PDM Study - Chapter 2

9anda1f · Apr 5, 2014

Concepts and Themes in Design

Leads in with no less than FIVE quotes ... they are well worth repeating here:

The world teeters on the threshold of revolution. If it is a bloody revolution it is all over. The alternative is a design science revolution ... Design science produces so much performance per unit of resource invested as to take care of all human needs.
(Buckminster Fuller)
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All living organisms ... are 'open systems'; that is to say, they maintain their complex forms and functions through continuous exchanges of energies and materials with their environment. Instead of 'running down' like a mechanical clock that dissipates its energy through friction, the living organism is constantly 'building up' more complex substances from the substance it feeds on, more complex forms of energies from the energies it absorbs, and more complex patterns of information ... perceptions, feelings, thoughts ... form the input of its receptor organs.
(Arthur Koestler, 1967, The Ghost in the Machine)
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Most thermodynamic problems concern 'closed' systems, where the reactions take place in confinement, and can be reversed; an example is the expansion and compression of gas in a cylinder. But in an open system, energy is gained or lost irreversibly, and the system, its environment, or both are changed by the interaction .... the second law of thermodynamics (states that) energy tends to dissipate and organized systems drift inevitably towards entropy, or chaos. In seeming violation of that law, biological systems tend to become increasingly complex and efficient.
(Newsweek, October 24, 1977, on the Nobel Prize awarded to Ilya Prigogine)
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Lovelock shows that the biosphere, or Gaia as he calls it, actually created those conditions that are required for its support ... and systematically builds up the stock of materials that it requires to move ... towards increasing complexity, diversity, and stability.
(Edward Goldsmith, 1981, "Thermodynamics or Ecodynamics", The Ecologist)
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Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself ... to harm the earth is to heap contempt upon the creator ... contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.
(Chief Seattle, 1854, responding to a U.S. government offer to buy Indian land.)
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How's that for a warm-up to chapter 2??

9anda1f · Apr 6, 2014

From the intro paragraph, Bill talks about aboriginal cultures, myth, and how we've erroneously adopted a set of fixed prohibitions:

Aboriginal cultures used myth to show how unnecessary acts and unthinking destruction of elements brings about catastrophe and suffering.
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Because we've replaced nature-based myth with a set of fixed prohibitions relating only to other people, and unrelated to nature, we have developed destructive and people-centered civilisations and religions.
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In life and in design, we must accept that immutable rules will not apply, and instead be prepared to be guided on our continuing exploration by flexible principles and directives.
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A Policy of Responsibility (to relinquish power)
The role of beneficial authority is to return function and responsibility to life and to people; if successful, no further authority is needed. The role of successful design is to create a self-managed system.
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In all, an entreaty to abandon our self-absorbed "being separate" orientation as a species and return to the awareness of our inclusive human place within nature.

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