Law of Temporality of Complexity LO27305

From: AM de Lange (amdelange@gold.up.ac.za)
Date: 09/27/01


Replying to LO27297 --

Dear Organlearners,

René Post <renepost@wxs.nl> writes in the
Subject: Doing Nothing LO27297

>So your above sentence could be something like
>"Creating a simple worldview takes a short time while
>creating a complex worldview takes a long time."
>
>If this sentence is true, and I think it is, it means that
>the people with the more simple worldview are the first
>ready to act. And many times that is not desirable.

Greetings dear Rene',

Yes, I agree with you somewhat with my tongue in the cheeck. I will
explain.

But first I have to point out that we are not doing nothing here any more.
We are doing something which is so shrowded by complexity that it seems to
be like "doing nothing". We are specifically exploring what I call the LTC
(Law of Temporality of Complexity) or the relationship between complexity
and time. That is why I have changed the topic to make it easier for
retrieval from the LO-archive and later dialogues should we revisit LTC.

As I understand it the act of creating is driven by creativity ("the tail
of the fish") and guided by knowledge ("the head of the fish"). The
control loop here from the "tail to the head" is the tenet "to learn is to
create" while from the "head to the tail" it is the "back-action of a
higher order on a lower order".

To understand the LTC we should never forget the complementary dual
"integral-differential" other wise we will get as confused as a rat
swimming in a vat of wine. The complementary dual "integral-differential"
which we here should bear in mind is "knowledge-learning".

Your sentence rings true because it speaks of "worldview" which is a
"condensate" of integral knowledge rather than differential learning.

But should you have written the sentence as
"Changing a simple worldview takes a short time while
changing a complex worldview takes a long time."
it would not ring true for me. It should rather have been written as
"Changing a simple worldview takes a long time while
changing a complex worldview takes a short time."
to ring true for me.

I want to suggest to fellow learners to follow these sentences closely in
all the discussions and interviews in the media in the aftermath of the
tragedy of 11/09. Those with less complex knowledge acted first in terms
of their world view. None of these acts involved substantial changes. But
those with more complex knowledge are only now beginning to propose
substantial changes. It seems as if they act slower, but they actually act
much faster since those who acted in terms of their simple worldview has
not yet begun proposing substantial changes.

Why? The complex system changes (adapts) faster than the simple system.
Even though "worldview" is connected to "knowledge", its "change" depends
directly on learning rather than knowledge As a teacher I have observed in
thousands of learners how a learner with more complex knowledge learns
faster than a learner with less complex knowledge. The simplistic
traditional explanation is given in terms of the difference in IQ between
these two learners.

But I became increasingly aware in the anomalies between the IQ and
learning rate of many a learner that there is not a direct relation
between IQ and learning rate. Eventually it dawned upon me that the
complexity of knowledge influences both the IQ to a minor extend and the
learning rate to a major extent.

There is sense in proposing "doing nothing" so that those "doing complex
changes" can be give time to "doing something complex" which affords more
adaptivity rather than "doing something simple".

I have hesistated for a long time to speak out on the LTC because it
sounds so confusing as the previous sentence clearly illustrates.

With care and best wishes

-- 

At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa

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