#NewMacy ACT I: Redefining Stability (RSD11)

What is it about?

This introductory session provided a contextual framing for #NewMacy and the #NewMacy “Acts” at RSD11. We began with an overview of #NewMacy — its emergence in 2020, the principles for action that evolved, and our current activities. We then moved forward by looking back to an excerpt of the now infamous interview of Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead by Stewart Brand. By performing this historical piece, we invoked participants from the original Macy Meetings of the 1940s and 50s to establish our lineage with those also committed to a second-order cybernetic epistemology. Next, we explained our construction of ontogenetic resilience as a framework for approaching today’s wicked challenges and a framework for the #NewMacy activities at RSD11. Act I closed with a Batesonian metalogue that provided a conceptual foundation and instruction for the Act II Studios.

Featured Image

Photo by Alexander Dummer on Unsplash

Photo by Alexander Dummer on Unsplash

Why is it important?

We explained our construction of ontogenetic resilience as a framework for approaching today’s wicked challenges and a framework for the #NewMacy activities at RSD11. To survive in a changing world, we must embrace resilience in lieu of security, interpreted as constancy. Hence, we substitute ontogenetic resilience as our framing intention — and cybernetics as key.

Perspectives