody/realize/instantiate
these values and models as we build something new
and real and of benefit to ourselves and maybe others.

Maybe BioTheory is that sort of action, but I wonder
if there are other direct actions we could do?

Dan


Jack Park wrote:

> My friend, Tom Munnecke, gave two links in another forum on the web. 
> They are:
>
> http://www.orgnet.com/BuildingNetworks.pdf
> and
> http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/netgroup.htm
>
> I see some connections between these two URLs and the challenge Judith 
> poses to this community. The connections are based, I think, on the 
> notion that we, here, are busy taking on the physics community, when, 
> at the same time, others are already doing things that are 
> intrinsically, and intensely relational in nature, and without benefit 
> of any ideas about what is the core subject of this forum. I strikes 
> me that the road ahead lies more in the ground-breaking science, or 
> lack of it, that is now the web, the communities (read: organisms) 
> forming on that web, and in the learning opportunities that arise 
> within and between those communities.
>
> I think that I am suggesting that the time has past to attempt to 
> enlighten physists (if, indeed, that is necessary, sufficient, or even 
> a logical goal one might place on a challenge). Rather, I think,  the 
> time has come for the arguments and the technology, which one imagines 
> Rosennean Complexity to embrace, to be taken, in a down and (not too) 
> dirty, hands-on fashion, to an environment in which the nature of 
> entrenched sensibilities has yet to mature. In the spirit of 
> emergence, I think the rest will take care of itself.
>
> Jack


--

Dan Fiscus
Ecologist/Research Assistant
Appalachian Laboratory
University of Maryland C.E.S.
301 Braddock Road
Frostburg, MD 21532   USA

email: ***
phone: 301-689-7121
fax: 301-689-7200
http://al.umces.edu/~fiscus/research