So very many Berliner's seem to rate the city above Paris, London and NY. I'm wondering how you might not be aware of the status so many people see in living there! Your second comment goes right to the point though, that the Jekyll & Hyde feature of feedback loops is their special beauty and mystery at the same time.
Awareness of that is also a key to watching them do it, how they switch from multiplying good to multiplying harm in the relative "blink of an eye". It's also one of their highly predictable features. The way markets can promote a growth in wealth to a point and then beyond it's point of diminishing returns promote a growth of instability... is one that would be exceptionally profitable for us to pay close attention to, for example. The 'bitter pill' seems to be that nature changes her rules as the circumstances are altered, and we seem to define our identities in terms of which rules we believe in, and that itself is a big mistake. Phil Henshaw > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Jochen Fromm > Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2008 11:06 AM > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Strogatz and Ratti video conversation > > Who said that cities are thriving places for humans? > I live in Berlin, which is not as big as London or > Tokio, but it is loud, crowded and polluted enough. > It is more exhausting than exciting to live here. Lots > of carcinogenic and pathogenic substances in the air. > You meet every day different people in the subway. > I think in a small city people know each other > much better, although you meet less people, you > are connected with more. > > But I like the following statement from Steven Strogatz > in this interview, which leads us to "Black Swans" again: > "In the world of dynamical systems, from a mathematical > standpoint, feedback loops, especially in complex systems, > can be really scary. Because of their unintended consequences. > They can create all the beauty and richness in the world > around us as well as unforeseen horrors." > > -J. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Phil Henshaw > To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2008 3:22 PM > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Strogatz and Ratti video conversation > > The idea offered that why cities become such thriving places for humans > is > because of the intensity of noise in the connections is somewhat > fantastic. > That's really what Strogatz & Ratti are proposing, as traditional > science > has always proposed to explain what is inexplicable to it's method. > To > their credit, the one thing they seem to accurately agree on is that > science > doesn't have a clue how that would work, and that we do indeed observe > daily > that it somehow really does. > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
