Point of Order
The Apprentice, Round 2
I have been overwhelmed by the quality of applicants for the apprenticeship!
In order to give both you and me a better idea of the fit (which is just as important as your personal skillz) I have five projects for you to complete. To be true to the nature of the job — and so I can learn what I need to about you — I’m not going to provide any further instructions, parameters or clarifications beyond what you see here.
- Apply to attend TEDActive 2011 - if you get accepted and get the job with me, I will pay for you to attend. I will also choose two additional applicants and pay $2000 towards their registration fee. Email your acceptance letter ASAP to the mail link on RafeFurst.com.
- Create a Prezi - my friends at TrustArt.org unearthed the true story of the Statue of Liberty, which is not what the history books tell you. Your task is to create a compelling presentation about
The Apprentice
I’m looking for a budding superstar to be my apprentice. Someone who is eager to change the world but doesn’t exactly know how they are going to do it. At first you will be my shadow, learning everything I know. As soon as possible, you will take on the role of “COO” managing all of my projects. Once you’ve proven capable, if you are passionate about one project, I’ll fund you to take it supernova, but not before you find your replacement.
Here’s the vision. I’ve backed off of the communist stance, and I will pay you a salary. But it will only be enough for you to live modestly for the time being. The real value is in (a) being passionate about what you are doing with your life and (b) the potential to make a lot of money down the road.
If interested, write one paragraph in the comments below to convince me you are right for the job. Instead of references, …
Welcome, Kim Scheinberg!
Kim is one of my best friends and the single most self-aware friend I have. In terms of hearing a rational argument and seeing solid evidence, nobody updates their beliefs and practices to coincide quicker than Kim. And when the evidence shifts to suggest a deeper, more nuanced truth, so does Kim, without ego, and without disdain for those who are not as willing to remake their mind and personal identity with as much facility. These qualities (amongst others) makes Kim someone I greatly admire and strive to emulate, and someone with whom I always look forward to talking and learning from. I know you will too.…
Complex Systems Events & Groups
There are way too many “happenings” in complex systems research, theory and application to keep track of everything, but here are a few of note that came across my desk recently…
- AAAI Fall Symposium - CAS & The Threshold Effect - Nov. 5 - 7, 2009 - Arlington, VA
- Call for Contributions: Special Issue of the ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems on Self-Adaptive Systems: Models & Algorithms
- Submission deadline: December 15, 2009
- Teleconferences on Complex Systems: free and open to anyone
If you know of other “happenings” feel free to post them in the comments and may highlight them in a future post.…
Welcome, Alex Golubev
We have a new blog author on Emergent Fool that regular readers will recognize from his many insightful comments. We look forward to his posts!…
Welcome, Daniel Horowitz and Ace Bailey
Daniel and Ace just joined Emergent Fool as primary authors. You may recognize them from their frequent and insightful comments and hat tips.…
Welcome, Ben Allen
Ben Allen runs the Plektix blog and we’re trying an experiment to see if we can move towards a critical mass of like-minded complexity bloggers. To that end, Ben will be cross-posting his blog entries from Plektix for a while to this blog. If it works out to everyone’s satisfaction we may merge the blogs into one.
Any existing complexity bloggers out there who would like to engage in the same experiment, please let us know.…
Symposium Proposal
There is a proposed symposium on “Complex Adaptive Systems and the Threshold Effect: Views from the Natural and Social Sciences” on Nov. 5 - 7, 2009 in Arlington, VA. According to the details, “A final determination for scheduling this event will depend partially on the amount of interest from the community…” If you want to learn more or express your interest, email [email protected].…
The Emergent Fool
We changed the name/URL of the blog to better reflect that it’s a group blog now and not just Rafe. Same kind of content though, and we didn’t remove any existing content.…
AT&T Stepped Up to the Plate and Made Things Right
When I emailed AT&T about an outrageous international roaming charge that I wanted reversed, I wasn’t expecting much in the way of a positive response. But I got one, and I am making good on my promise to let people know about it. If anything is a complex system, cell phone customer service certainly is, so I view this as on topic :-)…
Need help with blog domain name
I’d like to find a domain name for this blog so that it’s not “rafefurst.wordpress.com” but rather is more inclusive of Kevin’s posting as well as potential future additional authors. I’ve tried procuring the obvious things like complexsystems.com, but the owners want too much money for them. So I’m asking you guys to get creative, find an available domain name (not one that is being squatted), and suggest it here. The domain doesn’t necessarily have to do with “Complex Adaptive Systems”, but it should make sense for the content of the blog, however you interpret that.…
Welcome, Kevin Dick
True to its title, this blog itself is adapting. I’m pleased that one of the smartest people I know has accepted my invitation to join me as a primary contributor. I’ll let Kevin introduce himself from here……
Prelude
The last two days I attended a conference that I was attracted to because the organizers and I have been conversing lately on a subject of interest, namely the idea that “cancer is an evolutionary process; the cure for cancer is within reach, and is mostly an engineering problem now that we have the right model; and what can we do collectively to work towards and achieve the goal of a cure”. Based on my previous thinking on and study of complex adaptive systems plus a treatise that the organizer wrote, I already believed that it was obviously true that “cancer is an evolutionary process”, I was predisposed to believe the premise “the cure for cancer is within reach”, I was open to the question of whether it is “mostly an engineering problem”, and was hopeful about the possibility of working collectively with others on that problem. What I came out with was quite a bit more than I bargained for, not the least of …