A Brief History of Systems Science, Chaos and Complexity

By Daniel Christian Wahl, P2P Foundation Blog

On the one hand I believe it is vital to accept uncertainty, not-knowing, and unpredictability fully to the point of deep humility. On the other hand, I also believe that we need to choose to act from the conviction that we can design for positive emergence in complex systems even if it is not an exact science and we cannot know with certainty how our efforts will turn out to affect transformative change.

Connectivity becomes too dangerous: Putting manual security back into the grid

By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights

The U.S. Senate passed a bill last week that would form a government-industry working group to "examine ways to replace automated systems with low-tech redundancies, like manual procedures controlled by human operators." ... If we truly want long-term solutions to the problems that vex us in our increasingly high-tech society, then we will have to look elsewhere than the technologists.

A Science of Qualities: Experiencing the World Coming into Being & Living on the Edge of chaos

By Daniel Christian Wahl, Medium

The Science of Qualities is really an extension of conventional science in the sense that it depends upon consensus, agreement and a methodology whereby people come to recognize the agreement or the consensus they have about the qualities of experience of other beings.

The Future of Economics: From Complexity to Commons

By Paul B. Hartzog, P2P Foundation

Complexity science shows us not only what to do, but also how to do it:  build shared infrastructure, improve information flow, enable rapid innovation, encourage participation, support diversity and citizen empowerment.

The Systems View of Life – A Unifying Vision

By James Alexander Arnfinsen, Fritjof Capra, Levevei

Interview with Fritjof Capra author of The Tao of Physics (1975) and co-author of the Systems View of Life – A Unifying Vision (2014).

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The Law of Diminishing Returns

By Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute

Is modern society hitting our defining moment, the point of diminishing returns?

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Unsustainable Farming: From Bird Droppings to Corporate Agriculture

By Roger Boyd, Humanity's Test

The discovery of new lands to exploit, and new energy sources, helped reinforce the notion that human societies can always find a way around limitations upon its growth.

Hair of the dog, or, the limits of technology

By Mary Odum, A Prosperous Way Down

This post is about the hopeful idea that technology is going to save us from having to adapt to descent. A recent article describes an episode of geopiracy to geoengineer the ocean, so we're back at climate again, since this example provides particular insights and illustrations into our blindspots about the limits to growth and the limits of technology.