Xia tagged me (Thank You!) so here are 7 random things about me:

1.  I used to ride a Velocette Venom, a 500cc single cylinder British motorcycle.

2.  I prefer cats to dogs but do like them both.

3.  One of my early "careers" was in theatre where I trained as a carpenter/stage technician.

4.  When I was 14  I had some weird dreams and asked my Dad if they meant anything. He thought for a minute then said he would buy me a book about it so I could decide. He did; Carl Jung's "Man And His Symbols". An amazing read.

5.  I did a short course on computer programming in 1972 at Huddersfield Polytechnic but had to wait ten years before I saw my first computer- a Sinclair ZX81 that a friend had borrowed. 

6.  In 2000 I took a group of performing arts students to Barcelona by bus, my first time abroad in 25 years. It was fantastic!

7.  According to a National Health Service consultant, I have "suspected multiple sclerosis".

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Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person's blog who tagged you.

http://newculture.zaadz.com/blog

2. Post these rules on your blog.

3. List 7 random/and or weird facts about yourself.

4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog (oops, I mailed some instead of making comments. Also linked to some photos rather than just blogs. There's wild for you...).

http://sacredsong.zaadz.com/blog

http://visionaryventures.zaadz.com/photos

http://lisaopenshaw.zaadz.com/photos

http://christiana.zaadz.com/blog

http://maypop.zaadz.com/blog

http://geodowser.zaadz.com/blog

http://senvara.zaadz.com/blog

An organisation, such as a corporation or government, can be seen as a complex system made up of a variety of elements, relationships etc and engaged in various processes. There are generally physical things that will depend upon the nature of the organisation and may include buildings, offices, furniture, computers, documents, vehicles, filing cabinets, telephones, waste paper bins, pens and the like. It will also include more insubstantial stuff that may be recorded in some way and relates to the stability of the organisation such as policies, procedures, rules, codes of practice, protocols and ethics.

There will also generally be human beings involved at various levels within the organisation. Each individual will have their function within the organisation defined by something like a documented job description, although they may have their own personal, internal description of their job that does not necessarily match the external one. They will also have a sense of their relationship with other elements within the organisation, human or otherwise and their will be some sort of corporate, cultural sense of a "we" or "us".

There will be inputs and outputs of various types such as movements of raw materials, goods, energy, information or the provision of services that connects the organisation to other organisation or the "outside world" generally.

All this will be bound together in a complex web of relationships and networks that might be represented in part by organisational maps, flowcharts and the like but is ultimately too complex to be fully represented in the material world (as in the end, everything connects up). In complexity theory, making small changes to any complex system can profound and often unexpected results. That is, the consequences of even very small changes may not be entirely predictable.

It is easy to fall into the pattern of thinking that an organisation has a specific, simple task or purpose, such as the provision of a particular service or manufactured item and this leads to the concept of ultimate goals such as providing a service to customers, maximising profits or paying dividends to shareholders. Yet, as a complex system, the organisation has no interest in these matters; the ultimate aim being simply to continue to operate and perpetuate itself, ideally growing (that is, increasing the flow of energy and resources as inputs and outputs), absorbing or negating other competing systems, possibly budding, dividing or otherwise reproducing itself.

This has little to do with human beings. The organisation as an A.I. employs human beings as, among other things, wet-ware front ends (spokes-persons) to deal with you and me. With a human being as the front end presented on the media, it is easy for us as viewers or observers (consumers) to think that their obvious humanity is relevant, that the organisation is essentially human, both because of and despite what they may say. Yet the A.I. cares not a jot for what they say or what we might think. And the wet ware is replaceable.