Category Archives: Complexity

Chaos Society conference in Orange

Posted on by

This year’s Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences conference towards the end of July sounds intriguing, with analysis of “the Enron 1999-2002 e-mail corpus to analyze social networks and their evolution over time” from Terrill Frantz at Carnegie-Mellon University.

For newcomers to the field of ‘non-linear dynamics’ there’s class act Stephen Guastello, Professor of Psychology at Marquette University, who will conduct an introductory level workshop entitled Basic Nonlinear Dynamics covering some of the basic concepts and illustrating their explanatory power.

And other highlights include John and Jo Lee Link (Volvox, Inc.), in an intermediate to advanced-level workshop, will demonstrate the Chaos, Inc. exercise, a simulation of dynamical processes for practitioners working in complex organizations.

And it all takes place at Chapman University (the collage above is the work of Chapman alumnus E. Moises Diaz) in the charming City of Orange, CA.

Luck vs death

Posted on by

World Trade Centre Business CardPhoto by Stuart Glendinning Hall

I just found the business card in Leciester from HIV expert Dr Sam Friedman, which has the World Trade Centre address. When I asked Sam, he was luckily late for work that day in New York on 9/11.

I don’t recall if I reminded him about the value of luck vs death. By retrospective coincidence in 1999 I’d quoted for the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences conference at Berkeley research of his and his colleague’s, on ordinary people’s (or in this case drug injectors’) ability to see something coming before it ‘hit’ them:

“Drug injectors in New York (and indeed, throughout the world) have acted both to protect themselves and others against the AIDS epidemic. Thus, by 1984, before there were any programs other than the mass media to inform them about AIDS or to help to protect themselves, drug injectors in New York were engaged in widespread risk reduction…Furthermore, observations on the street confirmed this by showing that drug dealers were competing with others for business by offering free sterile syringes along with their drugs as AIDS-prevention techniques.” [1]

Nice to close the loop by finding the card. Only a few months to go as well to pay off the loan for all that research:-)

Reference
1. Friedman SR, Curtis R, Neaigus A, Jose B, Des Jarlais DC, ‘Social Networks, Drug Injectors’ Lives, and HIV/AIDS,’ 1999. New York, Kluwer/Plenum. Also see ‘Big Events and Networks’.