Gecybercshaft
Mary Ann Allison of the Allison Group coined “gecyberschaft.” Here's her idea: sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies described village society before the Industrial Revolution (gemeinschaft) and urban society afterwards (gesellschaft). Allison doesn't see these as oppositional systems, but rather as stages in evolution — and she thinks we're at a big punctuation point prompted by the information revolution. The new society is gecyberschaft.
So if your unit of community in gemeinschaft was the village, it became “friends and family” in gesellschaft, and it's now your “primary attention group.” You pay attention to that group (or groups, I'd hope she'd say) and to “groups of purpose” — groups neither bound to a place nor to a particular bureaucracy.
In gemeinschaft, your status was ascribed (based on birth); in gesellschaft, it was achieved; and now, in gecyberschaft, it's assessed. Very interesting stuff.
Other interesting nuggets from today's virtuousic series of presentations by Yaneer Bar-Yam: creativity requires some separation (differences, strength of weak ties), not complete connection. So membranes are particularly important in complex systems. They are always properties of the collective, and beautiful examples of emergent behavior.
Thermostats are profound entities. They seek a goal — and the whole notion of goal-seeking doesn't fit with linear ideas. And they're only as complex as they need to be. They worry about their one task (regulating temperature) and don't concern themselves with their complete environment (humidity, open doors). So they're successful in a complex systems sense as well as profound.
And a good thing too.
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