Feel free to distribute this announcement to anyone who might be interested. You are hereby invited to the sixteenth seminar in our new interdisciplinary series on <http://ecco.vub.ac.be> Evolution, Complexity and Cognition (ECCO):
Improving Personal Control Paul Iliano. Synthesizing cybernetic control and Apostel's worldview construction kit into a practical framework for increasing our ability to control. Abstract: Situation. Feeling in control is very satisfying. We all know it intuitively and Csikszentmihalyi's Flow concept explains it nicely. Indeed, happiness research shows personal control to be a major contributor to life satisfaction. Problem. However, the world is ever faster changing and becoming more complex. Thus, increasing personal control becomes ever more important and urgent. If our ability to control does not at least keep up with the increase in rate of change and complexity of our environment, we will experience ever greater stress. Solution. What we need is a clear, practical and effective framework for increasing personal control. As building blocks we will use both the cybernetic control model and Apostel's worldview construction kit. We will try to synthesize and translate them into a practical framework for daily operational use. Benefits. A greater ability to control will help us be better at coping with change and complexity, at understanding the world, and at seeing ways forward. At the societal level, a lack of control ability could very well be the key reason why our societies did not significantly gain in life satisfaction the last few decennia despite progress made in numerous areas. When? Next Wednesday 6th June, 2-4 pm. Where? The seminar room is B 0.036 (building B, level 0, close to the human sciences computer rooms), on the VUB Campus Etterbeek. Coffee and drinks are available. Free entrance: everybody welcome! More informations about the ECCO seminars: See http://www.knosos.be/?q=node/1666 for the up-to-date page. Best regards, Clément Vidal. _________________________________ http://clement.vidal.philosophons.com <http://clement.vidal.philosophons.com/> Evolution, Complexity and Cognition research group, Free University of Brussels. Krijgskundestraat 33. B-1160 Brussels, Belgium. +32 (0) 2 640 67 37
