The bite causes the irritation causes the itch causes the slap causes the 
removal of the mosquito.   And the slap causes the mosquito to be gone and 
relieves the irritation.  So that is definitely downward causation.  But this 
is all in the context of a complex organization that has already been assembled 
and “designed” for self maintenance.  To it begs the question I was [ineptly] 
trying to ask.  How do such control systems get assembled in the first place if 
NOT through the mediation of group selection?

 

N

 

 

I suppose that the local irritation causes the itch is upward causation, that 
“itch” is a state of the whole.  

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

 <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]

 <https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/> 
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Frank Wimberly
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 1:37 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Getting You Libertarians' Goats

 

Scratching oneself?  I'm not trying to be a pain.

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz, 
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

 

On Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 1:32 PM <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:

If one allows stygmergy as a form of downward causation, I can understand it.  
So I guess I am looking for the simplest kind of example of self assembly: 
i.e., where something of a higher order improves itself by improving the 
arrangement of its parts.  Or places constraints on its parts to be good for 
itself. There may be a thousand examples.  I just can’t think of one that 
doesn’t involve group selection.  

 

N

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

 <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]

 <https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/> 
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

From: Friam <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On 
Behalf Of Frank Wimberly
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 1:16 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> >
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Getting You Libertarians' Goats

 

I'm not Marcus but a classical example is mental events causing physical 
events.  Note the use of mental language.

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz, 
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

 

On Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 1:12 PM <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:

Marcus, 

 can't claim to understand you fully, here, but your use of the word, 
sovereignty, made me think you might have something to contribute to a quandary 
I found myself in recently.  I was on a zoom with a bunch of people.  First 
they talked about emergence, and I figured I understand that.  Wimsatt: a 
property is emergent if it is a property of a whole that depends on the order 
or arrangement of the parts.  So, the ability of sticks to bear weight depends  
on their arrangement as triangles.   So far, so good.  But then the began to 
talk about "downward" causation, and I realized that I did not know, nor have I 
ever known, what people mean by "downward" causation.  Do you have some simple 
models of it in mind that even I could understand? 

Nick 
Nicholas Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
Clark University
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> 
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/



-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On 
Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2020 9:17 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> >
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Getting You Libertarians' Goats

Using statistical mechanics to inspire a stable and universal functional form 
that evolves in time is one way to make a model of social systems.   But even 
with that for model of the physical world, there are many possible models for 
control systems that could layer on top of it.   If there are no shared concept 
types in these different models, there's nothing to do but go back to 
simulating the physics to determine what could happen next.   Simulating these 
physics takes energy that is of no discernable value to users of any one model 
so at some point there will be conflict over that energy.    The Libertarian 
claims that there is something in common between the users of these models, but 
it is nothing more than story that serves her purposes.   There is no reason 
not to violate her sovereignty if the reward/risk is acceptable.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On 
Behalf Of ? glen
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2020 7:18 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> >
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Getting You Libertarians' Goats

Well, sure. But the assumptions and simplifications are piling up fast. With 
anarcho-capitalism, I was trying to suggest a governing system that relies on 
as few assumptions as possible. And my sense is that social democracy relies on 
more assumptions (like the existence of stable functional forms).

On September 14, 2020 6:13:33 PM PDT, Marcus Daniels <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:
>It depends whether you think of "static" as some circumscribed state or 
>"static" as a fixed functional form.  (The latter still allowing for a
>dynamical system.)   The appropriation/application of the notion of a
>"phase transition" would probably argue for the fixed functional form 
>on the basis of physics.

--
glen ⛧

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