[FRIAM] SFI to Trump: The dangers of simplicity in a complex world

Sun Feb 5 15:04:37 EST 2017

Frank writes:

< I don't know about economic equality but they've reduced their embrace of intellectual equality.  The public is no longer welcome at their colloquia "without an invitation".  Only "community events" are available to others. >

Years ago (maybe not now), it depended on the resident faculty as much as the management.   Some had graduate students and postdocs that were tightly-knit and really only had a public facing side in so far as they were pushing out papers.   Other faculty were very focused and productive and had few if any junior staff.  Still others very much liked entertaining students and colleagues from other universities and even the public.   My perception was there was a bias towards the last type of person so much so it got in the way of SFI's ability to do research.   If you didn't participate in the wining and dining, the dog and pony shows, or the educational outreach, you were at risk, even if there was some other external dimension on which you were a very visible part of the organization.  Further, my perception was that the wining and dining arm of the organization didn't really have a clear picture of the other ways in which the institute did outreach, or care.   They only could understand the one they were responsible for, and they viewed it as very much a top-down thing, where most of the researchers weren't at the top.

If there has been a change, I suspect it is more toward reducing distraction, and keeping the signal/noise ratio high.   They want/need their official visitors to go away happy with their time there, and having all manner of random people around makes it harder to present the image they want.   (I don't mean that in a cynical way, but you can reasonably take it that way if you want.)

Marcus

________________________________
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> on behalf of Frank Wimberly <wimberly3 at gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 4, 2017 1:20:53 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] SFI to Trump: The dangers of simplicity in a complex world

I don't know about economic equality but they've reduced their embrace of intellectual equality.  The public is no longer welcome at their colloquia "without an invitation".  Only "community events" are available to others.

Frank Wimberly, PhD
                                    \I don't usually do this

Phone (505) 670-9918

On Feb 4, 2017 1:13 PM, "Steven A Smith" <sasmyth at swcp.com<mailto:sasmyth at swcp.com>> wrote:

Cody-

Nicely noticed!

 - Steve

The letter is very nice but based on the (possibly false) premise that they want economic equality, believe in climate change, and want to avoid cascading conflicts.

On Sat, Feb 4, 2017, 12:08 PM Marcus Daniels <marcus at snoutfarm.com<mailto:marcus at snoutfarm.com>> wrote:

Reason and politics collide!

On page 103 of..

https://issuu.com/devonisaiah/docs/santafe_vol2iss2_web

<https://issuu.com/devonisaiah/docs/santafe_vol2iss2_web>

[https://outlook.office.com/owa/projection.aspx&retryCount=3]

________________________________
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com<mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com>> on behalf of Owen Densmore <owen at backspaces.net<mailto:owen at backspaces.net>>
Sent: Saturday, February 4, 2017 11:18:55 AM
To: Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: [FRIAM] SFI to Trump: The dangers of simplicity in a complex world

I'm impressed with SFI's response to the ban on immigrants:
  http://web-prod.santafe.edu/news-center/news/dangers-simplicity-complex-world

Starts with:
The recent ban on immigrants to the Unites States is a dangerous and simplistic step that ignores the complexity of our networked world.

   -- Owen
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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