On May 6, 2011, at 5:13 PM, Russell Standish wrote:
> Internet fora are ever thus. There has been plenty of modelling
> discussion, and other more philosophical discussion on complexity
> topics. But they aren't dominant :).
Friam grew out of several roots, mainly the Bios Group and the 2000 Complex
Systems Summer School where Steve G. and I met and began coffee meetings at the
Downtown Subscription. We eventually grew enough to need a small list to
decide the next meetings etc. From there it blossomed into an international
list of folks of "like mind".
In 2000 "complexity" was a huge change in the way we think. Bottom up,
tangible, evolving, surprise, etc all parts of the equation. On the last day
of the summer school, we bought a casita here, and talked Sun Labs into my
working both in Palo Alto and in Santa Fe, via the SFI business network. Very
exciting!
But we evolve and what was then novel is now accepted. Complexity is dropping
out of the equation, replaced with a plethora of topics which seem to hang
together to redefine complexity. Social networking, for example, wasn't even a
buzz word then but then "computational social sciences" was just starting up.
So we evolve. From the roots of Friam grew the Santa Fe Complex, which is very
successful at forming effective and surprising projects. A project focus is
"complex" in and of itself, but has many concerned about "where's the
complexity now"? Go with the flow.
So no wonder our conversations have also evolved.
The delete key is but a click away!
-- Owen
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