Video tapes are available, provided that the Society receives sufficient
orders in the next 30 days to make the project feasible. This is
approximately four hours of video, professionally shot with broadcast
quality equipment. (However, there has been only very minor editing and
cleanup.) The society wishes to make this valuable material available as
widely as possible.
The price is $120 for four hours on two VHS tapes. Order form down below...
I attended the lectures and have previewed the video. The quality is
excellent and the lectures are very moving. I urge anyone interested in
organizational development, learning or change to obtain these. It's a very
different examination of some of our longest-held and most basic tenants by
one of the great biological thinkers.
For those interested in autopoiesis, I think this is a valuable update on
Maturana's current thinking and expression. The lectures are suitable for
any audience and require no background in biology or autopoiesis.
Topics included and some quotes which I hope you will find intriguing:
- What is beauty that we enjoy it?
- Explanations... e.g. "What began 3,800 million years ago such that you
can say now that living systems began then?"
- Change.. and conservation. "Conservation opens the space for things to
change around what it being conserved." When seeking change, pay attention
to conservation.
- "Human history does not follow the path of resources or opportunities,
rather it follows the path of desires or, in more general terms, a path of
emotions."
- Humans and the biosphere -- Flannery shows in _The Future Eaters_ that
"we have an attitude towards the future that whatever we want is an
infinite resource, there for our taking... Stability is not the same as
equilibrium. Rather, stability means that the dynamics involved conserve
certain relations of coherence such that the system can go on in a finite
background... The challenge we face... is to create activities for finite
backgrounds."
- Three historic periods on earth: the biosphere, the homosphere, and the
robot-sphere. "The biosphere has given rise to the homosphere, which is
leading in to what I shall call the 'Robotsphere'".
- Language. Recursion.
- "Reflection is an operation that consists of treating the circumstances
in which one is as an object and looking at it." Language is the procedure
for reflection. Reflection gives rise to responsibility.
- "Love is the domain of relational behaviors through which another (a
person, being, or thing) arises as a legitimate other in coexistence with
oneself... Aggression is that domain of relational behaviors in which
another is negated as a legitimate other in coexistence with oneself."
- The "Father, why don't you love thistles?" anecdote.
- "The only emotion that expands intelligent behavior is love."
- The "Father, you are with me now!" story.
- Intelligence. Our cultural belief that intelligence is something that
some people have and others lack. From a biological point of view...
- Attention produces distortions. "Excitation and inhibition applies in
all neuronal activities, including what we call thinking... Learning a task
involves relaxation in terms of relaxing your attention, your intent of
controlling what you are doing. As you relax your attention on the doing,
but proceed in an understanding of what you do, you allow the actual doing
to take place in a manner that uses the circumstances as a reference that
guides what you are doing. As you become more relaxed, your doing becomes
more fluid, and as it becomes more fluid it becomes more pristine,... more
beautiful, more comfortable and more perfect."
- Homosphere and biosphere.
- Human identity and the robot-sphere. Robots. "When we attempt to specify
the behavior of people so that we obtain a particular result by specifying
the circumstances in which they operate we change their fundamental
congruence with the circumstances..."
- "As we release these restrictions, as we let humans be humans, without
this demand of robotization, then creativity, cooperation, conspiracy, and
co-inspiration appear. If we have the same inspiration we don't need
control, we have freedom, and we have responsibility." Comments on the
transformation story of Shell Oil Company as told by Phil Carroll, retiring
chairman.
- Social systems. Power. "Power arises in obedience." The "Stand up or I
will kill you!" anecdote.
- Responsibility and freedom. The "Why don't you kill your neighbor?" story.
- "Responsibility takes place as an experience when one is aware of the
possible consequences of what one does in relation to other human beings or
other circumstances, and one acts according to whether one wants or does
not want those consequences."
- Freedom... Do I want my wanting? Being responsible for your responsibility.
- "Authority and obedience breed irresponsibility."
- Blindness and friendship.
- "Our problem in the long run is our blindness concerning the finite
nature of the system we are embedded in."
- "Our fundamental resource is the fact that we are the kind of animal
that we are. We are the kind of animal that can enjoy beauty, that can
reflect on what we do, and act according to whether we like it or not. We
are a loving animal for whom aesthetics and ethics are a fundament of our
well-being."
(These quotes are from my own notes and from Pille Bunnell.)
To order a set of videos, see order form and instructions below.
-- Rick Karash
p.s. (I'm an elected Trustee of the Society for Organizational Learning)
----------
The two VHS video tapes are over four hours in length, and will be ready to
ship
in November. The cost is $120 per set of tapes.
Please print the order form below, and mail it with your check made payable
to "The Society for Organizational Learning" to:
SoL Publications
222 Third St. Suite 2323
Cambridge, MA 02142
Sorry, we are not able to handle credit card, phone, or e-mail orders. And,
sorry, these are US video format (NTSC) only.
Name:_______________________________________
Organization:__________________________________
Address:______________________________________
City:____________________ State:_____ Zip:______
Country:________________
Phone:_________________ FAX:____________
Email:__________________
Number of sets of tapes requested ____ X $120 = Price ____
Shipping and Handling:
Continental USA
First set = $6.00 Each additional: $1.50
Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico
First set = $8.00 Each additional $1.50
Outside North America
First set = $15.00 Each additional $2.00
Shipping and Handling Subtotal: _______
TOTAL AMOUNT DUE:__________ (Please enclose check in US $)
For any questions about this video tape offer, pls contact:
Stephen Buckley
Information Technology and Communications
The Society for Organizational Learning, New England
222 Third Street Ste. 2323, Cambridge, MA 02142
Web: www.sol-ne.org Email: sbuckley@sol-ne.org
Phone: (617) 492-8278 Fax: (617) 354-2093
Posted by: Richard Karash <Richard@Karash.com>
--Richard Karash ("Rick") | <http://world.std.com/~rkarash> Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer | email: Richard@Karash.com "Towards learning organizations" | Host for Learning-Org Discussion (617)227-0106, fax (617)523-3839 | <http://www.learning-org.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>