Deze blog bevat een presentatie over de Community of Practice (CoP). Een CoP is een verzameling mensen die ervaring delen.
Opvallend is dat de zuivere Community of Practice niet voorkomt. Dat komt omdat men Kennis (Theorie) en Ervaring (Praktijk) door elkaar haalt.
De verwarring ontstaat omdat men de theorie als “dwingende” ervaring ziet. De theorie is foutloos. De gebruikers van de theorie maken fouten die worden veroorzaakt door tekortkomingen bij de gebruiker en niet in de theorie.
Doordat de gebruiker volgens de regels werkt en het mislukken van de regels door de gebruiker komt en niet door de regels wordt de theorie niet aangepast en worden de mislukkingen geaccepteerd totdat het systeem zich volledig volgens de regels gedraagt.
Het idee dat de praktijk ondergeschikt is aan de theorie is ontstaan in de Verlichting, een periode die samenvalt met de 18de eeuw.
In die tijd werd de verbeelding (het creatieve) teruggebracht tot de fantasie en werden de emoties (die waarderen) gezien als een geestelijk probleem (“hysterie“). Het enige wat telde was de ratio die werd vertaald in logisch redeneren.
In de verlichting ontstond de conduit-metafoor, een model waarbij communicatie een proces is waarbij conduits (objecten, containers) worden uitgewisseld die door iedereen te begrijpen kennis bevatten.
Dit in tegenstelling tot de toolmaker-metafoor waarin de mens zijn waarheid toont in zijn handelen (“The Truth of the Pudding is in the Eating“, (Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1615))).
Er zijn vier uitspraken over Waarheid mogelijk:
(1) De waarheid van een theorie is objectief.
(2) De waarheid van een theorie is gebaseerd op de waarneming van dat wat gebeurt (een feit is een gebeurtenis (een geboorte)).
(3) De waarheid van een theorie is een mening, een waardering: “If we have Analyzed Judgment, we have solved the problem of Truth” (F.P. Ramsey, Fact and Propositions, 1927). Wat (belangrijke) mensen vinden (zoals de Paus of een Hoogleraar) is waar.
(4) De waarheid van een theorie is het gevolg van een persoonlijk inzicht. Vaak het resultaat van een waarom-vraag. Wat ik geloof is waar.
De vier kijken op de waarheid kunnen worden ondergebracht in een vierluik wat door Jung een Quaternio werd genoemd. Een Quaternio bestaat uit twee tegendelen en twee complementen.
Een Inzicht is het gevolg van een uitzicht, een waarneming die in een waargeving resulteert (Waar -> Weer, Beeld, Idee).
De waarheid is objectief (context-vrij) en subjectief (wat anderen er van vinden, context-afhankelijk).
Ervaring is wat de mens al doende in de werkelijkheid als afwijking van zijn eigen theorie, zijn Verwachting (Overtuiging), meemaakt. Ervaring is een persoonlijke reflectie op het persoonlijk handelen.
Een Community of Practice (CoP) lijkt erg veel op het Middeleeuwse Gilde met als groot verschil dat lokatie geen rol meer speelt zodat een Gilde niet meer bij een Stad hoeft te horen maar in theorie wereldwijd kan opereren.
Door de enorme schaal die nu optreedt is het vrijwel onmogelijk om een eenduidig definitie voor een gilde te formuleren waardoor er veel communities zijn die min of meer hetzelfde gebied betreffen.
Dit is voor een deel opgelost door de gildes om te zetten in Internationale Standaard/Beroeps Organisaties die zich bezig houden met het ontwikkelen van Normen. Normen zijn theorieen die door een groep mensen worden geaccepteerd.
De belangrijkste factor in een Gilde is het Delen van Fouten waardoor de Theorie van de Gezellen kan worden verbeterd. In de huidige tijd hebben mensen erg veel moeite met het delen van Fouten omdat Fouten maken wordt gezien als Falen.
De werkwijze om een eerste versie van een CoP op te zetten lijkt erg veel op het ontwikkelen van een Expert-Systeem, waarbij de Meesters en Gezellen de Experts zijn en de Fouten (Failures) door de leerlingen worden geleverd.
Aangezien iedereen een leerling is geweest kan iedereen een relatie leggen tussen een veelgemaakte fout en een oplossing van de fout.
In het algemeen maken mensen steeds weer dezelfde fouten als ze met een beroep beginnen behalve als de fout structureel in het ontwerp- en bouwproces is geadresseerd.
Op dit moment bestaan er miljoenen communities die kunnen worden getypeerd door de Menselijke Persoonlijkheid die een combinatie is van Kennis (Wikipedia), Ervaring (Praktijk), Relaties (Sociaal, Facebook) en Creatief (Inzicht, Interesse, Linkedin).
Een Gilde is een productie-systeem. In een product-systeem loopt de Cyclus rechtsom. Linksom gaat het om een consumptie-systeem. Beiden systemen houden elkaar in evenwicht bij het Hart (Communion/Wij).
Wat nu volgt zijn de sheets van de presentatie met toelichting in presentatievorm.
Het laatste plaatje voor de samenvatting laat zien dat er twee manieren zijn om de cyclus te doorlopen n.l. met de klok en tegen de klok. De eerste is de productie-cyclus en de tweede is de consumptie-cyclus.
Many people believe that the theor]]><![CDATA[y of Evolution is based on the concept of competition. They believe that every gene, every cell, and every organism is designed to promote its own evolutionary success at the expense of others.
The big problem with this concept is that it does not explain the enormous amount of cooperation that is visible in Nature.
Atoms cooperate in Molecules. Molecules cooperate in Genes. Genes cooperate in Chromosomes. Chromosomes cooperate in eukaryoticcells. Cells cooperate in Multicellular Organisms. Multi Cellular Organisms cooperate in Humans. Humans cooperate in Families and Tribes and Families and Tribes cooperate in Organizations and Nations.
The question of how natural selectioncan lead to cooperative behavior or reciprocal altruism has fascinated evolutionarybiologists for several decades.
When Charles Darwin was writing his famous book the Descent of Man (1871) he was already highly puzzled by the social structures of the ants. Their cooperative behavior was “one special difficulty, which at first appeared to me insuperable, and actually fatal to my theory”.
To solve his problem Darwin proposed that in the case of ant societies natural selection applies not to the individual, but to the family or group. The ants were part of a “Super-Organism”, that consists of genetically similar individuals.
Although many individuals showed altruistic behavior in the group the “genetic code” was replicated because the individuals in the group were all “look alikes”. The Ants were “the Same” (Similar) and therefore every Ant that survived promoted the Genes of the Community.
To explain his theory Darwin wrote ‘sympathy is directed solely towards members of the same community, and therefore towards known, and more or less loved members, but not all the individuals of the same species’.
For humans, both Spouses and best Friends are most similar on attributes with higher heritability. People join clubs and societies that contain similar people and adopt ideologies that work in their genetic selfinterest. Genetic similarity also explains voting behaviour.
The Human Detection Center of Genetic Similarity is situated in the amygdala a part of the Limbic Brain System that is involved in Fear and Arousal. The Amygdala activates the Sympathetic Nervous System responsible for the fight/flight-response of the Body. It prepares the body to get into action.
The recognition of another person depends on a long series of fast electrophysiological and slow biochemical reactions to the stimuli particular to that person or situation. These stimuli include seeing the other person’s face, hearing his voice, feeling his touch, and smelling his personal odors.
The reaction patterns of Humans to a fearfull situation are different. Some people, the Hawks, re-act very fast. They Fight and Compete. Some people, the Doves, re-act very slow. They Freeze, Flight or Cooperate.
To find the appropriate reaction-pattern every one of our senses works hard to identify “the other” or “the others“. The detection of “dangerous others” has to happen very fast. This is the task of the electrophysiological pathways.
A fast detection is unreliable therefore a second “slow” cognitive pathway is started. In the cortex the frightening stimulus is analyzed in detail, using stored information from many parts of the brain, and a message is sent back down to the amygdala.
To detect stimuli that are really dangerous the amygdala uses a memory. This memory contains learned and inherited, imprinted, situations. The imprinted situations are highly related to the detection of genetic similarity.
If an animal or a human is frequently attacked the memory contains many Painfull Situations and the amygdala reacts more specific to a situation. The older a person gets the more difficult it becomes to erase this memory.
If people or animals are unable to make a distinction between their Own Whole and the Whole of the Others it will result in a Blurring of the Identity. The Whole of the Observer Merges or Overlaps with the Whole of the Observed. If this happens people act in a “friendly“, Emphatic, mode and experience others as more “the same” than others do.
A Cooperative Strategy is highly related to the possibility of the Cognitive Part of the Human Detection-System to Move into the Other and Imagine what will Happen. The Hawks lack the ability to Imagine.
The most interesting concept that came out of Darwins Group Selection Theory is the Idea of the Super-Organism.
This Super Organism shows itself in many ways. Examples are the Family, the Tribe, Society and the Earth.
There is a similarity between the roles played by different organizations in Society and the functions of organs, systems and circuits in the body.
Industrial plants extract energy and building blocks from raw materials, just like the digestive system. Roads, railways and waterways transport these products from one part of the system to another one, just like the arteries and veins. Garbage dumps and sewage systems collect waste products, just like the colon and the bladder. The army and police protect the society against invaders and rogue elements, just like the immune system.
If we take the concept of the Super Organism a little bit further we could imagine the Super-Super-Super-Organism that contains all the other Organisms. In some way every Organism is Genetically Similar (“the Same“) to this Organism.
If this is true and the Theory of Group Selection is Right every Organism is an enfolding of the “Architecture of the Whole“, the Tree of Life, and a Majority of the Organisms (the Doves) will have an Altruistic Tendency to this Super-Organism.
The Doves Love, want to Unite With, the Whole and the Hawks dislike the Whole because they want to be a Whole themselves.
Some Scientists call the Super Organism, Gaia, Mother Earth, but there is no reason why we should not include the Bigger Structures in the Universe until we have reached the Boundary.
On every Level the Same Pattern appears.
On every level the Whole is splitted into Individual Parts. The parts live a Life of their own (Agency). When we Move UP the Parts are United (Communion) into a Bigger Structure.
When we look DOWN we interpret the proces of Splitting as a Competition. When we look UP we see a different pattern we Name “Cooperation“.
If we look at the history of the splitting process it looks like the wholes were splitted without any reason. It just happened. If we believe this Evolution is based on pure chance. Life is just a coincedence.
When we analyze the process of Evolution a Pattern emerges. This pattern is Cyclic, Leveled and Self-Referential. The process is almost invisible because with every Name we Utter we carve out a portion of the world and create a Boundary.
Every Time we Divide the World with Words the World becomes more complicated. Every New Concept that is not created without a View on the Pattern of the Whole generates a higher level of Confusion and increases the Complexity of Something that is really very Simple.
We create distinctions between Animals and Humans, Humans and Plants because the Hawkish Genes Want Us to Believe We Are Something Special.
Because of their Special Status the Hawks treat their fellow organisms in a very brutal way. They Exploit (Desire) them because of their Need to Control their Environment. They want to Control their Environment because they are Afraid to lose Control. They are Afraid that their Identity (Their Ego, Their Agency, Their Whole) will disappear when they Commune with the Whole.
The Effect of the Behavior of the Hawks is the Destruction of the Environment that they Fear so Much. They are destroying their own Mother Earth who is certainly one of the Super Organisms that gave birth to the many wholes that are just there to Enjoy her Care.
The big problem we have is Naming. What we don’t see or don’t want to see is that every Split is a Split in two Opposite Complementary Parts (Yin/not-Yin= Yang, Male/not-Male = Female, Cooperate/not-Cooperate = Compete) that Share the Void, the Empty Set, the State the Universe was in before it was created.
On every level the Nothing, the State of Infinite Potential and Love, is still there but it is hidden because we started to use Words, to describe what meant to be an Experience.
This brings us to the final conclusion.
The big problem that is treatening Mother Earth is Hawkish Behavior. In the long term this kind of behavior is not helping the Human Gene at all. It not only destroys the Human Gene. It destroys the complete group of genetic “Look-a-Likes” of the Human Gene.
Darwin was Right.
Altruistic Behavior, Cooperation, is the Only Way for the (Human) Genes to Survive.
Let us Help the Hawks to Erase their Fearfull Memories.
The Ancient Greeks believed that the images of waking life and dreams came from the same source, Morpheus (Μορφέας, Μορφεύς), “He who Shapes“.
The Science of the Shapes, Morphology, was created and named by Goethe in his botanical writings (“Zur Morphologie“, 1817).
Goethe used comparative anatomical methods, to discover a primal plant form that would contain all the others-the Urpflanze. Goethe being a Romantic Idealist hoped that Morphology would Unify Science and Art.
The Uhrplant shows itself also in the Lungs and Riversystems
“The Primal Plant is going to be the strangest creature in the world, which Nature herself shall envy me. With this model and the key to it, it will be possible to go on forever inventing plants and know that their existence is logical”. “Nature always plays, and from which she produces her great variety. Had I the time in this brief span of life I am confident I could extend it to all the realms of Nature – the whole realm“.
Goethe (wikipedia)
Hundred years later in the 1920s Goethe’s dream came true. Morphology moved outside Biology to other parts of Science due to the works of D’Arcy Thompson’s On Growth and Form, Oswald SpenglerMorphology of History, Carol O. Sauer Morphology of Landscape, Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale andAlfred North WhiteheadProcess and Reality.
Goethe observed nature and reflected on similar structures. He believed that there was something behind this similarity, an archetypal plant.
According to Goethe the archetypal plant was the leaf (“While walking in the Public Gardens of Palermo it came to me in a flash that in the organ of the plant which we are accustomed to call the leaf lies the true Proteus who can hide or reveal himself in all vegetal forms. From first to last the plant is nothing but leaf“).
At this moment scientists know the reason why the leaf is the most important structure of the plant. It is a solar collector full of photosynthetic cells.
The energy of the sun provides the energy to transform water from the roots gathered by the leafs and carbon dioxide out of the air also gathered by the leafs, into sugar and oxygen. Plants are structures with many leaves. These leafs shield other leafs from collecting sunlight and water.
To solve this problem a plant has to optimize its structure to collect enough Sunlight and Water. The process of Optimization is not a Central Coordinated action. Every leaf tries to find the best place in the Sun on its own. This place determinates the growth of the next level of branches and leafs.
Goethe observed a pattern and deduced a structure, the leaf, the Uhrplanze. What Goethe really observed was not a Static Uhrplant but the DynamicProcess of the Branching of all kinds of leaves in all kinds of plants (Morpho-Genesis).
The leafs of the plants are not the main target of the morphogenesis of the plant. The visible External and the invisible Internal Forms or Organs are one of the many solutions of an equation with many variables and constraints. The optimal solution is reached by experimenting (“Nature always plays”).
Many solutions fail but some survive (Evolution of the Fittest). When a solution survives it is used as a Foundation to find new rules for more specific problems (Specialization). When the environment, the context, changes old rules have to be replaced by new rules (a Paradigm Shift).
The Fractal Geometry of Nature
New mathematical paradigms in the field of the Machines and Languages (Alan Turing,The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis) and the Self-Referencial Geometry of Nature (Benoît Mandelbrot, The Fractal Geometry of Nature) have stimulated further investigation in the Field of Morphology.
In 1931, in a monograph entitled On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related SystemsGödel proved that it is impossible to define a theory that is both Self-Consistent and Complete. The paper of Gödel destroyed the ambitions of the Mathematicians at that time to define one theory that explains everything.
In 1936 Alan Turing produced a paper entitled On Computable Numbers. In this paper Alan Turing defined a Universal Machine now called a Turing Machine. A Turing machine contains an infinite tape that can move backwards and forwards and a reading/writing device that changes the tape. The Turing Machine represents every Theory we can Imagine.
Turing proved that the kinds of questions the machine can not solve are about its own Performance. The machine is Unable to Reflect about Itself. It needs another independent machine, anObserver or Monitor to do this.
It can be proved that Turing proved the so called Incompleteness Theorem and the Undecidability Theorem ofGödel in a very simple way.
The Eniac
In 1943 Turing helped to Crack the Codes of the Germans in the Second World War. At that time the first computers were build (Eniac, Collossus).
It was very difficult to Program a Computer. This problem was solved when Noam Chomsky defined the Theory of Formal Grammars in 1955 (TheLogical Structure of Linguistic Theory).
When you want to define a Language you need two things, an Alphabet of symbols and Rules. The symbols are the End-Nodes (Terminals) of the Network of Possibilities that is produced when the Rules (Non-Terminals) are Applied. The Alphabet and the (Production- or Rewriting) rules are called a Formal Grammar.
If the Alphabet contains an “a” and a “p” the rules S→AAP, A→”a” and P→”p” produce the result “aap”. Of course this system can be replaced by the simple rule S→”aap”. The output becomes an infinite string when one of the rules contains a Self-Reference. The rules A→a and S→AS produce an Infinity String of “a’-s (“aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa….”).
The system becomes more complicated when we put terminals and rules (non-terminals) on the Left Side. The System S→aBSc, S→abc, Ba→aB and Bb→bb produces strings like, “abc”, “aabbcc” and “aaabbbccc”. In fact it produces all the strings a**n/b**n/c**n with n>0.
The inventor of the theory of Formal Grammar, Chomsky, defined a Hierarchy of Languages. The most complex languages in his hierarchy are called Context-Dependent and Unrestricted. They represent complex networks of nodes.
A language where the left-hand side of each production rule consists of only a single nonterminal symbol is called a Context Free language. Context Free Languages are used to define Computer Languages. Context Free Languages are defined by a hierarchical structure of nodes. Human Languages are dependent on the context of the words that are spoken.
It is therefore impossible to describe a Human Language, Organisms, Organisations and Life Itself with a Context Free Computer Language.
Context Free Systems with very simple rule-systems produce natural and mathematical structures. The System A → AB, B → A models the Growth of Algae and the Fibonacci Numbers.
A Recognizer or Parser determinates if the output of a formal grammar is produced by the grammar. Parsers are used to check and translate a Program written in a Formal (Context Free) Language to the level of the Operating System of the Computer.
Regular and Context Free Grammars are easily recognized because the process of parsing is linear (causal, step by step). The stucture of the language is a hierarchy.
The recognizer (now called a Push-Down Machine) needs a small memory to keep the books.
Context Dependent (L-systems) and Unrestricted Grammars are difficult to recognize or are not recognizable in practice because the parser needs a huge sometimes Infinite Memory or Infinite Time to complete its task.
To find the Context the Recognizer has to jump backwards and forwards through the infinite string to detect the pattern.
If the network loops the recognizer will Never Stop (“The Halting Problem“).
Turing proved that the Halting Problem is Undecidable. We will Never Know for Sure if an Unrestricted Grammar contains Loops.
The Rules and the Output of Unrestricted Grammars Change and never stop Changing. Our Reality is certainly Context Dependent and perhaps Unrestricted.
Parsing or Recognizing looks like (is similar with) the process of Scientific Discovery. A theory, a Grammar of a Context-Free Systems (“aaaaaaaaaaa…”) is recognizable (testable) in Finite Time with a Finite Memory. Theories that are Context Dependent or Unrestricted cannot be proved although the Output of the Theory generates Our Observation of Nature. In this case we have to trust Practice and not Theory.
A 3D Cellular Automaton
In 2002 the Mathematician Stephen Wolfram wrote the book A New Kind of Science.
In this book he tells about his long term Experiments with his own Mathematical Program Mathematica. Wolfram defined a System to Generate and Experiment with Cellular Automata.
Wolfram believes that the Science of the Future will be based on Trial and Error using Theory Generators (Genetic Algorithms). The big problem with Genetic Algorithms is that they generate patterns we are unable to understand. We cannot find Metaphors and Words to describe the Patterns in our Language System.
Leibniz believed that our Universe was based on Simple Understandable Rules that are capable of generating Highly Complex Systems.
It is now very clear that the Self-Referencial Structures, the Fractals, of Mandelbrot are the solution of this problem.
The Scientific Quest at this moment is to find the most simple Fractal Structure that is capable of explaining the Complexity of our Universe. It looks like this fractal has a lot to do with the Number 3.
It is sometimes impossible to define a structured process to recognize (to prove) a Grammar. Therefore it is impossible to detect the rules of Mother Nature by a Structured process. The rules of Mother Nature are detected by Chance just like Goethe discovered the Uhrplanze. Science looks a lot like (is similar with) Mother Nature Herself.
When a Grammar is detected it is possible to use this grammar as a Foundation to find new solutions for more specific problems (Specialization, Add More Rules) or when the system is not able to respond to its environment it has to Change the Rules (a Paradigm Shift). All the time the result of the System has to be compared with Mother Nature herself (Recognizing, Testing, Verification).
Turing proved that if Nature is equivalent to a Turing machine we, as parts of this machine, can not generate a complete description of its functioning.
In other words, a Turing machine, A Scientific Theory, can be a very useful tool to help humans design another, improved Turing Machine, A new Theory, but it is not capable of doing so on its own – A Scientific Theory, A System, can not answer Questions about Itself.
The solution to this problem is to Cooperate. Two or more (Human) Machines, A Group, are able to Reflect on the Other. When the new solution is found the members of the Group have to Adopt to the new solution to move on to a New Level of Understanding and drop their own Egoistic Theory.
Each of the individuals has to alter its Own Self and Adapt it to that of the Group. It is proved that Bacteria use this Strategy and are therefore unbeatable by our tactics to destroy them.
Turing proved that Intelligence requires Learning, which in turn requires the Human Machine to have sufficient Flexibility, including Self Alteration capabilities. It is further implied that the (Human) Machine should have the Freedom to make Mistakes.
Perfect Human Machines will never Detect the Patterns of Nature because they get Stuck in their Own Theory of Life.
The Patterns of Turing
The Only ONE who is able to Reflect on the Morphogenesis ofMother Nature is the Creator of the Creator of Mother Nature, The Void.
Gregory Chaitin used the theory of Chomsky and proved that we will never be able to understand The Void.
The Void is beyond our Limits of Reason. Therefore the first step in Creation will always be a Mystery.
At the end of his life (he commited suicide) Alan Turing started to investigate Morphology.
As you can see the Patterns of Alan Turing are created by combining many Triangels. The Triangel is called the Trinity in Ancient Sciences.
According to the Tao Tse King, “The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things”, which means that the Trinity is the Basic Fractal Pattern of the Universe.
In modern Science this pattern is called the Bronze Mean.
It generates so called Quasi Crystals and the Famous Penrose Tilings.
The Bronze Mean is represented by the Ancient Structure of the Sri Yantra (“Devine Machine”).
Goethe was not the real discoverer of Morphology. The knowledge was already there 8000 years ago.
One Cellar Creatures, Bacteria, have no need for a central Multi-Cellar Coordi]]><
Regular and Context Free Grammars are easily recognized because the process of parsing is linear (causal, step by step). The stucture of the language is a hierarchy.
One Cellar Creatures, Bacteria, have no need for a central Multi-Cellar Coordi]]><
In the evolution of Vertebrates from Fish to Mammals, the most significant changes have occurred in the Structure of the 
The belief in Rational Decision Making has been the focus of Economic Theory for a very long time.
Humans base their theory of the other on inferences about historical behavior and completely forget Situational aspects. When a context is hostile the other must be hostile too. When others behave differently from their expectations they suddenly introduce situational factors to sustain their believe system.
Michelson and Morley found that the speed of Light was a constant (now called c) and the Ether (Space) was empty and static.
