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green swans

Prof David West
Just ordered, hardcover (two weeks before it gets here probably) and kindle (will read later today.) Looks very interesting but will send review later.

https://www.amazon.com/Green-Swans-Coming-Regenerative-Capitalism/dp/1732439125/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1588678839&sr=8-1-spons

"If Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "Black Swans" are problems that take us exponentially toward breakdown, then "Green Swans" are solutions that take us exponentially toward breakthrough. The success--and survival--of humanity now depends on how we rein in the first and accelerate the second."

davew

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Re: green swans

thompnickson2
Hi, [again] David

The idea of breakthrough suggests that "we" know where "we" are going.   In
my life time, we have had a zillion breakthrough's only to screw things up
again through overpopulation and greed.  There is no breakthrough that does
not include our some how agreeing that, say, one car, or one house, or,
even, one child, one wife,  is ... enough.  Somehow aspiration has to be
decoupled from the environment.  This is where you Buddhists come in, no?  

I am afraid Taleb is just going to be a feeder of dinosaurs.  

N

Nicholas Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
Clark University
[hidden email]
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
 


-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Prof David West
Sent: Tuesday, May 5, 2020 5:45 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [FRIAM] green swans

Just ordered, hardcover (two weeks before it gets here probably) and kindle
(will read later today.) Looks very interesting but will send review later.

https://www.amazon.com/Green-Swans-Coming-Regenerative-Capitalism/dp/1732439
125/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1588678839&sr=8-1-spons

"If Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "Black Swans" are problems that take us
exponentially toward breakdown, then "Green Swans" are solutions that take
us exponentially toward breakthrough. The success--and survival--of humanity
now depends on how we rein in the first and accelerate the second."

davew

.-. .- -. -.. --- -- -..-. -.. --- - ... -..-. .- -. -.. -..-. -.. .- ...
.... . ...
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Re: green swans

Frank Wimberly-2
One child?  I thought you got SS payments.

On Tue, May 5, 2020 at 9:57 AM <[hidden email]> wrote:
Hi, [again] David

The idea of breakthrough suggests that "we" know where "we" are going.   In
my life time, we have had a zillion breakthrough's only to screw things up
again through overpopulation and greed.  There is no breakthrough that does
not include our some how agreeing that, say, one car, or one house, or,
even, one child, one wife,  is ... enough.  Somehow aspiration has to be
decoupled from the environment.  This is where you Buddhists come in, no? 

I am afraid Taleb is just going to be a feeder of dinosaurs. 

N

Nicholas Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
Clark University
[hidden email]
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/



-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Prof David West
Sent: Tuesday, May 5, 2020 5:45 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [FRIAM] green swans

Just ordered, hardcover (two weeks before it gets here probably) and kindle
(will read later today.) Looks very interesting but will send review later.

https://www.amazon.com/Green-Swans-Coming-Regenerative-Capitalism/dp/1732439
125/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1588678839&sr=8-1-spons


"If Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "Black Swans" are problems that take us
exponentially toward breakdown, then "Green Swans" are solutions that take
us exponentially toward breakthrough. The success--and survival--of humanity
now depends on how we rein in the first and accelerate the second."

davew

.-. .- -. -.. --- -- -..-. -.. --- - ... -..-. .- -. -.. -..-. -.. .- ...
.... . ...
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam unsubscribe
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--
Frank Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz
Santa Fe, NM 87505
505 670-9918

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Re: green swans

Steve Smith
In reply to this post by Prof David West
Dave -

Thanks for the reference (and promise of a book report?).

I take the meaning of "black swan" to be something more easily
recognized in hindsight, but once recognized, seeming to be obvious, but
also having a profound effect on the course of events.

I think this is identical to a bifurcation in the phase space of a
dynamical system?   Dynamical systems, whilst (usually?) entirely
deterministic, are also unprestateable.    The most efficient way to
predict the system's behaviour is to execute it.

The point of the Dave's book, as described in various reviews (e.g.
Goodreads) suggests that the topic is primarily a growing awareness from
hard-line capitalists that there are features of the reward space that
are outside of their usual criteria, and many of them are those USUALLY
reserved for bleeding-heart tree-huggers (aka Greens).  

There seems (in reviews) to be *some* cynicism suggesting that "green
swan" technologies or strategies are maybe only
relevant/important/necessary because of public sentiment (being *forced*
by public sentiment/popular support/political correctness) rather than
because (western/American?) capitalism's seemingly necessary exponential
growth is hitting the true limits to growth that make that seeming
exponential a logistic.

A lot of the criticism of the likes of Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg
has been that they "came late to the Green Party" (and many would
rightly say that Bloomberg really isn't even half there).  Both have
defended "better late than never"...

FWIW...  I did watch the "Planet of the Humans" which makes similar
accusations against the likes of Al Gore and Bill McKibben.   Not so
much that they came *late* to the party, but that they came *lite* to
it.  I suspect the film-maker (Moore just bankrolled it and put his name
on it, he didn't seem to contribute much to it's making) would be really
hard on "green swan Capitalists".    Off topic slightly, the movie did
have a lot of half-truths and out-of-context cheap shots, but the bottom
line (IMO) wasn't that far off.   Letting the same economic-industrial
stakeholders that maybe drove our ecology/climate right up to the edge
of a cliff, now take over and drive "Green Technologies"  might be the
definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results).   It was *more* than just judging
industrial sustainability movement as greenwashing... 

I'm curious what your (Dave's) stake in this is?  Do you feel that our
current capitalistic-industrial arc is patently unsustainable (and on
what time scale)?  And do you believe that in spite of the differences
you (and many others) might have with
bleeding-heart-liberal-tree-huggers, that maybe there is more common
ground than you recognized?  Something to work across the aisle (gulf)
on?   Or are the fundamental sensibilities of "the opposition" too
distorted?  

- Steve

> Just ordered, hardcover (two weeks before it gets here probably) and kindle (will read later today.) Looks very interesting but will send review later.
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Green-Swans-Coming-Regenerative-Capitalism/dp/1732439125/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1588678839&sr=8-1-spons
>
> "If Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "Black Swans" are problems that take us exponentially toward breakdown, then "Green Swans" are solutions that take us exponentially toward breakthrough. The success--and survival--of humanity now depends on how we rein in the first and accelerate the second."
>
> davew
>
> .-. .- -. -.. --- -- -..-. -.. --- - ... -..-. .- -. -.. -..-. -.. .- ... .... . ...
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam
> unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ 


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Re: green swans

Prof David West
Steve, "my interest in this ..."

The company I was (am) starting in Amsterdam is dedicated to the idea of using software to make the world a better place. We will only work with companies that are value driven, committed to environmental and social good, and are human affirming (e.g. empowering employees).

Large companies like Patagonia, B Corp certified companies, and what are called "Teal Organizations" are our target clients. There are far more of these in Europe than the US.

Behind the scenes are two primary convictions — first, that IT as currently designed and implemented is unsustainable (I authored a Medium article [attached] about this several months ago); and second that software engineering is exactly the wrong way to go about developing software (not to mention that the entire discipline is predicated on the assumption that human beings — including programmers — are idiots and little more than sources of error).

Our approach to developing software has significant economic benefits for our clients; plus, we can develop "living" software that adapts and evolves in concert with the organization it supports. We have little interest in using these tools to support predatory capitalistic companies.

dave(Quixote)w



On Tue, May 5, 2020, at 8:14 PM, Steven A Smith wrote:

> Dave -
>
> Thanks for the reference (and promise of a book report?).
>
> I take the meaning of "black swan" to be something more easily
> recognized in hindsight, but once recognized, seeming to be obvious, but
> also having a profound effect on the course of events.
>
> I think this is identical to a bifurcation in the phase space of a
> dynamical system?   Dynamical systems, whilst (usually?) entirely
> deterministic, are also unprestateable.    The most efficient way to
> predict the system's behaviour is to execute it.
>
> The point of the Dave's book, as described in various reviews (e.g.
> Goodreads) suggests that the topic is primarily a growing awareness from
> hard-line capitalists that there are features of the reward space that
> are outside of their usual criteria, and many of them are those USUALLY
> reserved for bleeding-heart tree-huggers (aka Greens).  
>
> There seems (in reviews) to be *some* cynicism suggesting that "green
> swan" technologies or strategies are maybe only
> relevant/important/necessary because of public sentiment (being *forced*
> by public sentiment/popular support/political correctness) rather than
> because (western/American?) capitalism's seemingly necessary exponential
> growth is hitting the true limits to growth that make that seeming
> exponential a logistic.
>
> A lot of the criticism of the likes of Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg
> has been that they "came late to the Green Party" (and many would
> rightly say that Bloomberg really isn't even half there).  Both have
> defended "better late than never"...
>
> FWIW...  I did watch the "Planet of the Humans" which makes similar
> accusations against the likes of Al Gore and Bill McKibben.   Not so
> much that they came *late* to the party, but that they came *lite* to
> it.  I suspect the film-maker (Moore just bankrolled it and put his name
> on it, he didn't seem to contribute much to it's making) would be really
> hard on "green swan Capitalists".    Off topic slightly, the movie did
> have a lot of half-truths and out-of-context cheap shots, but the bottom
> line (IMO) wasn't that far off.   Letting the same economic-industrial
> stakeholders that maybe drove our ecology/climate right up to the edge
> of a cliff, now take over and drive "Green Technologies"  might be the
> definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over again and
> expecting different results).   It was *more* than just judging
> industrial sustainability movement as greenwashing... 
>
> I'm curious what your (Dave's) stake in this is?  Do you feel that our
> current capitalistic-industrial arc is patently unsustainable (and on
> what time scale)?  And do you believe that in spite of the differences
> you (and many others) might have with
> bleeding-heart-liberal-tree-huggers, that maybe there is more common
> ground than you recognized?  Something to work across the aisle (gulf)
> on?   Or are the fundamental sensibilities of "the opposition" too
> distorted?  
>
> - Steve
>
> > Just ordered, hardcover (two weeks before it gets here probably) and kindle (will read later today.) Looks very interesting but will send review later.
> >
> > https://www.amazon.com/Green-Swans-Coming-Regenerative-Capitalism/dp/1732439125/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1588678839&sr=8-1-spons
> >
> > "If Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "Black Swans" are problems that take us exponentially toward breakdown, then "Green Swans" are solutions that take us exponentially toward breakthrough. The success--and survival--of humanity now depends on how we rein in the first and accelerate the second."
> >
> > davew
> >
> > .-. .- -. -.. --- -- -..-. -.. --- - ... -..-. .- -. -.. -..-. -.. .- ... .... . ...
> > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam
> > unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
> > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ 
>
>
> .-. .- -. -.. --- -- -..-. -.. --- - ... -..-. .- -. -.. -..-. -.. .-
> ... .... . ...
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam
> unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ 
>
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