Maturana and Varela use structural coupling at the "indiivual" before the 
"individual in context" before "group" before "control structures," e.g. "mind."

davew


On Wed, Oct 28, 2020, at 2:48 PM, Prof David West wrote:
> A simple — stymergic — example. Write down your waking blood sugar measure; 
> then everything you eat and the time you ate it; two hours after each intake, 
> measure and record your sugar level; and finally, your sugar level as you 
> retire to bed. Do this for several weeks. Your behavior will change in 
> detail, to your betterment. You do not even need to look at what you wrote 
> down or analyze it in any fashion. There is some degree of talisman magic in 
> knowing that the recordings are stored somewhere and available for review if 
> you ever wanted to, or if your clinician wanted to use it as data to develop 
> a hypothesis.
> 
> Since you brought up the word and seem to think it has some meaning — I have 
> never understood stymergy because it seems to be grounded in the notion that 
> an organism is separate/apart from its environment. My understanding of 
> reality would assert that each are constant and simultaneous co-mediators of 
> each other. (Actually they are the same thing and any apparent 
> differentiation is just illusion.)
> 
> The entire concept of autopoeisis and structural coupling, as I understand 
> it, would seem to be an example of "something at a higher order improving 
> itself by arranging its parts."
> 
> davew
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Oct 28, 2020, at 1:32 PM, [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

>> [email protected]

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

>> 

>>  

>>  

>> 

>> *From:* Friam <[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]>
>> *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]> 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]
>>> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Friam <[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]>
>>> 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]> On Behalf Of ? glen
>>> Sent: Monday, September 14, 2020 7:18 PM
>>> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[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]> 
>>> 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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