Self Organizing systems

I have been trying to characterize in my own mind what characteristics a system must have to be self-organizing. This particular paper: Self-organizing systems research in the social sciences: notes that we need to move from using 'self-organizing' as a metaphor to a genuine modeling technique. Capra (1996, p. 82-83) notes that the “most important property is that it is a network pattern. … The pattern of life, we might say, is a network pattern capable of self-organization. This is a simple definition, yet it is based on recent discoveries at the very forefront of science.” There need to be concrete models, and modeling techniques in order to actually make progress in this area. Network theory, cellular automata, and so on, offer different techniques for studying these objects. As the article said, sometimes this talk of 'self-organizing' is more in the line of offering metaphors rather than actually testable hypotheses.

Creative Space:

Just a reading report on Creative Space.
To quote:we stress that creativity uses a-rational abilities of the human mind, but we try to rationally explain and analyze these a-rational abilities.

Earlier works have discussed the SECI spiral, which, I think, emphasizes the social role of knowledge, and has been noted to have an 'Oriental' emphasis. Other work in this area discusses a more 'Occidental', individual - oriented work. This particular work tries to synthese these approaches - a sort of overall map of knowledge creation is proposed, and various paths through the map offer different approaches to knowledge creation.
Personally, while I find this helpful in thinking through how different disciplines seem to use creativity, I am not sure how to actually apply it.

SpecLab @ UVA

SpecLab @ UVA work on 'pataphysical projects, among others,
treating the rules of the game, as part of the game.

The game promotes self-conscious awareness about interpretation and seeks to encourage collaborative learning. Ivanhoe facilitates the imaginative use of electronic archives and online resources in combination with traditional text-based and visual research materials

Forgotten Forefather: Paul Otlet - Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design

Forgotten Forefather: Paul Otlet - Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design: "In Otlet’s world, each user would leave an imprint, a trail, which would then become part of the explicit history of each document." As the web is now - the
behavior of users, and their usage of items has mostly no effect on how an item appears to others -
The exceptions: google: knows who you link to, and who links to you - del.icio.us - knows how people have tagged your page:

This is a fascinating article about someone I knew nothing about.

Endosymbiosis / co evolution / evolution by cooperation

For some time biologist Lynn Margulis has been arguing that evolution may proceed through close contact between close relationships between organisms. For instance,
she has argued that eukaryotic cells are the created by symbiosis between
three or four types of bacterials cells. This theory, Serial Endosymbiotic Theory of Euckaryotic Cell Evolution, (SET) has solid supporting evidence based on nucleic acid, microsructure,
and dynamics.
Margulis has also argued that evolution may proceed more through
symbiogeneis than through "natural selection".

Archaeal- eubacterial mergers in the origin of Eukarya
See Proc. Natl. Accad. Sci. USA
Vol. 93, pp. 1071-1076, February 1996 Archaeal- eubacterial mergers in the origin of Eukarya: Phylogenetic classification of life
LYNN MARGULIS

She also argues that treatment of disease may be improved by analyzing
the relationship between the parties as a faulty symbiosis,
Endosymbioses: cyclical and
permanent in evolution
Lynn Margulis and Michael J. Chapman
TRENDS IN MICROBIOLOGY 342 VOL. 6 NO. 9 SEPTEMBER 1998

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How does this apply in the software arena?

Software companies, of course, compete, but, may in fact also grow by incorporating complementary software units. All software grows to include a news reader, for instance. This rule may now be modified to include: all software evolves to incorporate an rss feed reader.

Those incorporated units maintain their own functions, but perform that function within the environment of the software.

Open Source software may evolve faster, perhaps, because cooperation may be
emphasized, and encouraged, in contrast to the ecosystem of competition.
see Evolution of Open Source Software