SOCIAL OR MECHANICAL SYSTEMS

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LIVING OUTSIDE
Hydro or Internet, can seem like same complicated task in San Blas. We can wonder what would happen if we turned off the switch. Probably not much ...less.
As Kauffman (1) puts it, «mechanical systems (car, furnace, or this here ) can be switched completely off for a while and then turned back on again. The same is true of some very simple living things. Plant seeds that can wait for decades for the right conditions to start growing and some microscopic animals can be frozen solid and then be brought back to life.» Certain frogs, per example, put themselves on -low heart beat- for as much as 7 years in the ice before coming back to life. Life is such an amazing system.

(1) Draper L. Kauffman, Jr.
Systems One: An Introduction to Systems Thinking (1980)
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BOUNDED REALITY
Bounded reality is one of Meadow's concepts explained in —Thinking in Systems. A primer.— It has to do with being informed and therefore, being able to take informed decisions as well. She has a great story in that sense of an Amsterdam neighborhood of similar housing and families. «Some houses were built with the electric meter down in the basement. In other homes, the electric meter was installed in the front hall. It was discovered that some of the houses in this subdivision used one-third less electricity.» Being able to witness or be aware of their energy use brought front hall families to change their behavior.

I suspect not many really spend much lighting energy here anyhow. Lights are warm and out all day and night. Awareness finds all sorts of different ways. But bounded realities or being informed, doesn't necessarily lead to decisions that will benefit -the whole- as Meadow's shares, and as we will see later. I will talk about other environmental issues later...

Meadows gets into a lot of financial details to explain Systems in the early chapters. In is not my favorite part, although I'm doing my best to understand it all, I feel I don't always get it, too many stocks and flow charts for someone who usually likes diagrams they give me the turnover... I felt much more at ease reading Capra. I also really appreciated Kauffman simplicity in vulgarizing basically the same ideas in a much friendlier way, to me that was. Still, I am really enjoying this class.