Dynamics in Action Quotes

“What we need, then, is an ethics appropriate to a universe of uncertainty" (Rubino 1990, 210). And yet, as Carl Rubino notes, "uncertainty in its very form is a negative word." It should not be.”
― Alicia Juarrero, Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System

“since in practical terms, each run of a complex adaptive system is unique, educational and child-rearing techniques that might work for a Hannah may not work for a Gabriel. And techniques that might have worked for Hannah yesterday may not today.”
― Alicia Juarrero, Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System

“no matter how firm someone's resolve about a particular course of action, if other features of the person's character and personality are stronger, these will override the agent's intention.”
― Alicia Juarrero, Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System

“Cultural constraints, we also saw, must provide enough flexibility for the system to be resilient.”
― Alicia Juarrero, Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System

“sensitivity to context and robustness to perturbations and noise are characteristic of dynamic organizations.”
― Alicia Juarrero, Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System

“when everything is ultimately connected to everything else, expecting to isolate one aspect of a problem and, by dealing with it, solve the entire problem is a senseless endeavor.”
― Alicia Juarrero, Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System

“Operating as enabling constraints (Salthe 1993h), context-sensitive constraints make complexity possible.”
― Alicia Juarrero, Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System

“By embodying context-sensitive constraints, mutualist feedback renders a system sensitive to (constrained by) its own past experiences. This makes nonlinear dynamical systems historical, not just temporal the way near-equilibrium thermodynamical systems are.”
― Alicia Juarrero, Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System

“limiting freedom, "control constraints must also create freedom in some sense" (Pattee 1973, 85).”
― Alicia Juarrero, Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System

“context-free constraints cannot be the only way to encode information, for if they were, both biological development and evolution as we know them would be impossible.”
― Alicia Juarrero, Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System

“Constraints are therefore relational properties that parts acquire in virtue of being unified-not just aggregated-into a systematic whole.”
― Alicia Juarrero, Dynamics in Action: Intentional Behavior as a Complex System