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Category Archives: The New Sciences

The Management Uncertainty Principle

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

We’ve seen how physicists have discovered the limitations on their ability to attain precise and comprehensive knowledge about the characteristics of an object at a given moment in time. How certain, in the face of this from physics, are we in our own field that we can even identify precisely the vital components of management – or, even more implausibly, of individual leadership . . .

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The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

One of the most peculiar phenomenon uncovered in physics over the past century is known as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. This states – to the great frustration and irritation of many – that we cannot know with precision both elements of certain pairs of characteristics of an object. Most commonly, position and velocity are used, and the meaning of the principle is that the more precise is our knowledge about an object’s position, the less so is our knowledge of its speed, and vice versa. There is some debate about what this principle is saying to us at a fundamental level . . .

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A particle off the old block

Friday, November 20, 2009

As we saw last week, quantum physicists can be pretty strange folk – every bit, perhaps, as weird as the models they posit for how the physical world really works. One of them is unshakably convinced of the validity of, essentially, the whole of the science. He declares his faith in this as yet highly speculative, unproven modeling with a remarkable reference to a fascinating feature of it called quantum entanglement. . .

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Atomizers

Thursday, November 12, 2009

The author of a popular book on modern developments in physics is a strong believer in the validity of quantum mechanics. This remains a highly speculative theory, however. On the one hand . . .

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Roundup: from decidedly dopy to dubiously decisive

Friday, September 18, 2009

Excellent stories have been stacking up, with no logical place or time to link to them. So, we’re going to do a roundup today as a venue for offering these truly worthwhile resources. . .

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Inept individuals

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

An animal behaviorist calls ants inept individuals who, somehow, are able collectively to create striking organizations which can both adapt efficiently to their own evolving needs and cycling changes in the environment, and respond effectively to most emergencies arising from natural catastrophes or marauding neighbors. Inept individuals, no one of whom has any clue as to how they all do it, but who manage to do it anyway. As for us . . .

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Book Review: Sync

Friday, May 9, 2008

One of the most fascinating things about the rapid advances being made recently in communications technology is watching how they enable people of similar or complementing interests and ambitions not merely to interact rewardingly and productively – but even to find each other so that they can do so. Indeed, many of the endeavors they discover themselves collaborating on only sprung into being on their connection. It is an intriguing network of serendipitous nodes, each glowing more or less brilliantly as they draw in new members and connections. How does this happen?

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