- 01 May 2013 23:54
#14225907
What is the ultimate point of your analysis, and what do you wish to do? What you are describing is nothing more than society itself. It is true that human interactions, viewed as a whole, constitute a system which is greater than the sum of its parts - formally, this is called a complex adaptive system, and the properties of such systems have been studied extensively.
One of the properties of a CAS is a strong tendency towards increased complexity; it is much easier to add elements of complexity and problematic to subtract them. Taken to a certain level this can lead to system-wide fragility. There are rational ways of dealing with this and irrational ways. A rational way would be to encourage diffuse power structures with a very large number of nodal points, rather that a fewer nodes with outwardly branching structures. An irrational way would be to insist that everyone grow their own food, construct their own homes, weave their clothes. and build their furniture - this is the logical outcome of your analysis. There is no way of eliminating the systemic elements of human interaction other than by reducing individuals to isolated monads.
And even if you were to achieve such a Pol-Potian utopia, it would simply start the cycle anew. You are fighting human nature, not technology.
Wolke wrote: The technological system is a concrete ensemble, not a constructed system intended merely for descriptive analysis...
What is the ultimate point of your analysis, and what do you wish to do? What you are describing is nothing more than society itself. It is true that human interactions, viewed as a whole, constitute a system which is greater than the sum of its parts - formally, this is called a complex adaptive system, and the properties of such systems have been studied extensively.
One of the properties of a CAS is a strong tendency towards increased complexity; it is much easier to add elements of complexity and problematic to subtract them. Taken to a certain level this can lead to system-wide fragility. There are rational ways of dealing with this and irrational ways. A rational way would be to encourage diffuse power structures with a very large number of nodal points, rather that a fewer nodes with outwardly branching structures. An irrational way would be to insist that everyone grow their own food, construct their own homes, weave their clothes. and build their furniture - this is the logical outcome of your analysis. There is no way of eliminating the systemic elements of human interaction other than by reducing individuals to isolated monads.
And even if you were to achieve such a Pol-Potian utopia, it would simply start the cycle anew. You are fighting human nature, not technology.
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters. -Antonio Gramsci