Complex Systems Co-Design

By John Motloch

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320739736_Complex_System_Co-Design_Pathway_to_becoming_an_appreciative_system

Paper - 2017

Generations of design process.

• Paper proposes complex system co-design as seminal fifth-generation decision processes
  • NB: even Motloch fuses with the machine in his acceptance of the digital in Complex Systems Co-Design
  • Emphasis is not on innovation, but on innovation-adaptation (to address feedback loops)
  • Includes people and the system
  • It is Allocentric, not Anthropocentric.
• Paper downloaded to wiki: File:CSCD.pdf
• MJ - paper short on impactful current methods, rich in theory of 5th generation design thinking.

Notes

• This paper sees complex adaptive systems (CAS) as “appreciative systems” [7] where entities actively and creatively participate in the reality they help create.
  • TLDR; You cannot appreciate something (and be responsible) if you do not participate.
• To unlock cognitive complexity, we can learn how to live within CAS metabolic flows, how to harvest rather than mine resources, and how to internalize all costs, resist disinformation and culturally induced ignorance 3 [28], and sustain positive eco-balance. [17]

Primary to tertiary support systems of the earth.

• The phases of cognitive complexification go from a reductive view to an appreciative view (view of agency or active and creative participation in reality creation). Tension is between the individual and collective. Resolution is simply to terminate the illusion of separateness.

From reductionist to appreciative cognition.

• Human Evolution - The contention is further that what it means to be human is changing rapidly from our former reductive, anthropocentric-focused definition of humanity to a more appreciative, complex, whole-system view.

3 Step Process to Complex Systems Co-Design

1. Commit to appreciate
2. Shift from problem-solving to appreciative inquiry (AI)
3. Embrace agency (active participation in creation)

The first is for individuals and communities to commit to becoming appreciative. [7] The second is to shift from a problem-solving mentality to an appreciative inquiry (AI) approach that identifies and appreciates existing strengths as assets, and uses these to inform decisions and to catalyze more-appreciative decisions. The third step is to embrace complex system co- design (CSCD) 4 as an ethic, a proactive approach, and processes for learning-forward how to help CAS evolve in healthy, productive and sustainable ways. Using a CSCD approach can empower people to co-adapt as intelligent agents in complex system co-design processes, promote the co-adapted behavior of immense numbers of assets, and help redefine what it means to be human as intelligent assets in this appreciative system.

For the third step, Motloch proposes:

1. interconnect three levels of community supports --ecological systems, infrastructure, and built-environments -- to optimize potential of the EWF Nexus (EWF Nexus = Energy, Water, Food); 2) re-provision homes and communities as intelligent assets in healthy energy, water, and food systems; and 3) create healthy local networks where people and communities thrive using net-zero living and production systems.