The crisis caused by bankers may take us to the edge of bankruptcy (Ireland)

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Ed Gerck, Ph.D." <egerck () nma com>
Date: October 20, 2008 2:18:53 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] The crisis caused by bankers may take us to the edge  
of bankruptcy (Ireland)

[Dave: Please use this one, for IP if you wish]

Some may agree that: "The crisis caused by bankers may take us to the  
edge of bankruptcy"

My answer to this crisis' questions, however, takes another direction  
altogether:

Are we now in a position to finally state that systems cannot self- 
regulate? If this is true, this financial crisis may signal a quantum  
jump in our social evolution and philosophical understanding.

From Control Theory, a subject usually studied in Electronic  
Engineering, it is known that essential parts of a control element  
must be located outside the boundary of the system that it is designed  
to control.

The idea of self-regulation is not unsound in Control Theory, however,  
as long as there is at least one outside, independent, control loop.  
These are among the basic design tenets of Zmail, that you are using  
right now.

The idea that this crisis was caused by bankers is, thus, akin to  
taking a look at the effects and then mistaking them for the cause.  
Isn't it time to stop singling out scape goats (banks, government,  
party, greed) for what is a collective need for readjustment and  
evolution?

The cause of "the crisis", as in any failure in control systems,  
probably has to do more with our /collective/ failure to correctly  
define system boundaries and/or establish effective control elements,  
than "banks", "government" or any other elements that will  
(undoubtably) continue to exist (and fail!) no matter what solution is  
implemented.

The idea that systems will self-regulate and create a fair order or,  
even more weakly stated, that order emerges from chaos, may require  
yet another crisis to show its inconsistency. However, finally stating  
that systems cannot self-regulate, that order does not emerge from  
chaos, will be a conclusion worthy of all our efforts and pain to  
socially compute it.

Best regards,
Ed Gerck
www.gerck.com




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