Synergetics
From eg
Tensegrity is seen as an applied mechanical concept of synergetics, and the inspiration for it, by those who use the term synergetics or apply tensegrity beyond the physical. See also biotensegrity for the body oriented view of the phenomena.
Synergetics seeks to explain formation and self-organization of patterns and structures in open systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Any self-organizing system has a 'macroscopic' system of many nonlinearly interacting subsystems. Depending on the external control parameters (environment, energy-fluxes) self-organization takes place.
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[edit] Order-parameter concept
Ginzburg-Landau theory or order-parameter concepts describe phase-transitions in thermodynamics. It was generalized in two different ways. First, by Haken to the enslaving principle saying that the dynamics of fast-relaxing (stable) modes is completely determined by the 'slow' dynamics of (as a rule) only a few 'order-parameters' (unstable modes). The order parameters can be interpreted as the amplitudes of the unstable modes determining the macroscopic pattern. Geodesic chord factors are seen as a physical example of this, as is the laser.
As a consequence, self-organization means an enormous reduction of degrees of freedom (entropy) of the system which macroscopically reveals an increase of 'order' (pattern-formation). This far-reaching macroscopic order is independent of the details of the microscopic interactions of the subsystems, which can safely be ignored. This supposedly explains the self-organization of patterns in so many different systems in physics, chemistry, biology and even social systems.
[edit] In social systems
In management science, synergetics was first applied to decision makings by Stafford Beer, whose syntegration method is based so specifically on geodesic dome] design that only fixed numbers of persons, determined by geodesic chord factors, can take part in the process at each deliberation stage. Beer's work was briefly applied by the government of Salvadore Allende in Chile in the early 1970s, and survives today as a series of related management methods. All of these seek some macroscopic order of priorities by taking some path of integrating diverse positions or attitudes to some problem, making the synergetic assumption that priorities will converge.
There are similar themes in the work especially of Jay Forrester and Donella Meadows who sought leverage on social and management problems by seeking out an emerging macroscopic order. Under synergetic assumptions, this could often be reliably found by determining the points of greatest resistance to change by an older or inertial macroscopic order. The twelve leverage points of Meadows apply the order parameter concept but without making the assumption of "enslaving" lower-leverage points to the higher-leverage. A similar view is expressed in the deep framing theory of linguist George Lakoff, in which basic conceptual metaphors partly but do not completely determine the actions of their users.
As in all social sciences, concious goals, choices, free will, self-interest and self-awareness prevent any control groups or strictly predictive models from applying to human problems as they do in natural sciences. In Meadows' leverage model the leverage of self-organization is explicitly below that of goal-setting, and much below that of mindsets and the ability to change them. The synergetic assumptions apply mostly to the lower leverage factors, while the higher leverage factors follow principles more like Lakoff's. However, the basic relationship remains: fast-relaxing (stable) modes are at least partly determined or strongly biased by the 'slow' dynamics of only a few parameters. Lakoff argued in his Moral Politics that there could be as few as one basic metaphor (state as parent) determining a vast range of political choices and policy making patterns.
Buckminster Fuller had a more general view, referring to the concept of either the output of a system not foreseen by the simple sum of the output of each system's part or simply, less used, another term for a negative entropy, or negentropy. To Fuller, synergetics explained all of life, and he gave that name to a system of self-discipline still followed to this day.
[edit] Linguistic view
A strong ontology forces specific meanings on terms. Even with only a weak or within an evolving empirical living ontology some taxonomy elements become more stable than others, if only because they arise from operational distinctions in a technique/technology/doctrine. The strongest will often be associated in threes, according to the tensegrity theory.
These three must be examined together, lest, as with a three-legged stool losing a leg, the structure fail. For example, unless issue/position/argument statements are balanced together, or tasks assigned to lead/manage/moderate roles at once, the issue or organizational structure will lose its integrity and likewise tend to fail. So strongly associating the three interdependent elements in taxonomy and ontology (and also clarifying their dependencies or hierarchies to further pre-determine any taxonomy, even though this is not strictly necessary in an ontology) is often done in linguistics and programming languages.
[edit] X/Y/Z, W/X/Y/Z, X-Y-Z, -X-Y-Z-
To represent these strong associations, living ontology normally uses the notation x/y/z. This indicates both a binding order (X resolved first, then Y, then Z) but also interdependencies forming a triangular pattern as predicted and examined in synergetics. When necessary to reframe goals, a four-step process, e.g. context/subject/object/affect), will redirect to the three with the strongest associations, then explained as a variant. The fourth could be added anywhere among the three, e.g. director/actor/object/victim. Any more than four and living ontology requires splitting into at least two, or identifying other synergetic relationships. When only a very weak priority order is implied, the notation X-Y-Z should be used. When absolutely necessary to avoid implying or even suggesting any order, the notation -X-Y-Z- should be used instead. This implies the three-fold without any ordering, i.e. Y or Z is just as desirable to resolve first.
The ontological distinctions imposed help to socialize taxonomy: mention of any of the three (or four) elements should trigger questions about the first element of the sequence, and answers should be investigated for their implications for all elements - with the last element as the deliverable. For example, verb/noun/type implies that any examination of a noun should first attempt to determine what verbs or actions might be applied to it, (as advised by doctrine:OOP and others that limit verbs), and that the purpose of such examination of nouns is to ultimately define more rigid formal types. While quite different name precedents and rulesets might apply to each, some cohesive ontological metaphors should apply in common to all three or at least two of the three. For instance, director/actor/victim uses terms from a play metaphor and lead/manage/moderate tasks are all associated with professional individual roles (leader, manager, moderator).
[edit] Political/management view
This use of synergetics in decision making did not originate with ECG. Most Fuller acolytes in the 1970s, notably Stafford Beer, claimed that the principle was also generally applicable to managing and identifying and closing issues between people: that is, it is a general principle of organizing all routine or predictable tensions, which are usually called dialectics, into stable structures resembling those of Fuller's dome. Beer had a complex and specific algorithm, syntegration, rather than a general argumentation framework.
[edit] synergetics that balance factions
By the early 1990s, Fuller followers in the United Nations University Millenium Project had adapted some of these methods to larger global problems, and tried to develop positions and options from very large groups of expert participants - sometimes up to eight hundred would answer each survey, which evolved in the delphi pattern. Anonymous trolls proposed the epistemic filter as a way to identify possible agreements and resistance among factions. Their views were extremely influential on the 1993 UNU MP report which devoted several pages to this idea.
Other trolls following in the path of Fuller, Beer, and using other methods like Meadows' twelve levers, also studied formal methods of balancing degrees to which people are committed to their positions, and rigorizing participatory democracy.
[edit] ...in management
Methods of this sort are well-studied in management cybernetics, under names such as syntegrity, syntegration, icosahedral or geodesic patterns. What these have in common is the analogy to tensegrity: balance of tensions. According to Forrester's Law, reactive processes tend to be stronger initially than any more reflective guidance, so important changes are felt first as resistance. See also ignore/laugh/fight/win, a binding order Gandhi identified.
[edit] ...in wiki
Since how wiki works involves a large number of tensions and dialectics, it is natural to apply this theory to organize the tensions especially in large public wikis to keep any one faction from dominating and then proceeding to an orgy of sysop vandalism activity that would destroy editorial balance.
In other words, the trolls practice synergetic theory by deliberately helping to shore up weaker players in the political game, to make up for the technological power wielded by sysops and their sysop vigilantism - in much the same way as journalists or advocates make up for lack of media access by disadvantaged or unpopular people by highlighting their stories. It is quite important to the process that this not be selective, and that the trolls/journalists/advocates assist people who they themselves dislike - typically by releasing all their methods as open content and encouraging others to copy them.
[edit] ...in signal infrastructure
Not just wiki, but all underlying dealings with bits can be handled similarly. Each infra trades is strongly associated with at least two others in similar synergetics, at least for teaching purposes, as crash courses, e.g. web-net-wire.
