Homelessness, an Initial Inquiry

Homelessness is a persistent problem in US cities and elsewhere. Homelessness should not be viewed in isolation, as it is coupled with health, career, family and socio-economic context. Recent innovations in approach to addressing homelessness and associated problems in…

Emergence in human groups:

Chemicals assemble into cells.

Cells assemble into organs.

Organs into people and people into families and other groups.

Who tells the chemicals how to organize?

Some radical ideas to explore

Based, in part, on current reading — “Complexity and the Social Sciences: The State of the Art” by Byrne and Callaghan.

Science is not neutral. Because it’s done by humans, it has a point of view. Scientists are not neutral.

I think this is a really apt metaphor. (Also loving reading your words again and so glad you’re blogging this.) You’re right; there is no single “boss” signal really telling the body to assemble. No one thing snaps its fingers and it’s done. The formation of a system is the result of slow and consistent communication between a bunch of little signal…

Barbara Holtmann: Complex Systems Designer

Life Lessons from the Women of TEDxJohannesburg

(Article 4/20 in the series)

August is Women’s Month in South Africa. To celebrate, we’re conducting long-form interviews with 20 women who have spoken at…