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How is it possible to design for a desired emergence within and between active human agents in social systems?
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Memes
as mental frames and
cognitive templates
Design for desired emergence
Øyvind Vada www.memetor.com/team/vada
http://ecco.vub.ac.be/
ECCO Seminar, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). April 4th 2014
”The ECCO perspective encompasses both the most
abstract realms of ontology, epistemology and
metaphysics, and the most concrete methods to
solve problems in everyday life, organizations,
technology, and society.” (Heylighen, 2011)
Strategy in Action
Ideals and principles
for my work
• Simplicity
• Essence
• Clarity
Philosophic and Scientific Point of Departure
How
is it possible
to design for
a desired emergence
within and between
active human agents
in social systems?
Philosophic and Scientific Point of Departure
• Evolution
• Darwin 1859, Veblen 1898, Schumpeter 1911, Alchian 1950
Boulding 1961, Campbell 1965, Aldrich 1979, Mckelvey 1982,
Heylighen 1991, Heylighen 2007c
• Complexity
• Ashby 1956, Simon 1957, 1962, Bertalanffy 1968, Prigozhin &
Stengers 1986, Kaufmann 1993, Holland 1992, 1996, Axelrod
& Cohen, 1999, Heylighen 2002, 2008
Philosophic and Scientific Point of Departure
• Cognition
• Campbell 1974 , Heylighen 1990, Thagard 1996, Varela, F. J.,
Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. 1991, Heylighen, Rosseel &
Demeyere (eds.) 1990, Heylighen , Heath , Van 2004
• Pragmatism
• Sanders-Peirce 1878, 1888, James 1890, Mead 1934, Dewey
1938, Rorty 1979
How
is it possible
to design for
a desired emergence
within and between
active human agents
in social systems?
Active human agents
Active human agents
• Individual human beings in social systems are in my work treated as active human agents.
• Active human agents are in my work treated as:
• Reflexive: more or less self conscious and conscious of the effects they make
• Free and goal-directed entities that maximize utility, benefit and/or fitness.
• They act in their environment and interact with each other according to certain rules, determined by their goals and knowledge (Heylighen 2009:6).
Active human agents
• Have cognitive limitations.
• Cannot foresee all global or long-term effects of their actions.
• Apply their rationality to what they perceive to be the choices available to them.
• Are bounded rational (Simon 1957).
Active human agents
• “Strategy in action” includes coordinating and
steering individual human agents – governance.
• Agents have intents for their actions, both local
and individual and “global” and collective on
behalf of the social system they participate in
optimizing (the company, the department, the
team).
• In most social system there is a balance between
Distributed Power (among the agents) and Central
Power (Management or Government)
Adaption and change
Lead and follow
How
is it possible
to design for
a desired emergence
within and between
active human agents
in social systems?
Social system
• A prerequisite of a social system is interaction of at least two agents.
• On the other end of the scale we can treat all individuals on the globe as a social system.
• What constitutes a social system?
Social Systems as CAS
• In Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS)… ”structures
tend to be fuzzy, variable and to an important
degree subjective [Gershenson & Heylighen,
2004; Heylighen, Cilliers & Gershenson, 2007]:
different observers will typically distinguish or
emphasize different components, boundaries or
relationships. ” (Heylighen 2011)
Social System
How
is it possible
to design for
a desired emergence
within and between
active human agents
in social systems?
Design
• to have as a purpose : an intent
How
is it possible
to design for
a desired emergence
within and between
active human agents
in social systems?
Desire
To want
Emergence
• In social systems, emergence is a consequence of the local
interaction between agents.
• Creativity, learning and change occur when emergence forms a
new solutions to a problem and creates new outcomes.
• Emerge: to become
• Emergence refers to changes that occurs within a system in a non-
linear way.
• Self-organization: the spontaneous emergence or evolution of
coordination in a complex adaptive system [Heylighen, 2002].
How
is it possible
to design for
a desired emergence
within and between
active human agents
in social systems?
Within and betweenactive human agents
• Within agents: Human beings (Indviduals)
• Between agents: Social System (Collective)
Black box and white box
• Black box: A system viewed in terms of its input,
output transfer characteristics without any
knowledge of its internal workings
• White box: A system viewed in terms of its
internal workings that can be accessed and
understood
How
is it possible
to design for
a desired emergence
within and between
active human agents
in social systems?
How
• By treating:
• indvidual agents as black boxes
• social systems as white boxes
• memes as forms and cognitive templates for open
interpretation
Memes
• Memes can be regarded as sustainable information units
• Memes can be regarded as signs and objects that influence and form agents in their social systems, and spread successfully
• Memes are naturally selected and adapted by agents based on “competition” of their consciousness.
• The fittest and best-adapted memes will have a better diffusion than the ones who do not fit into the social systems they are “competing”
Memetics
• An approach to perception, thought,
communication and social action.
• Derived from evolution and complexity
• Uses the same research programme as genetics
studying social diffusion and adaptation of signs
and objects among active human agents
Memetor Memes
• In my work memes are treated as tools, mental
frames and cognitive templates that form and
process agents actions
• I treat memes as forms/templates as opposed to
content
• 123 memes are created for taking individual and
collective strategies into action
Memetor Memes
Memetor Memes Criteria
• Individual and collective applicable and relevant in
all social systems and within different time frames
• Connective, Complementary and Reinforcing
• Generic, Replicable and Evolving
How:
The process of infusion
• The Memetor Memes are infused into defined social systems
through different development programs facilitated by one or more
Memetor facilitators.
• The Memetor Programs use both the physical and digital space to
achieve high levels of interaction, and create a social dynamic
where the agents share thoughts and perceptions in continuously-
changing small groups.
• The trainers use lectures, dialogues, reflections, practical activities
and exercises to make the memes accessible for individual
selection.
• The memes selected are the ones that fits best to the challenges
and tasks at hand in the social system.
The core of my work
• Governance by letting
• Active Human Agents’ interpret predefined Memetor
memes through facilitation
• This influence how they perceive and process
• themselves and others
• their social system(s), and
• the social system(s) context(s),
• This in turn impact how they act, both individually
and together.
Thank you
