Well, it would be hard for me to draw the picture of what the local Santa Fe FRIAM community 'does', but it's often that a complex system retains it's original concept and develops from that idea by addition and adjustment as it grew. It may have reached a stable form or have a stability only of wandering perhaps, and says a lot about it. Using that 'story form' is one good way to describe a complex system that gives people a well ordered ladder of both insights and open questions that they can then plug into as they like.
Phil From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Nicholas Thompson Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 2:32 AM To: friam@redfish.com Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [FRIAM] The quintessence of complexity thinking All, Colleagues at my former institutution have asked me to provide a reading or other ...... representation .... that can be consumed in less than an hour that would give a sense of what it is "we" do in Friam, in Santa Fe, etc. Hopefully not words ABOUT it but an example OF it, if you see what I mean, but we might have to settle for words. If you had ONE SHOT at turning a colleague into a complexitist, what would you do with him/her. Does FRIAM have some suggestions???? A related question in my mind: if agent-based-models come closest to capturing the essense of complexity thinking, WHY? Discuss. I will collect your responses and forward them on to Worcester. Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Research Associate, Redfish Group, Santa Fe, NM ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
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