David Ing @daviding@qoto.org

I think that both epistemic bubbles and epistemic bunkers on social media are more a function of the self selection of whom to follow, rather than the underlying technology, @SFuntowicz .

We might compare to traditional newspapers. A regular reader is shaped by the columnists he or she reads day to day.

The federated architecture of Mastodon allows for more interest-based groups, but in practice, I find it's not the local timeline that makes the difference. It's the moderators of that instance who allow or disallow, much as there are choices about who gets published in 'letters to the editor". Boosts to a post are by followers, not by moderators, though.

Epistemic bubbles compared with epistemic bunkers by #KatherineFurman.

> In epistemic bubbles we exclude information simply as part of the normal ways we live our lives – we watch certain shows, we read certain newspapers, we speak to certain friends – and so we miss out on things just because we don’t come into contact with them. But, when we encounter new information, we still believe it. [....]

> The idea of epistemic bunkers stems from ideas in development studies on bunkerisation. In this context, it describes the creation of literal fortified and often militarized compounds for international aid workers to live in while working in hostile environments, such as war zones. They are intended to provide safety from attack, kidnapping, disease, and other ills. But they come with an epistemic cost. Bunkerised aid workers do not have much contact with local communities, making them less able to understand the context. This can be crippling to intervention efforts.

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2022/11/08/when-the-safety-of-being-right-makes-change-hard-introducing-the-epistemic-bunker/

Via @SFuntowicz

Please qoto.org to #ScienceMastodon, @josephguhlin . Thanks.

Birdsite refugees may have to learn protocols of symmetric follow of friends, or else they may get muted in Mastodon.

In 2008, the contrast with asymmetric follow was surfaced. #BenjaminEllis wrote:

> Asymmetric follow is a hack in social software to enable ‘relationships’ to scale. It is broadcast, not conversation”

@timoreilly responded:

> Not so. I follow 400; am followed by 16,000. But I respond to lots of people (like you) who I didn’t know before. Not just broadcast.”

"Asymmetrical Follow: A Core Web 2.0 Pattern" | James Governor | Dec. 8, 2008 at https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/2008/12/05/assymetrical-follow-a-core-web-20-pattern/

In a larger system of ideas, #DonellaMeadows reposted an article from #WholeEarth Review 2001.

> We can’t control systems or figure them out. But we can dance with them!

https://donellameadows.org/archives/dancing-with-systems/

Via @RuthMalan on #SystemsThinking

For fans of #PostNormalScience, @SFuntowicz is trying out a home on SDF, https://sdf.org/?tutorials/social_network .

> To the users of the SDF Public Access UNIX System, 'SDF Social' is based on the concepts and principles of the early Social Networks that we have always been a part of and not the highly commercialized, for-profit and ethically questionable Social Networks of the late 1990s and 2000s.

> Simply put, SDF has always been about Collaboration, Non-Commercialism, Choice and Privacy.

Interesting choice for a proponent of #PhilosophyOfScience !

Introduction to #OperationsResearch by #WestChurchman #RussellAckoff #LeonardArnoff was published 1957. https://archive.org/details/introductiontoo00chur/page/n7/mode/2up

Then in proposing #SystemsThinking, look forward by 22 years, in a presentation and paper to the Operations Research Society.

Ackoff, Russell L. 1979. “The Future of Operational Research Is Past.” _Journal of the Operational Research Society_ 30 (2): 93–104. https://doi.org/10.1057/jors.1979.22.

(Thanks for pointing out the archived source,
@cyetain ).

Manuka honey is for healing, not just for eating, @josh .

https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/manuka-honey-medicinal-uses

I'm noticing a delay, @JimSpohrer , between updates from the mastodon.social instance and qoto.org , that isn't evident with toots from other instances. This may be attributable to the high volume of recent signups to the largest Mastodon instance.

This may be a case for migrating to a more focused community that isn't the largest. This may be Internet thinking in federation, as compared to mainframe thinking in centralization.

Thanks for the pointer to your slides for the "Introduction to #ComplexSystems" at #WesternUniversity, @leahdriel .

Perhaps we might extend our reach with #SystemsThinking #Ontario, a little farther west? https://wiki.st-on.org/

The federated structure of Mastodon introduces a speed bump in first choosing an instance that is somewhat close to the interest of the posters, @josh . A list of suggested instances would help students.

I have previously taught courses where I required students to blog reflections. I suggested WordPress.com for those who were totally unfamiliar, with others already have hosted blogs elsewhere, or self-hosted blogs. http://coevolving.com/utoronto/201801-SystemsThinking-SystemsDesign/

On the list of science-related sites at https://fediscience.org/server-list.html , I would suggest qoto.org , @FrankSonntag .

This was the third Mastodon instance that I tried, and have been there since 2018. Moderators make a big difference! https://scholar.social/@daviding

From your photo, @marathon0, it looks like you're in Toronto to the north and west.

I'm located east of the Don River, and south of Queen Street. On bike rides into the Port Lands, there's so much construction. When done, citizens will appreciate what long term planning can do.

https://www.tumblr.com/daviding/684730597354110976/villiers-street-looking-south-new-eastern-bank?source=share