Sustainability Calling E-Book

Pierre Massotte

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 661

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

This book discusses the key concepts of the technologies that underpin the drive towards sustainability in today’s complex world.  The authors propose an integrated view of the frontiers facing any organization nowadays – whether an enterprise, an administration or any human collective construction – that operates with a goal, a mission or an objective.

While a unified approach still seems unachievable, the authors have nevertheless tackled the amalgamation of the underpinning elements (theories, domains of expertise and practice) and propose a model for assimilating the new concepts with a global view to design the sustainable organizations of the future. The book paves a way towards a general convergence theory, which will manifest, as a by-product, genuine sustainability.   Furthermore, and due to the fact that the same main principles apply, the book redesigns the notion of “competitiveness”, which today is too often simply reduced to profitability.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Series

Title

Copyright

List of Acronyms

Preface

Welcome to the land of overwhelming sustainability!

How can we address the concept of sustainability?

About the authors

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Why “Transformation” Is the One Keyword

I.1. Where have we got by now?

I.2. What evolution forward?

I.3. Tackling transformation is the job

I.4. A summary of the book

I.5. What the present situation tells and the issues encountered

I.6. A main concept: toward new ways of thinking

I.7. Integrating the above theories into their context

I.8. Application on an example relevant to entropy and network theory

I.9. A basket of relevant keywords

PART 1: Models That Can Aspire to be Better Suited to Future Needs

1: Disassembling Some Traditional Views

1.1. Time and space: past, present and future

1.2. The (big) law of correspondence

1.3. Intricate imbrications and their uncertainties

1.4. Many levels: subatomic, micro, meso, macro, chrono, etc.

2: Is Globalization, or Holism, Really a New Phenomenon?

2.1. Some characteristics of the present globalization

2.2. A brief history of a very old concept: globalization

2.3. The nature of today’s globalization

2.4. Some features of today’s globalization

2.5. Impacts of a disruption: “catastrophe” in a global context

2.6. Management in economy: risks and disturbances are also global

2.7. Extending and transposing these concepts to enterprises

2.8. Consequences: collective consciousness and behavior

2.9. A common idea of “catastrophism” and the need for ecology

2.10. Should we try to predict that the worst is yet to come?

2.11. What we can conclude at this stage

3: Underlying Disturbing Processes: Asymmetries, Coriolis and Chirality

3.1. By way of introduction

3.2. New ways of thinking

3.3. Information asymmetry

3.4. Information asymmetry in a call center business

3.5. General Information on asymmetry: antiglobalization corporations

3.6. Asymmetry in communication and decision systems

3.7. Decision-making in an asymmetric world

3.8. Chirality and symmetry and their impact on structures

3.9. The Coriolis effect

3.10. Characteristics of evolution: symmetric pattern growth

3.11. Conclusions on underlying disturbing processes

3.12. Appendix

4: Time and Space Revisited in the Context of Complex Systems

4.1. Time and space revisited in dwindling dance

4.2. The concept of time within complex systems

4.3. The perception of space

4.4. Impacts related to the perception in space and time

4.5. On the reversibility of time

4.6. Consequences for the complex systems surrounding us

4.7. Conclusions

5: The Entropy of Systems

5.1. System entropy: general considerations

5.2. The issue and context of entropy within the framework of this book

5.3. Entropy: definitions and main principles – from physics to Shannon

5.4. Some application fields with consequences

5.5. Generalization of the entropy concept: link with sustainability

5.6. Proposal for a new information theory approach

5.7. Main conclusions

PART 2: On Competitiveness: Nature as an Obvious Approach in Sustainability

Introduction to Part 2

6: A Continuous Survival of Species? Crisis and Consciousness Productions

6.1. Introduction and general considerations: what’s new behind life?

6.2. Life survival: introduction and model transposition

6.3. Discussing the situation in between the three areas

6.4. Discussing the situation inside each of the three areas

6.5. Evolution of life: impact on management decision systems

6.6. Opening new thinking ways

6.7. Consciousness as an iterative feedback process growing from one level to another

6.8. Life and equilibriums in ecosystems

6.9 Conclusions

6.10. Consequences and action plan

7: Aging and Survival: Application to Human Beings, Eusociality and an Inclusive Society

7.1. A general consideration: what is new behind life?

7.2. A little bit more about aging, survival and eusociality

7.3. Does aging equal disability?

7.4. Aging and intelligence: variance and time dependency

7.5. Back to eusociality

7.6. As a first conclusion

7.7. Case study: aging, motivation and involvement in collaborative work

8: Evolution of Life Principles: Application to a Corporate Population

8.1. Introduction: corporate aging and dying

8.2. The human resources situation of small-and medium-sized enterprises

8.3. The human resources situation in senior enterprises

8.4. Global evolution: the product lifecycle of an enterprise

8.5. Product lifecycle management

8.6. Example of corporate life and death: the saturation stage

8.7. Product lifecycle of new technologies

8.8. How to model the evolution of an organism (enterprise)

8.9. How to measure and control aging in the enterprises

Conclusion to Part 2: An Integrative View at Immortality

C.1. Immortality of a living organism

C.2. Three main questions

PART 3: Golden Secrets and Mechanisms

9: Technology Totalitarianism in Society, Change Management and Governance Concerns

9.1. Introduction

9.2. Consequences associated with Web usage

9.3. Public–private governance: a privacy process issue

9.4. The principle of impermanence: Snapchat and Confide

9.5. Extension of the applications

9.6. Pervasive network interconnections

9.7. Enterprises: Web evolution and sustainability

9.8. Additional comments about the control of instabilities

9.9. Sustainable networks

10: Principles and Practical Mechanisms of Self-Organization: in a Worldwide Cooperative Context

10.1. Introduction: complexity in nature

10.2. Complexification: main principles of the “fabricational” evolution

10.3. Self-organization: the basic principles to understand system complexity

10.4. Application to the real world

10.5. Conclusions

11: Complex Systems Appraisal: Sustainability and Entropy in a Worldwide Cooperative Context

11.1. Introduction

11.2. The context

11.3. Information systems: some application fields and the consequences

11.4. Evolution of entropy in complex systems

11.5. Underlying sustainability principles in information and decision

11.6. Business intelligence systems and entropy

11.7. The holonic enterprise paradigm

11.8. Self-organization and entropy

11.9. Analysis of new trends in sustainable production systems

11.10. Artificial life and collective thinking science

11.11. Conclusions

12: Telepathy and Telesympathy

12.1. About the brain

12.2. The law of accelerating returns

12.3. Telepathy: an ultimate process?

12.4. Telesympathy: a less ambitious prerequisite

12.5. Conclusions

Bibliography

Sites used for reference

Index

End User License Agreement

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

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“An outstanding advance in foresight methodology.”

Dr. Thierry GAUDIN

http://gaudin.org

Member of the Club of Rome–Brussels

Honorary Member of the Club of Budapest–Paris

Founder and President of “Prospective 2100”, a World Foresight Associationhttp://2100.org

Member of the Board of the World Futures Studies Federationwww.wfsf.org

One of the four founders of the six countriesProgram on InnovationPolicies6cp.net

Sustainability Calling

Underpinning Technologies

Pierre Massotte

Patrick Corsi

First published 2015 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:

ISTE Ltd27-37 St George’s RoadLondon SW19 4EUUK

www.iste.co.uk

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.111 River StreetHoboken, NJ 07030USA

www.wiley.com

© ISTE Ltd 2015

The rights of Pierre Massotte and Patrick Corsi to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015944023

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA CIP record for this book is available from the British LibraryISBN 978-1-84821-842-0

List of Acronyms

ADACOR

ADAptive holonic COntrol aRchitecture for distributed manufacturing systems

AHT

Average Handling Time

AI

Artificial Intelligence

AmI

Ambient Intelligence

ANNs

Artificial Neural Networks

ATG

Advanced Technology Group

BCI

Brain–Computer Interface

BI

Business Intelligence

BMI

Brain–Machine Interface

BN

Brain/Neural

BP

Business Process

BRIC

Brazil, Russia, India and China

CAPPs

Computer Aided process Planning

CBR

Case-Based Reasoning

CCD

Charge Coupled Device

CEO

Chief Executive Officer

CFM

Continuous Flow Manufacturing

CHON

Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen

CIVETS

Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa

C-MOS

Complementary Metal Oxyde Semi-conductor

CP

Combination of Particle

CRM

Customer Relationship Management

CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility (collaborative work)

CYC

“enCYClopedia”, CYCorp AI project (Common Sense & ontologies)

DARPA

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DB

Data Base

DES

Discrete Event Simulation

DFM

Design For Manufacturing

DFS

Design For Sustainability

DNA

Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid

DNI

Direct Neural Interface

DOD

Department of Defense

DRAMs

Dynamic Random Access Memory

DSS

Decision Support Systems

ECB

European Central Bank

ERP

Entreprise Resources Planning

FBMs

Field Bill of Materials

FFBMs

Field Feature Bills of Materials

FSNs

Fractal Structured Networks

GDP

Growth Domestic Product

GMOs

Genetically Modified Organisms

GNOSIS

Knowledge Systematisation-European IMS Project

GPS

General Positioning System

HMS

Holonic Manufacturing System

ICTs

Information and Communication Technologies

IMF

International Monetary Fund

IMS

Intelligent Manufacturing Systems

IS

Information System

ITs

Information Technologies

JIT

Just-In-Time

KADS

Knowledge Acquisition and Documentation Structuring

KBS

Knowledge-Based Systems

KEGG

Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes

LAN

Local Area Network

LBO

Leverage Buy Out

LISP

LISt Processing language

LMA

Line Manager Advisor (IBM project)

LOCs

Lines of Codes

LSST

Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

MERISE

Méthode d’Étude et de Réalisation Informatique pour les Systèmes d’Entreprises

MIDs

Mobile Internet Devices

MMI

Mind–Machine Interface

MRI

Magnetis Resonance Imaging

MTBFs

Mean Time Between Failures

MTTR

Mean Time To Reappear

NGOs

Non-Governmental Organizations

NLDS

NonLinear Dynamic Systems

NoSQL

Not only SQL (non-relational DB Language)

NSA

National Security Agency

OMs

Operation Managements

OS

Operating System

PCs

Personal Computers

PLC

Product LifeCycle

PLOT

Plant Layout Optimization

PMA

Primary Mental Ability

PMI

Project Management Institute

PPC

Pay Per Call

PPT

Pay Per Time

QoS

Quality of Service

RAS

Reliability Availability Serviceability

R&D

Research and Development

RFID

Radio Frequency Identification

ROIs

Returns On Investments

RMS

Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems

SA

System Analysis

SAAS

Software As A Service

SD

System Dynamics

SICs

Sensitivity to Initial Conditions

SIDs

Sensitive Initial Deviations

SLA

Service-Level Agreement

SMEs

Small Medium Entreprises

SOC

Self-Organized Criticality

SPQL

Shipped Product Quality Level

SRE

Social Responsibility of an Enterprise

STI

Synthetic Telepathy Interface

TCA

Tricarboxylic Acid

TCM

Thermal Control Modules

TTL

Transistor-Transistor Logic

UML

Unified Modeling Language

VFDCS

Virtual Factory Distributed Control System

WAIS/WAIS-R

Wechsler test

Preface

Welcome to the land of overwhelming sustainability!

Within a few years, sustainable development has been raised to global status on an exponential scale, which has caught major international media headlines by storm and has made it part of the top political agenda at world summits. In fact, thoroughly encompassing industry and economy, the climate and the Earth’s resources are subtly impacting the livelihoods of both the rich and the poor. Here is a concept of a radically new type which mankind, despite its exalted prowess at long solving problems, now finds itself powerless to address suitably even to define with sagacity, insight and perhaps enlightenment. What does the concept of “sustainability” mean?

An encounter of a pernicious kind lurks in the face of man and the planet. Evidence shows an issue addressed by a whole range of hard to tackle complexities for mankind. Not really specific, the unfavorable regions of the world, everywhere and everyday impact each living being globally.

Has mankind ever encountered such a compelling affair? The call of sustainability is general and the sustainability imperative is inescapable and insuppressible. The term “sustainability” is universal and applies everywhere: business, non-governmental organizations, administration, cities, industry, individuals, any living being, etc.

How can we address the concept of sustainability?

Sustainable development is a subject of subjects: embracing many disciplines and at the same time transcending them, spanning man’s activities as well as the planet’s processes. Sustainability relates both to our external environment and to our intrinsic person as well. Being happy and feeling comfortable resorts to our sustainability. Preserving and growing our environment is a sustainable action.

The authors have taken a collection of questions and each chapter answers them. Here is a glimpse of what is to come:

– What do we mean by “sustainability”?

– What are the most critical sustainability challenges and factors facing us in this century?

– What are the underlying mechanisms of our complex systems?

– How can the fields of physics, natural and social sciences, life sciences, humanities, and technology interact to contribute to better understand these mechanisms and help in defining their solution?

– How do we balance the needs and desires of current generations with the needs of future generations?

– In nature and our environment, how do we combine the ambivalences and antagonistic properties to find the best “attractors” and equilibriums to get the best sustainability?

However, the most authentic question is to define how we can implement a sustainable development to improve our human well-being while preserving the resources and assets of our Earth such as: energy, air, water, food, and the survival of the climate and ecosystems. The central tenet of this book is that sustainable development can be done simultaneously by combining different theories, sciences and technologies.

In general, we humans tend not to easily perceive the underpinning critical and core problems; this is arguably because humanity is facing a huge and complex system: the livelihood on planet Earth. The difficulty will not consist of processing the effects of any non-sustainable system but of defining the underlying mechanisms and causes. That is the only viable way to address the present and future challenges of this century.

What strategy, approach and discipline should we follow when faced with a global sustainability issue or challenge? The aim of this book is to explain the various mechanisms behind the concept, to foster our critical thinking and analysis of complex situations and to bring out new paradigms based on the integration of well-known advances in several border sciences and theories. Many examples and application fields will be described to get practical and useful advice, simple ideas and best practices. Throughout the chapters, the authors do not mythically substitute technology for man, yet position technology in synergetic coordination with man, having themselves participated in numerous technological developments over the past half a century within large corporations, such as IBM, which several examples will be drawn from.

This book is structured into two volumes and seeds a number of previously disparate basic roots, each hopefully having a profound say on the subject matter of sustainability, when actually put in conjunction with others. Most of the shared scientific elements are already proven and some are not fully uncovered yet. The view is to lighten the unknown spaces so that a new consciousness may emerge that takes in all the seeds and can support, by design, novel futures having that one desired property: to be sustainable. In terms of C-K theory, it aims that the things which were deemed impossible or unthinkable only a few years ago may come of age by design for the sustained benefit of our livelihood everywhere on the Planet Earth.

For the sake of commodity, this book focuses on the technologies underpinning sustainability, while the second book [MAS 15] wraps up the findings by unifying them and addresses organizational issues by providing the keys to operationalize a more global sustainability. In this volume, the search for models, and then the study of nature and life principles, originates and precedes the quest for the mechanisms of sustainability, forming a collection of “novel technologies” underpinning the operations of sustainable worlds. Technology is taken in its etymological sense of a miscellany of methods, processes, or techniques – more generally knowledge – that can be used for an objective: the making of a sustainable society. It aims at mobilizing the knowledge pertaining to such an objective. Perhaps that knowledge will someday be embedded in some kind of automata or computing device.

About the authors

To make a long story short, it was January 2010 when the authors, having already co-authored two previous books on linking decision-making and complexity sciences, embarked in discussions on “building adaptive and sustainable worlds” and began to discuss underpinning principles, models and possible approaches. After several attempts, the multilevel model from nano to macro was embodied and the keys to cross them emerged, which revisited many well-entrenched notions such as time, space, entropy, aging, survival and consciousness.

For Pierre Massotte (Higher Doctorate), this was the extension of career-long complexity projects piloting from IBM’s Montpellier plant in Southern France before being in charge of competitivity of Development laboratories and Manufacturing plants at IBM Europe. Pierre arguably led the biggest ever team on complexity issues locally and remotely, which peaked at one time at about 120 staff in places like IBM Europe, Pougkheepsie, NY, Yorktown Heights, NY, and later at ARMINES (R&D of Ecole des Mines). As one example, he was studying chaos and fractal factories in the real world of large computers manufacturing, hardware and software development, and complex organization re-engineering, at a time when nobody could imagine the possible links either between chaos and electronics, cooperation, competition and game theory, quantum physics and production control, or even between sustainability and entropy.

Dr. Patrick Corsi had his formative years right from Silicon Valley within IBM’s Research and Office Products Divisions since 1979 and then at the La Gaude plant near Nice in France. By quitting the company in 1984 with one idea in mind – the whole computing world going personal and IBM not listening too well – he pursued advanced artificial intelligence R&D projects while managing technology transfer from a start-up in Paris, then within the THOMSON (now Thales) Group, finally within the European Commission in Brussels. Today, he is specialized in designing breakthrough futures for firms and institutions, being an Associate Practitioner at Mines ParisTech.

Acknowledgments

We, the authors, are indebted to IBM Corp. for having walked the path of a unique company, a forerunner in complexity projects and a determined player in its way of deeply training and managing people. Pierre is also indebted to the School of Mines in Ales for participating in the reenginering of the education system, and technology transfer to Industry. The methodology orientation they deeply immersed themselves in, as well as the values which underpinned the moves, are probably the two special ingredients which enabled us to slowly produce this book. We also express our sincere and enduring thanks to the countless knowledgeable people we encountered along the way.

IntroductionWhy “Transformation” Is the One Keyword

I.1. Where have we got by now?

Let us observe the environment around us for a moment. What do we observe?

For one, the current state of affairs in the world is not uniform: complexity arises from every corner and irresistibly requires from us a change in our way of thinking. The fact that everything is said to be “complex” relegates “non-complex” things into the realms of oblivion and they seem to no longer exist or are incredibly weak.

Thus, we acknowledge that the factors at hand that spell irrevocable change are hard to reach, or difficult to measure, and their understanding inherently resists an analytical approach. As a result, we tend to feel caught in a sort of nest that captures our past habits, yet at our own risk.

At the same time, new concepts and opportunities visibly emerge that signify new possibilities for those who would deliberately act upon new paradigms. Unsought complexity levels result as a consequence of evolution, and also possibly by chance as permanent mutations play their spontaneous role. And both evolution and chance are factors of diversity.