I’m writing a paper right now titled “The Self as a System of Systems Processes” for the International Conference on Complex Systems held by necsi.org in Boston at the beginning of October.

I’m trying to do it in eight pages so that it can make the published proceedings. I’m putting together a power point outline and then linking with the shortest transition sentences possible. Whew.

The abstract has been submitted and the paper and poster presentation accepted. Yes!

Here’s the abstract:

Subjective human experience is explored by psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, spiritual teachings, evolutionary biology, and more. Consciousness, cognition, and emotion are approached differently by researchers from different disciplines making interpretations of findings and communications among disciplines difficult. Reframing the self or subjective experience as a system of processes provides a model for integrating concepts and findings from various disciplines, for defining and potentially measuring what may be considered abstract and illusive, and for generating new hypotheses and models. This paper adapts Banathy’s three lenses for developing a systems view of any system and applies it to the self. The system-environment lens outlines hierarchical processes of the self and human systems, boundaries and boundary conditions, and the capacity to adapt and coevolve. The function-structure lens describes components, functions, and regulatory processes of the self within human systems. The development lens compares hierarchical levels of development and reframes them as processes and systems types. This model results in simple, functional, and measurable descriptions for  (1) the experience of self as three components: an innate “wisdom” (subconscious capacity to process masses of information), cognition, shifting awareness or consciousness; (2) ethics and emotions as regulatory “guidance systems;” (3) a process definition of mental health; and (4) the self as an developing and coevolving system emergent from neurophysiological systems and embedded in human systems.

A few weeks ago I spent some time listening again to Len Troncale at the meeting of the Intl Society for the Systems Sciences in Tokyo. His vision of systems science is staggering. He has kept the whole vision under wraps, doing stealth science, for years. He’s retiring this year and he’s finally writing it all out.

Still ringing in my ears and echoing through my mind are Australian Janet McIntyre’s words. She said repeatedly that nothing matters if it isn’t connected to sustainability, that this planet is going down and that is the only focus worth focusing on.

At the end of October I’m going to be meeting with Gary Metcalf, David Ing, Jennifer Wilby and Pam Buckle Henning in Chicago to discuss systems, next year’s ISSS meeting, and the web site. It’s been rolling around in my head.

Here’s where I’m at this week:
We are self-organizing beings within self-organizing societies. When we feel safe, we open to flows of information and energy/matter. We bond and create networks. We naturally self-organize into greater complexity and integration. When threatened, we close down. Thinking becomes self-referential, circular, and negative. Perspective is narrowed. Closure leads to North Korea and the boys who shot up Columbine High.

We must develop a social technology that reflects these processes. We must develop a new science and a new philosophy/worldview that can integrate the religions and our various perspectives and our cultural differences and the findings of science.

Here’s a start:

First, imagine a new science in the curriculum.

Biology has its taxonomy–its genus, species, etc. Chemistry has its periodic table of elements. Systems science has the 100+ processes found in all complex systems throughout nature.

Next, imagine learning about the world, not from the fragmented views of the various humanities and sciences, but as a network of processes–processes not as dry formulas but as rich deep metaphors–that integrates the humanities and the sciences, where the distinctions blend and disappear.

Imagine a world, where there is no more separate philosophy and religion and science. All is science. Not a cold, mechanical science–not that science has ever been that for scientists–but a living, breathing, and grounded science, one that takes us into the reaches of our imagination, into the processes of our emotions and minds and lives together. One that makes sense, that unites us and guides us in this extremely connected, very populated, very small world.

I’m beginning to glimpse this new kind of science and new kind of thinking. I’m seeing it everywhere in different forms. It’s no accident that the Dalai Lama sees brain science as the path to peace.

When we finally link our emotions, our reasoning, our ethics, and our interactions with each other to a science of systems processes–and it’s beginning to happen–creativity will replace struggle, and our consciousness will expand, and our potential will blossom.

We just have to create this before completely poisoning ourselves and the planet. It’s a race. I’m betting on us.