Emergent thoughts for the day


  • The concept of emergence might be more useful than that of coincidence in explaining the world.


  • Self-adaptive systems work in a top-down manner. They evaluate their own global behavior and change it when the evaluation indicates that they are not accomplishing what they were intended to do, or when better functionality or performance is possible.


  • Self-organizing systems work bottom-up. They are composed of a large number of components that interact locally according to simple rules. The global behavior of the system emerges from these local interactions, and it is difficult to deduce properties of the global system by studying only the local properties of its parts.

Virgin Active


I lock up my gym gear. The locker I use for my bag is empty except for some half-used men’s perfume which I decide would be nice to have. I go into the gym. I return to find the padlock gone and the bag, so fearing theft approach the front desk. No, she replied, it was just that you were in someone else’s locker (though nothing indicated this) so we broke the lock and took your bag. “Can I have my bag please,” I said. “Can I have a new lock please,” I added. “Yes, she said, do you know how to use this kind of lock?”. “Yes, I said. In fact I was only broken into two weeks ago at home so it’s nice to get upgraded.” Then added, “Oh, by the way here’s the guy’s perfume he left in the locker.”

Suburban Mayhem


Noticed coming out of the film ‘Suburban Mayhem’ a anti-speeding poster which reminded me of something I’d seen before..Erwin Blumenfeld’s photomontage of Hitler and a skull: “One version with a jagged hole for a nose, one blank eye socket and a gaping line of teeth was exhibited in Paris in 1937 but had to be withdrawn because the German Ambassador was so incensed by it. The Germans got to see it anyway. The United States Air Force dropped millions of copies of this photograph over German cities in 1943.”

PS: The council built anti-speed islands after a kid on the block got killed by a car. Every now and then some driver fails to see them and ramps their motor rights up and onto them.

Comin’ Thro’ the Rye


In the film ‘Conspiracy Theory’ Mel Gibson’s character has many copies of ‘Catcher in the Rye’, I saw last week. The partner of Ricky Gervais reported the comic had recently finished reading the book, I read this week. But what I didn’t know was that The Catcher in the Rye, was a novel inspired in part by Burns’ poem “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye,” after attending Burns Night last night:

O, Jenny’s a’ weet, poor body,
Jenny’s seldom dry:
She draigl’t a’ her petticoatie,
Comin thro’ the rye!

Comin thro’ the rye, poor body,
Comin thro’ the rye,
She draigl’t a’ her petticoatie,
Comin thro’ the rye!

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro’ the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro’ the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need the warl’ ken?

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro’ the grain;
Gin a body kiss a body,
The thing’s a body’s ain.

Polish vodka


At my meditation class today Spanish TV journo Enrico Perez said he’d covered the looting of the MSC Napoli down in Devon. And that many of the good folk helping themselves were Polish. Funny, ’cause when I was at the IBM talk on Thursday night the speaker flashed up a slide with a quote from Polish Nobel Peace prize winner Lech Walesa saying while the West had material wealth and freedom, it lacked faith and direction. Well, the times they are a changing for sure. Anyhow looking forward to my holiday in Poland next week, must remember to bring back some souvenirs.

The Promise, the Limits and the Beauty of Software, lecture by Grady Booch, IBM


A few random thoughts following this interesting talk. Firstly, noticed one of the few things he noticed was users producing their own aps, which I was suprised at. Secondly, his interest in not just software but software systems, and how these systems interacted and their emergent properties. So I though wow, there’s a whole world dependent on software (how he saw the next decade, and the one after as the Age of Machines so James Cameron again with his forthcoming CGI film is on the zeitgeist), this brings out a whole set of unpredictable emergent properties.

And god, I know the best brains in the business at the likes of MIT and Sante Fe are working on just these thoughts, but they are by their nature working within a certain mental framework. One which does not really allow full understanding of what emergent properties impact really means at a human level. Ah what the hell at least I’ve taken out my own form of insurance, through my studies on complexity/intuition/etc – but then I’ve ‘gone native’ with ‘no direction home’ and all the safer (counter-intuitively speaking) for it. Cheers Graddy.

SMEs in the NHS


Last I heard from Margaret Hodge was in a letter about arson on our estate in Barking. Now I see she’s championing SMEs in the UK health market. Good one, I’m sure (if it happens) her suggestion woudl be well received by the likes of Headshift.

“A government minister has called for smaller tech companies to play a bigger part in the development of technology to be used in healthcare.

“Margaret Hodge, minister for industry and the regions, today said SMEs play an “absolutely crucial role”, noting their ability to tap into niche markets.”

My life of travel website


Check out the cool looking My Life of Travel website:

James Brown now dead


OK, so I just found out James Brown died on Xmas day. Day-way to go James. Not surprisingly this news did not make it to the Black Forest where I was staying. New’s today is that there moving his body to a final resting place. Apparently he recently appeared in London at the BBC Electric Proms at the newly opened Roundhouse venue, which I walked past on Sunday. Sorry I didn’t chance to see him perform.

03:26


The Verve’s ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ video from ‘Urban Hymns’ is set in Hoxton market circa 1997 I guess. At around 3.5 minutes Martin Howse walks in to the frame. Just round the corner is Trevor’s pad. I was living just up the road in De Beauvoir Road. So you could say this is the nearest I got (once removed) to being cool.