COMPLEX SYSTEM THEORY 2012

Here is the syllabus for the course I'll provide this fall and winter.

COMPLEX SYSTEM THEORY

Creative Courses (Skill) - Knowledge Skill
2012 Fall Tuesday 4th Period
Faculty-in-charge: Takashi Iba
Faculty of Policy Management & Faculty of Environment and Information Studies
Keio University

[ Course Summary ]

In order to understand the complex, dynamic world around us, such as life and society, we must not limit ourselves in a single intelectual field. When we are able to connect different intellectual fields, we reveal insights and ideas that have never been explored before. In this course, you will study how the different fields: (1) nonlinear science, (2) creative systems, (3) pattern languages, and (4) network science is actually related, and hold the key to understand the reality of the world around us. In the classes, there will be many activities to help deeply understand the subjects and topics of the complex, dynamic world. (This course will be offered in English.)

[ Class Schedule ]

#1 - Introduction
The overview and requirements for this course will be provided.

#2 - Nonlinear Science: Chaos
Subject: Chaos, which is amazing phenomenon where irregular behavior is generated from a simple regular rule.
Activity: Simulate chaos with spreadsheet software, such as Excel or Numbers, in you computer.

#3 - Nonlinear Science: Fractal
Subject: Fractal, which has an interesting feature of self-similarity at different scales.
Activity: Watch the video concerning fractal geometry, think of examples in the world around us, and discuss the implication.

#4 - Nonlinear Science: Chaotic walk workshop
Subject: Patterns hidden in chaos
Activity: Explore the patterns hidden in chaos with using "ChaoticWalker," which is software for generating patterns on a two-dimensional plane with a chaotic map function.

#5 - Creative Systems: Autopoieis Theory 
Subject: Creative process as an autopoietic system, which is the latest systems theory.
Activity: Discuss and write a series of discoveries in a creative process based on the Creative Systems Theory.

#6 - Creative Systems: Brainstorming method
Subject: Divergent thinking in a part of creative process.
Activity: Practice divergent thinking in a brainstorming session.

#7 - Creative Systems: KJ method
Subject: Convergent thinking in a part of creative process.
Activity: Practice convergent thinking in a session with the KJ method.

#8 - Presentation Patterns workshop
Subject: Fundamental idea and applied cases of pattern language, which is a documented wisdom about the rules, methods, tips, and customs of a certain area of expertise.
Activity: Watch the video, and discuss how to make great presentations with using the Presentation Patterns.

#9 - Pattern Language: Pattern writing
Subject: The format of patterns in pattern languages.
Activity: Write a pattern that describes the rules, methods, tips, and customs of a certain area of expertise.

#10 - Pattern Language: Writer's workshop
Subject: The making process of a pattern language.
Activity: Conduct a writer's workshop to improve the patterns you have write.

#11 - Pattern Language: The Nature of Order
Subject: The latest theory by Christopher Alexander, who proposed the idea of pattern languages.
Activity: Discuss the meaning and implication of the concepts proposed in the book, The Nature of Order.

#12 - Network Science: Small-World & Scale-Free Networks
Subject: Network analysis of how the things connect one another in natural, social, and technological worlds.
Activity: Watch the video concerning the network science, and run network simulations in your computer.

#13 - Final Project Presentation
Give a presentation about your final project.

#14 - Final Project Presentation
Give a presentation about your final project.

[ Materials and Reading List ]

All materials that are required for the class will be handed out in the class. The followings are recommended reference.

Nonlinear Science

• M. Mitchell Waldrop, Complexity: The Emerging Science At The Edge Of Order And Chaos, Simon & Schuster, 1993
• James Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science, Penguin Books; Revised edition, 2008
• Benoit B. Mandelbrot, The Fractal Geometry of Nature, W. H. Freeman and Company, 1982
• Stuart Kauffman, At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity, Oxford University Press, 1996
• Takashi Iba & Kazeto Shimonishi, "The Origin of Diversity: Thinking with Chaotic Walk", Unifying Themes in Complex Systems Volume VIII: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Complex Systems, Sayama, H., Minai, A. A., Braha, D. and Bar-Yam, Y. eds., NECSI Knowledge Press, Jun., 2011, pp.447-461.

Creative Systems

• N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996
• Takashi Iba, "An Autopoietic Systems Theory for Creativity", Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol.2, Issue 4, 2010, pp.6610-6625
• Keith Sawyer, Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration, Basic Books, 2008
• Alex Osborn, Your Creative Power, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948
• Thomas Kelley, Jonathan Littman, The Art of Innovation: Success Through Innovation the IDEO Way, Profile Business, 2002

Pattern Languages

• Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building, Oxford University Press, 1979
• Christopher Alexander, The Production of Houses, Oxford University Press, 1985
• Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order, Book One, Center for Environmental Structure, 2002
• Stephen Grabow, Christopher Alexander: The Search for a New Paradigm in Architecture, Routledge Kegan & Paul, 1983
• Takashi Iba, "Pattern Language 3.0 Methodological Advances in Sharing Design Knowledge," International Conference on Collaborative Innovation Networks 2011 (COINs2011), Sep., 2011

Network Science

• Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Linked: How Everything is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life, Plume, 2003
• Duncan J. Watts, Six Degrees: The Science of Connected Age, W. W. Norton & Company, 2004
• Takashi Iba, Ko Matsuzuka, Daiki Muramatsu, "Editorial Collaboration Networks of Wikipedia Articles in Various Languages," International Conference on Collaborative Innovation Networks 2011 (COINs2011), Sep., 2011
• Takashi Iba, "Hidden Order in Chaos: The Network-Analysis Approach To Dynamical Systems", Unifying Themes in Complex Systems Volume VIII: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Complex Systems, Sayama, H., Minai, A. A., Braha, D. and Bar-Yam, Y. eds., NECSI Knowledge Press, Jun., 2011, pp.769-783

[ Assignments, Examination and Grade Evaluation ]

Grading will be based on class participation, homework, and final project (presentation and report).

[ Special equipment or software to prepare ]

a laptop computer (Mac, Windows, or Linux)

[ Student Selection ]

Only the selected students can take this course.
Number of students in the class (scheduled): About 60
Method and timing of the selection : writing an essay concerning the topics of this course in the first class.

[ Contact ]

Staff: cs2012 [at] sfc.keio.ac.jp

Re-Thinking Education and Learning with C. Alexander's Latest Theory

I submitted a new paper to the EducationalPatterns workshop, which will be held in Austria this November.Here is an abstract of the paper.

"Making Learning Lively: An Analogical Consideration Inspired by Christopher Alexander’s Theory of Wholeness and Centers" (Takashi Iba, EducationalPatterns Workshop, 2012)

In this paper, I would like to consider how to make learning lively by developing an analogy between architecture and education, inspired by Christopher Alexander’s theory of wholeness and centers, which is proposed in his book, The Nature of Order. The analogy developed in this paper is that a whole that is composed of learning is viewed as a whole in the Alexander’s definition; and that learning that is lively is viewed as a center. In this paper, the following properties that make learning lively is discussed based on the following fifteen fundamental properties proposed by C. Alexander in his book, The Nature of Order: Levels of Scale, Strong Centers, Boundaries, Alternating Repetition, Positive Space, Good Shape, Local Symmetries, Deep Interlock and Ambiguity, Contrast, Gradients, Roughness, Echoes, The Void, Simplicity and Inner Calm, and Not-Separateness. Furthermore, I show the relation between these properties and the patterns of the Learning Patterns, which is a pattern language for creative learning.

This is one of the figure in the paper.  My illustration summarizing the fifteen fundamental properties proposed by Christopher Alexander in his book, The Nature of Order, Book One.

The following is another figure in my paper. It shows my view of learning with the concepts, whole and centers, proposed by C. Alexander.

Reference (in the paper)

• Alexander, C. (1985) The Production of Houses, Oxford University Press.
• Alexander, C. (2002a) The Nature of Order, BOOK ONE: The Phenomenon of Life, The Center for Environmental Structure.
• Alexander, C. (2002b) The Nature of Order, BOOK TWO: The Process of Creating Life, The Center for Environmental Structure.
• Learning Patterns Project (2009) Learning Patterns: A Pattern Language for Creative Learning, in Japanese, Faculty of Policy Management & Faculty of Environment and Information Science, Keio University.
• Iba, T., Miyake, T., Naruse, M., and Yotsumoto, N. (2009), “Learning Patterns: A Pattern Language for Active Learners,” in 16th International Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs (PLoP2009).
• Iba, T. and Miyake, T. (2010) “Learning Patterns: A Pattern Language for Creative Learning II,” in 1st Asian Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs (AsianPLoP2010).
• Iba, T., “Learning Patterns III: A Pattern Language for Creative Learning,” in 18th international Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs (PLoP2011), 2011.
• Learning Patterns Project (2011) Learning Patterns: A Pattern Language for Creative Learning, in The Third International Conference on Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs2011), 2011

First Stage Mission Accomplished!

Today, we started off smoothly even though we were missing a few people. Since we have been going through this process for a couple of times, some members seem to have gained endurance and a driving power, visioning the end to labeling the patterns.  

With the motivation to keep moving on, members of the Iba lab maintained their concentration for five consecutive hours.
Although each group finished their tasks in a slight time lag, it was amazing to see that everyone was very satisfied, ending up writing 131 seeds of pattern language! The atmosphere of the lab was joyful and vibrant when we are cleaning up the room after such big accomplishment.

Next week, we will be conducting the KJ method once more in order to make the pattern making process more efficient.

Burn-Out

The first Monday of June was just another day.
Still immersed in the feeling of Sunday, most of the members were absentmindedly talking to each other and taking a short break before they had to ignite themselves to take on the tasks.

Soon after, as we teamed up in three groups, each group reviewed their assigned archipelagos and started giving feedback to each other.
Well, this was a great idea of diversifying a heavy workload but the problem was that we were missing a common understanding among the members. Gradually, sharing and adapting our thoughts and ideas, we came up with a common perception of the label name and the reason why the pattern is important.
As the previous session, our professor took on the role to go around the groups to check their progress and give his opinion whenever the groups needed a third opinion.

We have been continuing this process for days and months and some people might ask why not adopt a more efficient  method? To simply answer to your question, this is a process of creation. Because this is a fairly new method, we need to find out a way on our own. If we find out that we cannot move on, we change our approach and explore a new way to keep moving with twists and turns It is the drive to move on and never stop that motivates the members of Iba lab.

After four hours of consecutive work, most of the members were burned-out.
How ever this is the proof that we squeezed out our intellectual thoughts and ideas to the max. We still have a long way to go but we are definitely moving on to the next step.

Syllabus for Iba Lab B2 (Fall 2012) - Exploring Theories, Methods, and Practices for the Creative Society

We welcome GIGA students who don't speak Japanese!

Syllabus for Iba Lab B2 (Fall 2012)

Exploring Theories, Methods, and Practices for the Creative Society

Takashi Iba (Associate Professor at the Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University)

Important Dates

July 3, 2012: Iba Lab information session (5th hour @ K11)
July 21, 2012: Entry submission deadline
July 26-27, 2012: Interview sessions (dates subject to change)
July 28, 2012: Lab spring presentations

Course Goals and Overview

Our society today is becoming more complex and diverse day by day. Finding a way to design the future with our own hands has become the fundamental problem for us today. To be creative in such a society, we must create our own visions, and design tools and methods to make the vision become a reality.

In our lab, we define a Creative Society as a society where various people design and create new perceptions, new products, new methods, and ultimately the future for ourselves, by ourselves. The lab aims to seize the sprouts of the creative society, imagine its growth, and nurture it through actual practice.

Members of the lab would either work on Personal Projects based on their interest in a certain field, or they can work in one of the Frontier Projects formed by members of the lab.

Examples of Personal Projects include analysis of open collaborations, research on social media, putting creative workshops to practice, analysis of the creative process, creation of tools to support creative processes, building new forms of communication media, or the creation of a pattern language in a new field. Of course, any other topic that you are interested in is welcome.

We are planning on starting the following Frontier Projects.

• Documentary Filming - Filming, production, and streaming of the world's first documentary film about pattern languages. Those with skills in film editing are welcome.
• Web Application Development - Launch a new kind of social networking service based on pattern languages. We welcome those with high programming and software development skills. 
• Global Expansions - Introduce pattern languages and workshops based on them overseas. For all of you out there with high English skills, this is the place for you.
• Workshop Design - Develop and carry out new forms of workshops using pattern languages. For those interested in creating environments for effective study or creation.
• Education to Nurture Creativity - Study methods of education that would nurture the creativity of children, and put it into practice. Future teachers and anyone interested in education is welcome.

Upon conducting your project, you must first let go of the knowledge and methods fixed to existing sciences, and commit to the project by reconstructing a new method for a new era of study. To help the process, we will take time to read and discuss books about related topics.

The theme for our lab is Creativity. We are looking for prospective lab members who are willing to commit creatively to the future!

To find out more about our works, visit our lab blog:
The Creative Systems Lab
http://creativesystemslab.blogspot.jp/

Course Schedule

• Progress on each member's project will be shared at lab meetings. In addition, we will read and discuss books, and exercises to polish up skills will be given. 
• Members are required to work on their projects outside of class time.
• Sessions are planned on 5th hour Tuesdays.

Course Language

English, Japanese
We welcome GIGA students who don't speak Japanese!

Course Requirements

• Members are required to take classes held by Professor Iba besides the lab sessions, since skills and knowledge necessary for the lab will be taught there also. Professor Iba will be teaching "Pattern Language" and "Complex Systems Theory" in the Fall semester of 2012. 
• We are looking for members who are willing to study together with us in a long perspective. Breakthrough in knowledge and skills can be expected through long-term commitment.

Available Seats

Approximately 20

Misc. Information

• Since members of the lab each have a different field of expertise, knowledge necessary for each member's project must be acquired outside of class.
• Classes will most likely be extended without notice. We also go for dinner after lab sessions, so please keep your schedule open for the night on days with lab sessions. 
• You are welcome to take both Iba Lab B1 and B2 in the same semester, or belong to another lab besides the Iba lab at the same time. 
• Prospective members are asked to attend the Iba Lab Spring Presentation on 7/28/2012 (Sat).
• Join us on opportunities to go on overseas trips to attend workshops and academic conferences. This year we will be visiting Germany in July and the US in October. 
• Iba Lab members are required to write their graduation thesis in English.

Entry Assignment

After reading through this syllabus thoroughly, please submit the entry assignment described below via email by Saturday, July 21.

Email to: ilab-entry2012 [at] sfc.keio.ac.jp
Subject: Iba Lab B2 Entry
Please attach your entry assignment in a Word or PDF file.

Iba Lab B2 Entry Assignment

1. Name, Faculty, Grade, Student ID, login ID
2. Topic of study you wish to work on in the lab, or the Frontier Project you wish to participate in. Reason for your entry. Your Enthusiasm towards the project.
3. Other Labs you are planning on belonging to next semester (If any)
4. Labs you have been a part of (If any)
5. Favorite classes you've taken so far - Multiple answers are welcome
6. Courses by Prof. Iba which you have taken before
7. Any other introduction of yourself. (clubs, activities, interests, future visions, any other points to sell)

* Question 2 should be about 1 page in length.
** You are welcome to use any pictures or diagrams for questions 2 and 7.

The selection interview will be held based on the information given in the entry assignment.

References

• Takashi Iba, "An Autopoietic Systems Theory for Creativity", Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol.2, Issue 4, 2010, pp.6610-6625
• Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Riverhead Trade, 2006
• Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Portfolio Trade, Expanded ed., 2010
• Peter Gloor, Coolfarming: Turn Your Great Idea into the Next Big Thing, AMACOM, 2010
• Keith Sawyer, Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration, Basic Books, 2008 
• Thomas Kelley, Jonathan Littman, The Art of Innovation: Success Through Innovation the IDEO Way, Profile Business, 2002

• Morris Berman, The Reenchantment of the World, Cornell University Press, 1984
• Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind, The University of Chicago Press, 2000
• N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996
• Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolution, The University of Chicago Press, 1962
• Freeman Dyson, Imagined Worlds, Harvard University Press, 1997
• Peter M. Senge, et. al., Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future, Crown Business, Reprint ed., 2008
• C. Otto Scharmer, Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges: The Social Technology of Presencing, Berrett-Koehler Pub, 2009

• Stephen Grabow, Christopher Alexander: The Search for a New Paradigm in Architecture, Routledge Kegan & Paul, 1983 
• M. Lynn Manns, L. Rising, Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas, Addison-Wesley, 2004
• Learning Patterns Project, Learning Patterns: A Pattern Language for Creative Learning, 2011
• Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order, Book 1-4, Center for Environmental Structure, 2001-
• Jenny Quillien, Delight's Muse on Christopher Alexander's The Nature of Order: A Summary and Personal Interpretation, Lulu.Com, 2008

• George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By, The University of Chicago Press, 1980
• "Deduction, Induction, and Hypothesis" (Charles Sanders Peirce, The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings VOLUME 1 (1867-1893), Indiana University Press, 1992) p.186-199
• Hayao Miyazaki, Starting Point 1979-1996, VIZ media, 2009
• Haruki Murakami, What I Talk about When I Talk about Running: A Memoir, Vintage Books, 2009
• B. Minto, The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking, 3rd Revised ed, Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2008

Pattern Language: Media for Overcoming Double Contingency

Last class, the students in Social Systems Theory class learned scenario planning, which is media for communicating in communities or organizations based on future plans.

On the other hand, Prof. Iba introduced pattern language as media for verbalizing the tacit knowledge and sharing it among people in an organization in order to take over double contingent situations.

He explained what pattern language is, and how we write pattern language with recent examples in our laboratory.

The example was English pattern writing pattern which he discovered recently on the generative beauty project. We firstly wrote the pattern in Japanese, yet we needed to write the patterns in English in order to submit the paper for the international conference.

On that process, we tend to have difficulties with writing patterns in English, the process does not go smoothly. Then, Prof. Iba realized that we need to learn vocabularies related to topics of the patterns, in this case beauty, so he bought variety of books about cosmetic, fashion and beauty written in English. His intention of it was to write patterns while learning vocabularies and phrases at the same time.

Even though he shared this knowledge with the current members on the project, he will need to explain that consecutively when he encounters the same situations on the different occasions or people. Therefore, it is effective to organize and write this knowledge in order to make easier to tell it to other people.

Then, he decided to write the pattern on that. Basically, pattern language consists of three main parts: context, problem, and solution.

Pattern Name: Writing with Learning

Context: You write in English, which is not your mother tongue.

Problem: Because you have no idea how you should write ideas in proper and comprehensive English, you cannot write patterns smoothly.

Solution: Write patterns with learning and referencing vocabularies and phrased related to the topic of the pattern that you are writing.

The reason why we give names to each pattern is to make us remember the contents of the pattern easily, and help our communication on the topic as a vocabulary.

In other words, Christopher Alexander, an architect who established the concept of pattern language, explains in The Production of Houses that pattern language is a language for writing design knowledge including problem finding and problem solving.

After the lecture, students have Q&A session about pattern language for deeper understanding on that. Although they acquired better understanding on it, they have never talked with patterns.

So, we are having the workshop on patterns in Fearless Change, and having dialogues based on their experiences with vocabularies in the book.

◆ C. Alexander, The Production of Houses, Oxford University Press, 1985

◆ M. Manns & L. Rising, Fearless Change, Addison-Wesley, 2005

Thinking Outside the Box

How did social science evolve into such a field? And what will it evolve into from now on? On May 29^th, we discussed around these subjects, based on Open the Social Sciences: Report of the Gulbenkian Commission on the Restructuring of the Social Sciences by Immanuel Wallerstein, and Dejitaru Media Jidai ni Okeru "Chi no Genri" wo saguru [The Principles of Intellect in the Digital Media Era] by Teruo Inoue and Michio Umegaki.

Every day, Economics, Biology, Computer science, and all other fields are cultivated, their boundaries stretched, by experts in each field. These experts cultivate these fields based off of the rich intellect which have been cultivated for many decades and centuries by countless experts in the past. And the discoveries are continuously added on as new intellect, subsequently creating a rich discipline. But these disciplines are usually closed; having very little relations amongst each other. It is significant that we see, and cultivate the inter-discipline, and trans-discipline.

For example, lets take the complex systems theory. Before it was a field, scientists and mathematicians, many of them having very rich knowledge concerning their own fields, hit problems they could not understand, even with their valuable discipline they cherish. Then the complex systems theory gave completely new insights in which connected, and discovered what hid between the closed disciplines. This is what we define now as the inter-discipline, and as a whole: trans-discipline.

Yet objectivity became a major problem in creating this trans-disciplinary field. Although social scientists valued objectivity in their research, what they defined as “objective” was dependant on who believed it was objective, hence technically becoming subjective. That is why social science should not value objectivity, but rather inter-subjective judgment. All disciplinary fields are dynamic, and the technically “subjective” observations create what becomes a discipline. As time goes by, new subjective observations add on, and change the inter- and ultimately trans- disciplinary field. We believe this inter- and trans-disciplinary field is the essence of research in SFC.

A professor in SFC was formerly a psychiatrist and a consultant for students, now teaches, and researches concerning communications with another person, its characteristics, etc. SFC encourages this sort of “crossing over” fields, and thinking outside the box. These opportunities allow students and professors to explore many different fields, cultivating the inter- and ultimately the trans-disciplinary field which has not been recognized before.

Interestingly however, some in our discussion argued that because SFC encourages this “crossing-over” so much, that some lack too much knowledge, and discipline. This notion is significant, and we must never forget the value of how each discipline developed its intellect through the centuries. In order to step outside of the discipline, it is critical to study the history of the discipline, otherwise it is impossible to discover any new insights. But at the same time, this is why even undergraduates in SFC have the potential to cultivate the frontiers of intellect.

For the second part of the class, we watched how SFC came forth, from the significance of inter-discipline and trans-discipline. While Keio University, and all other universities in Japan had faculties that studied fields which have been researched for centuries, Tadao Ishikawa, former President of Keio University proposed the necessity of a new field that can cultivate what existing fields could not see. This revolutionary attempt that valued inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary fields subsequently created the Faculty of Policy Management, and the Faculty of Environmental Studies, and SFC. 

 

References

Immanuel Wallerstein, Open the social Sciences: Report of the Gulbenkian Commission on the Restructuring of the Social Sciences, Stanford University Press, 1996

 Teruo Inoue and Michio Umegaki, Dejitaru Media Jidai ni Okeru "Chi no Genri" wo saguru [The Principles of Intellect in the Digital Media Era],Yuhikaku Publishing Co. Ltd., 1998