On Cycles and Folds and how to make the World work

1. Connected World
Connected Systems
On Cycles and Folds and how to
make the World work
Harald Katzmair

2. “We are in an age that assumes the narrowing
trends of specialization to be logical, natural, and
desirable. Consequently, society expects all
earnestly responsible communication to be crisply
brief. . . . In the meantime, humanity has been
deprived of comprehensive understanding.
Specialization has bred feelings of isolation, futility,
and confusion in individuals. It has also resulted in
the individual's leaving responsibility for thinking
and social action to others. Specialization breeds
biases that ultimately aggregate as international
and ideological discord, which, in turn, leads to
war.”
Buckminster Fuller: Synergetics (1975)
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 2

3. The Language of Networks
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 3

4. 1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 4

5. 1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 5

6. Synergy
 Synergy means behavior of whole systems
unpredicted by the behavior of their parts
taken separately.
There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you
its going to be a butterfly.
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 6

7. Economy as Synergetic System
„Die Eröffnung neuer, fremder oder
einheimischer Märkte und die
organisatorische Entwicklung vom
Handwerksbetrieb und der Fabrik zu
solchen Konzernen wie dem U.S.-Steel
illustrieren den gleichen Prozess einer
industriellen Mutation – wenn ich diesen
biologischen Ausdruck verwenden darf –,
der unaufhörlich die Wirtschaftsstruktur
von innen heraus revolutioniert² ,
unaufhörlich die alte Struktur zerstört
und unaufhörlich eine neue schafft.
Dieser Prozess der „schöpferischen
Zerstörung“ ist das für den Kapitalismus
wesentliche Faktum. Darin besteht der
Kapitalismus und darin muss auch jedes
kapitalistische Gebilde leben.“
J.A.Schumepter, 7.Kap Kapitalismus,
Sozialismus und Demokratie, 1942 (1950)
Capitalism as mutational process of emergent, self
constructed, generative „creative destruction“
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 7

8. “Make the world work, for 100% of
humanity, in the shortest possible
time, through spontaneous
cooperation, without ecological
offense or the disadvantage of
anyone.”
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 8

9. To make the world work
1. Capacity Building: How to increase the capacity of
individuals, organizations, universities, cities,
regions etc. to go through adaptive cycles of re-
invention and innovation?
2. Network Building: What types of networks are
required?
3. Governance: What framework, incentives and
cultural ecology are required?
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 9

10. Buzz Holling´s Adaptive Cycle
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 10

11. H.T. Odums Paradigm of „Pulsing“
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 11

12. From “Life cycle” to “Eco cycle”
Müller/Fath 2008
(Business) Life as process of growth, stagnation, destructurization and
reorganization.
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 12

13. Ecocycle of Action
D. Hurst 1995
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 13

14. Functional Roles of a World that works
 Experimenter  Manager
 VC  Traditionalist
 Business Angel  Specialist
 Incubator  Bureaucrat
 Sponsor  Engineer
 Mentor  Controller
 Donor
 Philanthropist
 Researcher
 Entrepreneur  Visionary
 Pioneer  Artist
 Generalist  Philosopher
 Project maker  Dissident
 Adventurer  Desperate
 Change maker  Activist
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 14

15. Resilience Management
 Resilience Management defined as ensemble of
strategies and tactics for organizing and
integrating different stages, scales and
functional roles of the adaptive cycle with the
goal to strengthen the capacity, capability and
culture of an individual/organization/region etc.
to explore opportunity and provide value within
an existing or new threshold of a specific
institution, market and/or community even
under critical conditions.
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 15

16. Gunderson/Holling (2002)
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 16

17. Scale and Cultural (M)Emergy
global
Starmania, American Idol Global cultural event (Viennese Opera Ball)
SPACE
Local cult and tradition
local Parties and events © 2011 FAS.research
fast TIME slow

18. Scale and political Emergy
global
Viral Campaigning Federal Laws
SPACE
Grass Rooots Initiative Regional Government
local
© 2011 FAS.research
fast TIME slow

19. 1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 19

20. Network of a powerful Manager
global
Media Financial Services in B 2 G
SPACE
Event sponsoring Hunting
local © 2011 FAS.research
fast TIME slow

21. Network of a powerful Manager
global
SPACE
local © 2011 FAS.research
fast TIME slow

22. Cross Scale Networks
global
SPACE
Hybrid networks:
cross-scale fold networks
local © 2011 FAS.research
fast TIME slow

23. The Inversion of Cooperation and
Competition
Autocatalysis
The competition over the possibility to cooperate within an
autocatalytic setting of mutuality
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 23

24. Cross Scale Fold Networks
Closure Network Brokerage Network Structural Fold Network
Low Resilience High Resilience
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 24

25. Cross Scale Innovation Networks
 Experimenter
 Manager
 Business Angel
 Traditionalist
 VC
 Specialist
 Incubator
 Bureaucrat
 Sponsor
 Engineer
 Mentor
 Controller
 Donors
 Philanthropists
 Researcher
 Entrepreneur  Visionary
 Pioneer  Artist
 Generalist  Dissident
 Project maker  Charismatic Leader
 Adventurer  Desperate
 Change Makers
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 25

26. Edges of discontinuity
global
Between the big and the
small, the slow and the
fast are GAPS: empty,
Scale breaks
not used space, because
Scale breaks
resource variability is
high, insecurity is high.
SPACE Zone of challenge and opportunity The new spreads and
dies from between the
clumpy scales, so we
have first to determine
the edges and boundaries
of scales (frontiers,
identities, languages
etc.). It's not so much the
semi periphery where the
new starts, it's the gaps,
the edge of the scale
breaks (edge of big and
fast, edge of small and
slow etc.)
local Scale breaks
© 2011 FAS.research
1/17/2012 26
fast TIME slow

27. Innovation and Scale Breaks
Scale breaks
global
Scale breaks
Scale Breaks
Online-Community Global Institutions
SPACE
© 2011 FAS.research
local Event Scale breaks Local Clubs, Associations
1/17/2012 27
fast TIME slow

28. The new spreads and dies from
the edge of discontinuity
The new starts in-between of the
gaps of the crowded scales
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 28

29. Let´s map and explore those edges
of discontinuity!
1/17/2012 © 2011 FAS.research 29

30. “ I live on Earth at present, and I
don't know what I am. I know that
I am not a category. I am not a
thing — a noun. I seem to be a
verb, an evolutionary process —
an integral function of the
universe. And so are you.”
Buckminster Fuller - I Seem to Be a Verb (1970)
1/17/2012
© 2011 FAS.research 30

31. Connected World
Connected Systems
On Cycles and Folds and how to
make the World work
Thank you for your attention!
mailto: harald.katzmair@fas.at