Comments on: Cities, Systems, Literacy, Games

By: Kars

Kars — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:13:26 +0000

"I think they were, but doesn’t the study of systems theory yield systemic literacy?"

It does, I guess, but not to the general public. I'm thinking more along the lines of this Alan Kay quote:

"Any medium powerful enough to extend man's reach is powerful enough to topple his world. To get the medium's magic to work for one's aims rather than against them is to attain literacy."

By: Alper

Alper — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:57:43 +0000

I think they were, but doesn't the study of systems theory yield systemic literacy?

The books you recommend at first glance seem to be treating low level emergence in systems which sounds pretty familiar. Cybernetics may be more interesting if that deals more with higher level processes and communication & control.

By: Kars

Kars — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:33:19 +0000

Are you sure the service design people weren't talking about systems theory? Surely a useful field to dip into, I've mainly looked at it in relation to game design (as discussed in Rules of Play, for instance). I've mainly been interested in complex adaptive systems. You could do worse than to look at Johnson's little book, or Resnick's. Cybernetics is also worth checking, although I have not gotten around to reading anything yet (aside from what I was fed while studying IxD).

By: Alper

Alper — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:25:13 +0000

That systemic literacy was also named during the Service Design Conference as one of the most important skills for a service designer. Not entirely clear where to acquire it, though it seems that there is some correlation with technical universities and other courses that teach high levels of abstraction.

By: Infovore » Favourite Games of 2008

Infovore » Favourite Games of 2008 — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:11:41 +0000

[...] Leapfroglog – Cities, systems, literacy, gamesA nice post to end the year from Kars – it feels like a top-trump of so many things that have risen to the surface in my head in 2008.(tags: games play design space ubicomp cities karsalfrink systems everyware place systemsliteracy readwrite ) [...]

By: buzzcut » Architecture and Planning: It’s All Fun and Games

buzzcut » Architecture and Planning: It’s All Fun and Games — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:30:59 +0000

[...] Cities as as systems/games and systems literacy Thinking in systems can help us make better games, of course. But can thinking about cities as games help us make better games? [...]

By: the-inbetween.com (by Mike Nowak)

the-inbetween.com (by Mike Nowak) — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

recent bookmarks December 29, 2008Leapfroglog – Cities, systems, literacy, gamesSci-Fi Hi-Fi: Weblog: (via bradleyallen) If it looks like a…