Dark webs

This page describes the organizational forces that limit change. It explains how to overcome them when necessary.

This page uses an example to illustrate how:

A business can gain focus from targeting key customers,
Business planning activities performed by the whole organization can build awareness, empowerment and coherence.
A program approach can ensure strategic alignment.

This page uses the example of HP's printer organization freeing itself from its organizational constraints to sell a printer targeted at the IBM pc user.
The constraints are described.
The techniques to overcome them are implied.

In this page we explain how to use the site. There are two main starting points: The example systems frame and The presentation frame. And then there is how we use the site. The site uses lots of click through. That's so that you can see the underlying principles that are contributing to the system being discussed. We hope that as you internalize and reflect on the principles the system should appear in a new light. At this site clicking is good! Opportunities frame
This web page reviews persistent business challenges with complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. Exploring opportunities
Dark webs
The productivity of complex adaptive system (CAS) is reviewed highlighting the most significant variables. The CAS and classical economic approaches are compared. Important CAS aspects are highlighted: CAS reflect the history of all the events of the network of agents and their environment The relevant economic history is reviewed demonstrating the contribution of power, politics, war... Chemical structures capture and preserve important recipes that allow agents to increase search/operational effectiveness and wealth & the system to be robust Environment matched to system strategy: Superorganism and beetle Cliodynamic models of historical agent networks allows a realistic assessment of productivity over a full network cycle The models must be matched to the proximate environment Internal failures of the agent network Existential threats to the agent network Human agents must dedicate: focus, time, coherence and skills; to productively generate wealth. And they could do much more - learning to develop and use formal schematic plans during their education, and using the skill when participating in a superorganism. CAS level productivity improvements are due to: Meta ideas that can be reused and recombined Distribution of these ideas allow parallel searching Isolated agents can be integrated into the current network during each growth phase, but cliodynamic assessments show agents are dropped again from the network during the decline phase of the cycle Network effects and leverage of power drive productivity improvements. Human agent level productivity Agent level productivity improvements of significance More time: Increased light, reduced moving & travelling, quicker & better eating, reduced rework, motivated & effective Broader utilization with adoption of standards & undermining of monopoly constraints Weapons & armor Power available: Driving flows & actions in required direction Iterative theory & practice Infrastructure & tools: catalytic reduction in cost of repeated operations Agent level productivity improvements of limited effect Productivity of CAS
In Gray Matter Michael Graziano asks Are we Really Conscious? He argues that we build inaccurate models of reality and then develop intuitions based on these problematic models. He concludes we can't use intuitions to understand consciousness. Instead he promotes 'brain science' as more accurate and argues it suggests we are not conscious. In this page we summarize his article and then use complex adaptive system (CAS) theory to review his arguments. Constrained by CAS theory and mechanisms of emergence we see a requirement for consciousness. Graziano's consciousness
Consciousness is no longer mysterious. In this page we use complex adaptive system (CAS) theory to help explain the nature of consciousness. Consciousness is evolution's solution to the complex problems of effective, emergent, multi-cellular perception based strategy. Constrained by emergence and needing to avoid the epistemological problem of starting with a blank slate with every birth, evolution was limited in its options. We explain how survival value allows evolution to leverage available tools: sensors, agent relative position, models, perception & representation; to solve the problem of mobile agents understanding their environment. Evolution did this by providing a genetically constructed framework that can develop into a conscious CAS. And we discuss the implications with regard to artificial intelligence, sentient robots, augmented intelligence, and aspects of philosophy. On the nature of conscious things
John Searle's influential thought experiment implied to him that computers cannot understand. Complex adaptive system (CAS) theory indicates that this is not the case. Understanding the Chinese room
In his talk 'The Science of Ending Aging' Aubrey de Grey argues we should invest more in maintenance of our bodies. In this page we summarize his video comments and then use complex adaptive system (CAS) theory to review his arguments. Focusing the lens of CAS theory and mechanisms of emergence on the system we highlight the pros and cons of ending aging. Ending aging
The essence of a library complex adaptive system (CAS) is defined. Implications for the future development of contemporary libraries are reviewed. Libraries evolving
This web page reviews opportunities to benefit from modeling agent based flows using complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. Agent based flows
This web page reviews opportunities to find and capture new niches based on studying fitness landscapes using complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. Fitness landscapes
This web page reviews opportunities to enhance computing theory and practice by using biological mechanisms and complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. Biologically inspired computing

Primary Navigation

In this page we explain how to use the site.
There are two main starting points:

The example systems frame and
The presentation frame.
And then there is how we use the site.

The site uses lots of click through. That's so that you can see the underlying principles that are contributing to the system being discussed. We hope that as you internalize and reflect on the principles the system should appear in a new light. At this site clicking is good!

Opportunities

This page introduces the complex adaptive system (CAS) theory frame. The theory is positioned relative to the natural sciences. It catalogs the laws and strategies which underpin the operation of systems that are based on the interaction of emergent agents.
John Holland's framework for representing complexity is outlined. Links to other key aspects of CAS theory discussed at the site are presented.

Theory

This web frame introduces example real world complex adaptive systems (CAS):

Assumptions of randomness & equilibrium allowed the wealthy & powerful to expand the size and leverage of stock markets, by placing at risk the insurance and retirement savings of the working class. The assumptions are wrong but remain entrenched.
The US nation was built from two divergent political views of: Jefferson and Hamilton. It also reflects the development of competing ancient ideas of Epicurus and Cyril. But the collapse of Bretton Woods forced Wall Street into a position of power, while the middle and working class were abandoned by the elites. Housing financed with cash from oil and derivative transactions helped hide the shift.
Most US health care is still operating the way cars built in the 1940s did. Geisinger is an example of better solution. But transforming the whole network is a challenge. And public health investment has proved far more beneficial.
Helping our children learn to be effective adults is part of our humanity, but we have created a robust but deeply flawed education system. Better alternatives have emerged.
Reading and writing emerged allowing our good ideas to become a second genetic material.
The emergence of the global economy in the 1600s and its subsequent development;

It explains how the examples relate to each other, why we all have trouble effectively comprehending these systems and explains how our inexperience with CAS can lead to catastrophe. It outlines the items we see as key to the system and why.

Examples

This page presents a search result list covering each linked region of rob's strategy studio.

Search

Rob's Strategy Studio aims to celebrate and illuminate complex adaptive systems (CAS) just as an art studio does art.

By way of introduction it notes the complex interactions that led to the partnership that discovered the DNA double helix and genetic code.

The page introduces the RSS vision 'I act, therefore I think' approach and the RSS mission.

It describes how many key aspects of the world are CAS including businesses.

Finally the page explains each of the framed pictures displayed at the studio including the other aspects explored in this vision frame.

Vision

This page introduces the programs that the Adaptive Web Framework (AWF) develops and uses to deploy Rob's Strategy Studio (RSS).
The programs are structured to obey complex adaptive system (CAS) principles. That allows AWF to experiment and examine the effects.
A production program generates the web pages.
A testing system tests the production program. It uses a framework to support the test programs. This is AWF's agent programming framework as described in the agent-based programming presentation.
An example of the other AWF agent-based programs that are also described in the frame is the virtual robot.
Finally a strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats assessment is presented.

Perl

This page introduces a series of asymmetries which encourage different strategic approaches.
The differences found in business, sexual selection, gamete structure, as well as in chess encourage escalations in the interactions.
And yet the systems including these asymmetries can be quite stable.

Asymmetries

This web frame includes a set of presentations about complex adaptive systems (CAS)

Presentations

Dark webs can help creativity and learning

Summary

Dark webs is a web site that is not open to the Internet. It is a set of deployed HTML files in a directory which refer to each other via file based references relative to the directory. can enhance individual creativity, local operational autonomy, enterprise strategic alignment and organizational learning. In this page we summarize the opportunity.

Introduction

Complex adaptive systems (CAS) can only be understood and controlled predictably with appropriate

The agents in complex adaptive systems (CAS) must model their environment to respond effectively to it. Samuel modeling is described as an approach.

models and strategies that make allowance for adaptive modifications and responses. Otherwise the system appears chaotic provides an explanation for the apparently random period between water droplets falling from a tap. Typically the model of the system is poor and so the data captured about the system looks unpredictable - chaotic. With a better model the system's operation can be explained with standard physical principles. Hence chaos as defined here is different from complexity. and unmanageable as

Dietrich Dorner argues complex adaptive systems (CAS) are hard to understand and manage. He provides examples of how this feature of these systems can have disastrous consequences for their human managers. Dorner suggests this is due to CAS properties psychological impact on our otherwise successful mental strategic toolkit. To prepare to more effectively manage CAS, Dorner recommends use of:

Effective iterative planning and
Practice with complex scenario simulations; tools which he reviews.

described by Dorner.

A leader aims to develop plans and strategies which ensure effective coordination to improve the common good of the in-group. John Adair developed a leadership methodology based on the three-circles model.
without a

This page looks at schematic structures and their uses. It discusses a number of examples:

Schematic ideas are recombined in creativity.
Similarly designers take ideas and rules about materials and components and combine them.
Schematic Recipes help to standardize operations.
Modular components are combined into strategies for use in business plans and business models.

As a working example it presents part of the contents and schematic details from the Adaptive Web Framework (AWF)'s operational plan.

Finally it includes a section presenting our formal representation of schematic goals.
Each goal has a series of associated complex adaptive system (CAS) strategy strings.
These goals plus strings are detailed for various chess and business examples.

written plan can make rapid changes of direction. This seems to promote

To benefit from shifts in the environment agents must be flexible. Being sensitive to environmental signals agents who adjust strategic priorities can constrain their competitors.

flexibility but in a complex environment it is sure to lead to thrashing back and forth as the business and its proximate environment rapidly adapt to each change.

Adopting a rigorous planning methodology can allow top down

Terrence Deacon explores how constraints on dynamic flows can induce emergent phenomena which can do real work. He shows how these phenomena are sustained. The mechanism enables the development of Darwinian competition.

constraints to remove all flexibility from the business.

Good ideas are successful because they build upon prior developments that have been successfully implemented. Johnson demonstrates that they are phenotypic expressions of memetic plans subject to the laws of complex adaptive systems (CAS).

Creativity is a complex process which can be undermined by top down controls.
To benefit from shifts in the environment agents must be flexible. Being sensitive to environmental signals agents who adjust strategic priorities can constrain their competitors.

Flexibility benefits from the

Ability to prioritize based on the proximate situation.
Introduction of
Rather than oppose the direct thrust of some environmental flow agents can improve their effectiveness with indirect responses. This page explains how agents are architected to do this and discusses some examples of how it can be done.

indirection within the strategic action.

Planning documents must be kept confidential and up-to-date, or they become misleading and are ignored. When the environment is very dynamic this can be costly to do.

The strategic and networked nature of systems is poorly supported by generic tools:

Private and shared parts of the planning sources should be handled differently.
Flexible representation is needed that can associate complex interdependencies with goals of the plan.
Broad visibility of the
Agents use sensors to detect events in their environment. This page reviews how these events become signals associated with beneficial responses in a complex adaptive system (CAS). CAS signals emerge from the Darwinian information model. Signals can indicate decision summaries and level of uncertainty.

signals is necessary to drive awareness and coherence.
Creative ideas and actions typically need protecting from the control systems until they grow strong enough to self-justify.
Goals should cascade throughout the businesses operational network as they are delegated.
Different audiences should see appropriate subsets of the plans structure and details. Each goal owner should be able to decide where and when their strategies should be made visible to others.

Specialized tools are becoming available that can deploy HTML source into dark web is a web site that is not open to the Internet. It is a set of deployed HTML files in a directory which refer to each other via file based references relative to the directory. sites including the dark web generator that deploys this web site. Every page of www.robsstrategystudio.org is static, is built from a filtered subset of the core sources and is generated in this way.

HTML editors enable unstructured documents to be written describing highly complex environments and outlining goals and actions to carry the goals out. A system can be constructed when an editor is combined with tools to:

Share the document sources among a team of writers.
Filter the sources for presentation to different target audiences.
Deploy the filtered outputs into targeted dark webs for each specific audience.

The resulting browser accessible plans can cover both business and execution allowing corporate strategy cascades to be represented as a recursive series of HTTP links between goals and the set of strategies that operationalize each goal.

Once the execution plans are specified as dark web pages it is possible to include them as the organization iterates round a

Walter Shewhart's iterative development process is found in many complex adaptive systems (CAS). The mechanism is reviewed and its value in coping with random events is explained.

Shewhart cycle helping support organizational learning.

The filtering process allows the pages of each dark web to include augmentation with:

Checklist item details
Glossary item details
Execution status change cascades. For example the delegator's dark web goal can be
Agents use sensors to detect events in their environment. This page reviews how these events become signals associated with beneficial responses in a complex adaptive system (CAS). CAS signals emerge from the Darwinian information model. Signals can indicate decision summaries and level of uncertainty.

signalled when the delegate's strategy status changes.
Filtering (removal) of links to excluded areas of a specific dark web plan instance.

Widespread availability of scripting engines, source control systems, web servers, html editors and browsers and networked file sharing infrastructure supports building and deployment of the tools and services required.

Market Centric Workshops

Politics, Economics & Evolutionary Psychology

Business Physics
Nature and nurture drive the business eco-system
Human nature
Emerging structure and dynamic forces of adaptation

integrating quality appropriate for each market

This page looks at schematic structures and their uses. It discusses a number of examples:

Schematic ideas are recombined in creativity.
Similarly designers take ideas and rules about materials and components and combine them.
Schematic Recipes help to standardize operations.
Modular components are combined into strategies for use in business plans and business models.

Strategy | Design |

This page uses an example to illustrate how:

A business can gain focus from targeting key customers,
Business planning activities performed by the whole organization can build awareness, empowerment and coherence.
A program approach can ensure strategic alignment.

Program Management | Home
Profiles | Papers | Glossary | E-mail us