Thursday, May 31, 2007

Use of emergent (desired or not) states to define agents in a system?

"Under construction"

      A system, as is defined by agents and rule-based agent interactions in endless repetition, will accumulate necessary complexity for selection processes to dictate emergent states. Systems that are based on human individuals as agents, it is very likely and quite desirable to intervene towards the emergence of specific states. As emergence is a process that do not hold to prescription such an intervention towards specific states should, if it is to succeed, direct its intervening action towards the rules that govern agent interactions. One such system that specific emergent states are highly sought after are educational establishments, schools in particular. Does a desired emergent state would be expected to define the agents ia school system? What are the agents of a school system? The case goes; did she take into account my contribution to the school educational product, this day? No. Why not? It is not in her job specification. This is not what she is expected to do. She is required to administer not to judge, educational value. Administration works by virtue of checklists. No room for individual reflection. There are specific sessions for that, sessions for reflections. For all other occasions there are the checklists.
So there is a field of expertise where each one, let us say "excels" in the field. But if an administrator excels in its field, would that necessarily mean the service the work deals with, namely educational value, does actually benefit from this? Why should it benefit? The field excelled is administrative. Administration of its personnel. One of it is choosing the personnel suitable for the job. So would that be significant to the educational value product? It should be as the good teacher would increase educational value. The argument continues shortly ...

     Why should we think she is more important than any of the teachers in the school? No she is not. The main product of the school is educational value and this does not happen in her office.It happens in the classrooms. She is dealing with the bureaucratic aspect of the school system and she should never assume status not conferred by the very nature of the product offered by the establishment administered. Namely educational value. She should feel being the servant in the whole process and not the master.

      And along to the structure of the system of the school. She is dealing with the linear aspect of the processes that take place in the environment of the school, the system of the school. So, can we continue with the thought about the role of administration in establishments? As the keepers of the current state of an establishment, by virtue of the linear processes they are involved into. That brings the case of remuneration. Would that justify high earnings? Why administration should be regarded as of paramount importance, unassailable from criticism, to a great extent. Is it, notions of self-importance develop disproportionate to the specifications? To be resolved .... The non-linear and the one, we can accept as by definition, which produces the highest value in the educational product it is the one that takes place in the classroom, where the pupil engages itself in the processes that define and the same is defined by the system of school. Oops, self-reference! Self-referential! What is the significance of that observation? Is it significant or is it circumstantial? The system and its state space.

     Should we look for agents in a system according to the content of the emerging states. Emergence as defined as a result of evolutionary processes. Evolutionary processes defined by development in the states achieved, by mainly chaotic processes. Chaos as the creator of information. The evolution of the chaos developed states, pertain to the chaos-created states being checked against the conditions and features of the system, for a best fit state resolution, John Holland at work. The emergent state is different from a desired state, a goal directed therefore highly expected. However that does not dismiss the want of the emergent states according to a wish list. A wish list that directs emergent states toward desired states. The whole process is a result of intervention actions directed at specific points in the process space. Organisation of the system should have space and time elements. Or more likely assume fractal qualities? Fractal dimensions?

     Would the emergent state, desired or not, define in the system, its rules and its agents? Is it right to assume an emergent state-directed definition of agents? Taken in account the emergent product, let us say for schools the emergent product being, the vaguely defined educational value. How would educational value be defined? Learning objectives. Pupils own knowledge structures developing. Not only. Teachers as well, their knowledge structures develop too. Knowledge structures, in both cases, are different. What is the same is the process of development. The development from one state to another. Desirability determines this development as improvement. An improved knowledge structure. An improved knowledge state for both pupils and teachers.

     So, the tendency of improving the knowledge structure states should define the rules in the system. Should be used as guidelines when determining the organisation of establishments that deal with this product. And is should continue ...

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