Harrison,
It seemed like you were having a problem with understanding when you
wrote the following:
"When I was confronted with what was happening in Open Space (25
years ago) it made absolutely no sense to me at all. And what makes
no sense does not lend itself to understanding. I "knew," as did
everybody else of my age, background and training -- that what
seemed to be taking place in Open Space simply could not happen.
Organization was something that we created, managed, and controlled."
There are so many theoretical frameworks that have begun to embody the
more adaptive systems thinking required maybe not to fully understand,
but to start to improve our models of organization not something as
something we impose - but something that we can nurture, cultivate, or
just open ourselves to experience.
It seems like this thread has been about understanding
self-organization. I love that you brought something from Quantum
Mechanics that "somebody's formulation was good, but not crazy enough to
be true." This reminds me of the Tao Te Ching. The Tao that can be
spoken is not the true Tao.
It reminds me a lot of what you wrote in Spirit, and which you mentioned
in your TED talk. Story tellers don't tell the truth. But in the story,
truth emerges. Probably between the words.
If we can hold our theories in the same fashion as "a likely story",
maybe we'll start being able to tell better stories (theories).
Harold
On 1/10/14 5:08 PM, Harrison Owen wrote:
Harold -- I have no problem with "understanding." Good and useful
enterprise. Question is: Understanding of what? And in what frame or
context. I think we have come to a point where we "understand" Jthat
there are multiple logics, each appropriate to different senses of
reality. Newtonian Physics really does work. AND Quantum Mechanics
was/is crazy. In fact one of the framers of Quantum Mechanics
(Heisenberg I think) remarked that that somebody's formulation was
good, but not crazy enough to be true. Or something. I think we may
be at a similar paradigm/shift point. We'll see how it all turn out.
