I enjoyed Cliff Hamilton's unwillingness to be drawn into the discussion
of whether organizations are alive--and his long and thoughtful analysis
of my errors despite that unwillingness!
Cliff believes that our moving from images of "Mechanical Man" to those of
"Bionic Man" represents evolutionary progress in our understanding.
I do not.
Both are "mental models."
It's been pointed out that biological metaphors for human community have
been with us for some time. We talk, for example, of the corporate "body"
and that "body" has a "head" and "members."
I would appreciate any help "members" of this list might give me in
understanding why certain "mental models" become fashionable and widely
adopted at a moment in history, and then modified or discarded.
I can understand why the spectacular emergence of the computer has created
all of the "mental models" or the brain as a computer, with folks using
computer language to describe how they think.
I am not clear why sociobiological mental models have suddenly become
widespread, and so compelling that many who hold them want to talk about
them not as metaphors or models but as truth: why they want to believe
that social groups are alive and evolve and get sick and die, and so on.
One obvious answer is the emergence into common consciousness of genetic
engineering and its successes? Does that account for it?
I want to understand as much as I can of this phenomenon for my academic
work as well as my work with institutions, and I appreciate any insights I
might get from colleagues here.
Steve Eskow
Dr. Steve Eskow
President, The Electronic University Network
288 Stone Island Road
Enterprise, Florida 32725
Phone: 407-321-8770; Fax: 407-321-4861
email: dreskow@magicnet.net
--"Dr. Steve Eskow" <dreskow@magicnet.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>