David Ing @daviding@qoto.org

Racial bias in AI models now sees IBM ethically prioritizing social responsibility ahead of technological capability. We can, but should we? Are responses on Twitter indicative of Silicon Valley morality? https://twitter.com/TechCrunch/status/1270159828980248584

A 1989 book celebrating "#EricTrist in Canada", with a chapter by David Morley (Dean, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University (Toronto), 2001-2004), filled in gaps between 1965 #FredEEmery "The #CausalTexture of #OrganizationalEnvironments" to current day #SystemsThinking on organizations.

http://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/trist-in-canada-organizational-change-action-learning/

In an ecology of nations,

> “For the British and Canadians to say no publicly is highly unusual,” given their closeness to the United States, said Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister. 

P.S. I am a Canadian.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/world/europe/trump-merkel-allies.html

Will this decade be called the "Dark Twenties", in post-pandemic economic sociology? #JohnIbbitson writes:
> It took years for Western economies to fully recover from the economic shock of 2008-09. This shock is far worse. How much worse? No one can be sure. [....]

> We are entering the Dark Twenties. No one knows when or how it will end.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-its-increasingly-clear-our-tough-road-ahead-has-no-end-in-sight/

Moderating social media context in an nuanced way may be done with a warning or caution, rather than by deleting the message or banning the individual. #HenryFarrell at #WashingtonPost analyzes fact-checking on POTUS.

> Now, Twitter has done just this. Trump’s tweet has not been removed — but it has been placed behind a notice, identifying it as problematic.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/26/twitter-has-started-fact-checking-trump/

Our immune systems are complex, so improving resistance to disease may be puffery, writes #TimothyCaulfield .
> I looked at how the phrase “boosting our immune system” is being represented on social media. This concept is everywhere right now: it is being pushed by .... But in reality, the immune system is fantastically complex and can’t be “boosted.” (Even if you could, you wouldn’t want to. An overactive immune response is what leads to things such as anaphylaxis and autoimmune diseases.) The bottom line: There is no evidence that food, supplements, essential oils, spinal manipulation, IV vitamin infusions or really any product can enhance the functioning of the immune system in a manner that would provide extra protection against the coronavirus.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-social-media-platforms-misinformation-seawalls-arent-high-enough/

Ventures founded on growth maximization thinking unicorn might instead turn towards sustainability as camels.

> Where Silicon Valley has been chasing unicorns (a colloquial term for startups with billion-dollar valuations), “camel” startups, such as those founded by leading global entrepreneurs, prioritize sustainability and resiliency.

> The humble camel adapts to multiple climates, survives without food or water for months, and has humps to protect itself from the desert’s deprivations. Unlike unicorns, camels are not imaginary creatures. The metaphor may not be as flashy, but camels are survivors – as are their startup counterparts.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-silicon-valley-innovation-playbook-needs-to-change/

Death of the office, in pandemic times, with a larger perspective back in history.

> Offices have always been profoundly flawed spaces. Those of the East India Company, among the world’s first, were built more for bombast than bureaucracy. They were sermons in stone, and the solidity of every marble step, the elegance of every Palladian pillar, were intended to speak volumes about the profitability and smooth functioning within. This was nonsense, of course. Created to ensure efficiency, offices immediately institutionalised idleness. 

https://www.1843magazine.com/features/death-of-the-office

While many outside of the field of architecture like the #ChristopherAlexander #PatternLanguage approach, it’s not so well accepted by his peers. A summary of criticisms by #MichaelJDawes and #MichaelJOstwald #UNSWBuiltEnv is helpful in appreciating when the use of pattern language might be appropriate or not appropriate.
https://ingbrief.wordpress.com/2020/05/15/christopher-alexanders-a-pattern-language-analysing-mapping-and-classifying-the-critical-response-dawes-and-ostwald-2017/

Wendell Berry:
> I trust instead people like the great Kentucky farmer Henry Besuden, who said, “If a man loves his soil, he’ll save it.”
https://orionmagazine.org/article/to-live-and-love-with-a-dying-world/

The Funtowicz and Ravetz article on Post Normal Science from 1993 is important and well cited. I notice this republishing of the article with a new foreword is on The Knowledge Futures Commonplace, with the PubPub technology from MIT underneath it.
https://commonplace.knowledgefutures.org/pub/6qqfgms5/release/1

Appreciating that science moves, can we get to fast science?
> Another practical difficulty for philosophy of science to engage with fast science is to have venues in which such engagement can occur. Our pre-print platforms are meant for future articles that exemplify slow, careful scholarship, and anyway, unlike in medicine, what happens in a philosophy pre-print archive stays in a philosophy pre-print archive. A prominent and senior member of our discipline wrote to me saying that a short article he had written, relevant to understanding the pandemic, had been rejected by a number of visible sites devoted to popular science essays. In any case, most of us do not have established publishing relationships with, say, The Atlantic, or Aeon, though Fuller noted that venues such as Nautilus and The Conversation have been open to some slightly deeper analysis than is afforded by many venues.
https://dailynous.com/2020/05/13/fast-science-philosophy-science-guest-post-jacob-stegenga/

With the distinction made between #PatternLanguage and form language by #NikosSalingaros, a broader vision of the "life" sought by #ChristopherAlexander has led me through #GeneralSystemsTheory and #RobertRosen into the R-theory of #JohnJKineman.

http://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/pattern-language-form-language-general-systems-theory-r-theory/

Ecological economics (with some key systems thinking CANSEE members) meets P2P on May 13 YouTube Live session https://twitter.com/Revkin/status/1259454476198596609

While media as corporate giants funded by advertising is in crisis, the demand for information is increasing. Investigative journalism takes resources, but maybe we should think about how individuals and small groups could be filling in with critically evaluated content (as opposed to misinformation and hearsay. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-why-you-should-care-coronavirus-is-obliterating-the-media-115629327.html

The #GlobalBusinessNetwork has been temporarily reformed including #PeterSchwartz and
#StewartBrand in a report released by #PunitRenjen at #Deloitte and #Salesforce. https://discuss.openlearning.cc/t/a-world-remade-by-covid-19-scenarios-as-the-passing-storm-good-company-sunrise-in-the-east-lone-wolves/107
.

A young man stares out a window and the caption reads “Bus windows: the ultimate philosophy school.” writes #MarkKingwell

All the canonical philosophers of boredom have believed that boredom was eventually edifying – a painful experience that, like mortality itself, educates and enhances the mind. Because we’re all addicts of our own desires for stimulation, the therapy here may be hard. There may be withdrawal, and the DSM and medical models of clinical addiction won’t help. This is philosophical work.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-in-coronavirus-quarantine-use-boredom-as-a-window-to-wisdom/

Provocative statement by Canadian automobile reviewer.

> There isn’t now and likely never will be enough electricity available worldwide to replace all the petroleum for the vehicles we currently drive.

> And given that at least in Canada, only 11 per cent of fossil fuel emissions come from passenger vehicles (that’s not from some climate-change-denying website but from Environment Canada, the official tree-huggers of the federal government), and that this percentage is dropping as newer, cleaner cars replace older, dirtier ones, the belief that battery-powered cars are the answer to our pollution issues is not only far-fetched, it’s downright dangerous because it takes focus away from the real pollution bad guys, like agriculture and cement manufacture.

Jim Kenzie | Feb. 1, 2020 | Toronto Star at
https://www.thestar.com/autos/opinion/2020/01/31/with-the-mini-electric-youll-have-fun-driving-it.html