Our world

When I initially had to choose the classes for this semester, I instantly knew I wanted one of those classes to be this one. The class name, to my understanding at the time meant that I would be revisiting the concept of Systems Theory, in the context of psychology, and how Social Media has come to shape those interactions.

From the first class, I knew that while I wasn’t completely wrong, I also wasn’t totally correct. From the beginning this class showed itself to be a lot more abstract and thought provoking than what I was expecting, when the professor encourages us to put in writing our feelings, even when most often times they are not positive or cheery, and then coming back home and revisiting the subject matter of the class and transform our understanding of it into an anonymous blogpost to share with our classmates.

The range of activities we did also stuck with me, from putting our “home” city on the map and answering questions on Menti, to watching videos and drawing with color markers, all of them having a different type of significance for the lesson.

Although at first it seemed random, all through the semester it was interesting to see the connection between the topics of each class and the story that they tell when together, the evolution of the knowledge that we gained, even if we don’t realize it.

Starting with the topic of interdependence, what brings us together and how to be empathetic to ours and other people’s changes, while at the same time being in a constant state of development in a chaotic world. It was a lot to take in even in digestible sized pieces!

How do wolves change rivers? Are we just parts of a whole? Can we be reduced to parts? Is there a way to be open but not overexpose myself in a techno social environment? How can we thrive in chaos? How am I feeling? Are just some of the questions I asked myself when reflecting on this class.

If I had to pick, I probably wouldn’t be able to choose just one favorite topic of those taught in this course, but some of my favorites were:

The individual, the part and the whole- Human beings are capable of being moldable to fit all of these boxes and concepts in different contexts and situations. They can be and island, isolated from everyone and everything and lost in their own feelings and thoughts; they can also be a single component in a system: a sister, a student, a friend, a coworker; or they can simply be the center of everything, filled with little parts and components such as thinking abilities, emotions, skin and bones, making them whole. In my understanding we are all of them at the same time, in constant interaction with the environment around us.

Self-organization- Can also be called spontaneous order, is a process where some form of order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. The process can be spontaneous when sufficient energy is available, not needing control by any external agent. It is often triggered by seemingly random fluctuations, amplified by positive feedback. The resulting organization is wholly decentralized, distributed over all the components of the system. As such, the organization is typically robust and able to survive or self-repair substantial perturbation. Chaos theory discusses self-organization in terms of islands of predictability in a sea of chaotic unpredictability.

Some of the examples of self-organization we saw were the synchronization of 32 metronomes that were completely out of synch, how the slime molds sacrifice themselves to give the overall group of amoebae a better chance of survival and reproduction and how ants use every element of the colony find food.

Antagonistic vs mutualistic symbiotic relationships- Symbiosis can be described as the art of living together. It’s a dependable relationship between beings of different species. We can narrow down the specific type of relationship based on whether one or both organisms depend on it.

Taking the examples given in class, we have and Antagonistic symbiotic relationship when cheetahs hunt antelopes. Here the only animal gaining anything is the predator, who immediately kills the prey. On the other hand, in mutualistic relationships like the one between flowers and bees both are rewarded, either with the spreading of the flower pollen to encourage their reproduction and the bees get the necessary components to produce honey.

Systemic knowledge or wisdom- Is the belief that indigenous have in how our interactions with our environment should be. It’s knowing that you have to give back to the Earth to repay what you took and that there is no need to take advantage or remove more resources than those you need from the land.

The Lorenz strange attractor- A series of chaotic solutions for the Lorenz system. This peculiar group of factors is where one of my favorite theories of all time came from. The butterfly effect theory is applied to meteorology where the single flap of a butterfly’s wings can generate a tornado several weeks later. I also enjoy the romanticized aspect of the theory that circulates social media with how with every decision and action we take we can change the whole course of our lives or have a greater impact on the world.

Moore’s law- Is an expression used to describe Moore’s observation about the tendency that the development of transistors in chips doubles every two years, giving us some possible insight to the speed of the evolution of technology and our society along with it.

Lastly, we have Entropy, the measure of chaos in a closed system and how it tends to increase. Despite it being a part of the second law of thermodynamics in physics, during class it was present as the most likely future for human beings. That we are in a constant state of chaos that gets increasingly worse until it culminates in the end of the world. A little dramatic in my opinion.

Overall, I really appreciate the story the professor told with this class, giving almost seamless transitions between every week. Even though I wasn’t always motivated to attend, I recognize the dedication to present the topics in appealing manners and I’m thankful for the opportunity to be part of this little system.

As usual I found the topic of this week’s lesson very fitting.

We were introduced to the topic of entropy, which according to the descriptions given means a lack of predictability and a gradual and irreversible decline into disorder. So, if every day we act in a way we can’t revert, how if it is even possible can we prevent chaos?

If we follow the theory of the second law of thermodynamics, then the answer is no. at some point we will reach an equilibrium, a mystical ending to all of the chaos in world, where all of that energy combines until it reaches a state of peace.

Dr. Sean Carroll’s explanation eases my worries a little bit, although I must admit philosophy is not my strong suit and it left me with even more questions than I had before, perpetuating my entropy.

At last, it gives me peace that even my chaos can have a little time to rest before it becomes disorganized again. How the systems I’m a part of, the connections that I form and the interactions that I have given a little negentropy back to my chaotic world.

This is a very simple yet complex movie. Simple in the way that it gives the impression of being filmed in a very short time, the scenes flowing one after the other to show the fluidity of the convesation being had, while at the same time, discussing topics most people have never even thought about, much less presented them in such depth.

On a cloudy afternoon in the fairy-tale like isle of Mont Saint Michel, a conservative democratic politic, a wondering poet and a physicist on sabatical meet to talk about the world. These three, as one could expect, discuss the topics of politics and it’s impact on the people and the world; science and how in today’s age “pure science” can’t be practiced anymore, since it’s shadowed and pushed back by beaurocracy and the interests of powerful groups; phylosofy and poetry, among others.

We learn of names like Descartes, Francis Bacon and Newton, various poems and the conversation culminates in the systems theory. It is presented quite similarly to how we learned in class, how we all function in harmony and are a cohese mechanism, part of a whole or composed of many other parts.

This concept as well as some others don’t sit well with the poet, making the movie culminate in a monologue about him critising his companyons’ way of thinking, refusing to be reduced, stating that life is made to be felt, not condensable, impossible to count, that real people feel longing, have qualities and weaknesses, and I would have to agree with him that trying to oversimplify and categorizing life removes the joy out of it.

I know this post is a few weeks late by I still have some thoughts to share about the impact of Artificial Intelligence in our society.

I enjoyed the National Geographic video and Jason Silva’s interpretation on the metaphor of Techinical Singularity, but I enjoyed even more when he says that we have been surrounded by non-biological processes of evolution and other non-biological ways of interacting with the world, like writing, which is such a simple and everyday activity that we don’t even recognise the thousands of years of progress it took to get where we are today.

And this got me thinking, the fear based narrative that technology is bad and that we’re going to be overpowered and incampacitated by artifical intelligence stems from science-fiction movies with very little to no scientific support, even though we are already heavily dependant on it without even realising. Some of these examples are the algorithm for the most know social media platforms, spell checking when we are writing messages, the traffic monitoring on Google Maps and Netflix’s “what to watch next” feature.

A system where the effect that a condition may have is impossible to predict and is dependent on the former condition.

I like to view my life as a butterfly effect, where every little decision that I make, from what to dress that day, if I go to class or where I go out to eat, will have an impact on my story and that no matter what I choose, the outcome will always be different.

I appreciate these classes are organized, they run in a very fluent way and easy to connect the subjects to one another. Like how after showing us the unpredictability of human interactions and life, the professor showed us that more often than not, when our choices have consequences, we opt for the quickest and “easiest” solution at the time.

Ad hoc solutions remind me of keeping and raising animals in captivity. While it seems like a good alternative and I won’t deny that it is helping with preserving endangered species of animals, how will removing them completely from the wild alter their behavior? Will they lose important skills mostly learned by living in a multispecies environment, in a different climate on top of that? How long is it viable to seclude them before they start losing characteristic traits of the species?

I really enjoyed the little introduction to last weeks class and it’s what stuck with me the most. How we all live and are surrounded by an ecological network of both antagonistic and mutualistic symbiotic relationships.

I know that at some point in history all humanoids lived by systemic wisdom, knowing their place and purpose in nature without taking advantage of it, but can we go back to that? Is the damage we have done to Earth irreversible? How much can a singular person impact and try to improve in World full of constant destruction?

Are we in an antagonistic relationship with the planet? Taking what we want when we want and not thinking of the consequences of our actions? And if so, in what way can our relationship be considered mutualistic?

If you couldn’t tell the last class left me full of doubts, or maybe I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should.

Even though I wasn’t as focused in class as I could’ve been, the group task was really helpful in getting me to think about our tendency to see only the parts and not the whole in a network. Drawing with markers was also I hadn’t done since childhood and it brought back some very happy memories.

Remembering last wee’ks lesson, I keep think about how connected everything is and how you can put together reductionism and systems theory to create a linear explanation for our Universe. How you can have a big interacting system serving a single purpose but one of the elements of the system can be decomposed into smaller and smaller parts of itself.

But are the parts of the whole the same as the sum of the parts? When you divide and simplify the colors on a painting you don’t have a beautiful masterpiece anymore. You may have the inspiration, but not the final product, not the time and work that it took. We are missing the emergence of it.

Another interesting aspect was learning about organisms’ ability to self-organize, a dynamic and adaptative process that depends on every member of the group. Seeing that ants and amoebas function in such a way that they aren’t afraid to sacrifice themselves for the well-being of the whole group and for “the greater good”. I don’t think most Humans would ever act like that.

Society has programmed us to be selfish and self-centered by default, you almost must force and train yourself to be able to help someone when you get nothing in return.

This last class was more of a revision than learning a lot of new things, but it was very interesting seeing the comparison with systems and collections. Knowing that if there’s something in common and/or interactions between a collection of things or people they form an interdependence.

Realizing that we are part of tens of systems all at the same time and that our mere presence can impact the dynamic or change the purpose of the group makes me look at myself as a very impactful agent in the world. It makes me wonder how many people that I know either unconsciously or not manipulate the systems that we share.

I also appreciate the exercise at the beginning of the class. Writing 5 feelings and my expectations on the class are not usually something I think about. I’m used to just feel and not to process but here are my five feelings for now: I’m glad to have had the opportunity to do this Erasmus, I’m thankful for my parents helping me make the dream to visit Greece come true, I miss my family and my cats more than anything, I love the people I’m meeting here and I hope that some of these friendships last for a long time and I want to continue exploring and learning.

I know I’m typing this a little later than it’s supposed to but I guess I’ve been living the Erasmus student life, making it even harder to organize my time.

Last week’s lesson was my first impression of the course and I must say I really enjoyed it. Talking about empathy and what it entails was very enlightening. Hearing about other people’s experiences and expectations when it comes to relating and forming relationships wasn´t something I was counting on talking about.

The dinamization of the class where we had to introduce our home and then our task partners’s home was a really nice way of taking us out our confort zone and encouraging us to get to know so more people.

Even though I liked the rest of the class I can’t deny that my favorite part was when we talked about the city that felt like home.

And what is home? Is it a place? a feeling? a person? For me it’s a mix of all of those and although I’m loving this new experience, I can’t deny I already feel a little homesick. I know that the memories I’m making while I’m here will remain some of my fondest ones, but I guess home is where the heart is.

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