Clearing The Decks 2024/25

2024 was a whole year consisting almost entirely of a single aside from my intended research and writing agenda. (Cut to the chase for 2025 Priorities?)

It was the 50th anniversary of publication of Robert Pirsig’s ZMM – his seminal “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. Helping to found the Robert Pirsig Association (RPA), getting it up and running on-line and supporting various #ZMM50th events became all-consuming. I say almost because I did also try to tie-in “more than science” working with the International Society for Systems Sciences (ISSS) thanks to their annual conference event originally timed to dovetail with the #ZMM50thRide. Sadly the eventual timings didn’t work out so I ended up supporting both whilst having to fund the time and money for two separate US trips. No other conferences and, apart from the odd weekend break, zero holidays and only one other foreign trip – a few days of paid and expensed Systems Engineering consulting in Q4. Interesting for its own technical content and useful in providing some unanticipated funds for the unplanned additional expenses. Still, incidentally, with a few hours follow-up to complete. One job to finish for the RPA commitments too – an update to the Pirsig Biographical Timeline.

But Pirsig was only ever one string to my bow. An important introduction to philosophy generally and to the timelessly recurring “philosophical division between the explicit / objective / classic / dialectical and the implicit / intuitive / romantic / rhetorical”. His Metaphysics of Quality (MoQ) was an original monist framing and a useful framework to this day. There’s been 50+ years of evolution of science and philosophy (and politics) since Pirsig’s magnum opus, with even better explanatory theories of how Pirsig’s physical > biological > social > intellectual level relations actually work and how his Zen Quality take on immediate “radical-empirical” experience still represents the moral imperative for our attention to the world beyond science. Not by coincidence, “more than science” remains the outstanding follow-up item from the ISSS workshop that very much contributes to my ongoing research and writing project. Sadly Pirsig didn’t – and only a few Pirsig scholars did – engage with other philosophers and scientists beyond the Greeks into the 21st century. Time waits for no man.

So, apart from the 3 commitments above …

• • • Update to the Pirsig Biographical Timeline
    • Consolidating output from the ISSS “more than science” session.
    • Clarifying responses to my systems consulting customer.

… I’m back on the original agenda.

As ever I have  several open issues to read or file for future reference:

• • • Ben Taylor’s Systems Thinking Reading List.
    • Simon Wardley’s “Wardley Maps” generally.
    • Which reminds me, the Dave Snowden / Cynefin “more than science” dialogue.
    • Nicole Rust’s readings of Francis Crick and Kevin Mitchell.
    • Stephen Mumford’s readings of Russell’s metaphysics.
      (See previously …)
    • Engaging with Birkbeck, London CCCM?
    • A critical reading of Michael Levin’s Mind “Technology” project?
    • RL Kuhn’s Taxonomy of Consciousness Explanations.
    • Drucker’s 1994 letter to Bill Emmott at The Economist.
    • Completing a tabulation of the Macy “Humanist” Cybernetics topics.
      (And here at the ACS. Ditto a re-reading of Dupuy)
    • How Cyber did for Cybernetics – NOT – “relating to computers, computer networks, or technology” (Cyber-Space)

Last years project priorities pretty much remain this years.

Original 2022 Version – Writing Progress – for 2023

1. 1. 1. The Position – (T – Outline) a statement of what I believe, in brief.
      2. The Thesis – (T) the whole formal “how and why” development of that.
      3. Good Fences – an essay on one corollary of the whole.
      4. Sacred Naturalism – an essay on another corollary of the whole.
      5. Primary Sources – an acknowledgement of the main originators.
      6. Time and Tide – (F) a fictional narrative inspired by the whole.

Updated Nov & Dec 2023 “Resolution” – for 2024

… to prioritise my own deliverables.
T – Maybe the priority is “T” (The Technical Text)
F – which may contribute not only to “F” (The Fictional Narrative) but years of prior research and writing into
D – a potentially shorter version of “D” (The Doctoral Thesis)?
P – My involvement in “P” (The Robert Pirsig Association) can only be short-term / part-time.

Priorities Now – Dec 2024 – for 2025

Priority #1

• • T – my Technical Thesis, probably still in parts:
    • OT – Outline / summary of my starting position
      • “My Project” (recent summary)
      • RP – Research (PhD) Proposal (already draft 4)
      • PS – Personal Statement (already published)
    • ST – Specific topics deserving of individual chapter / essays
      (Good Fences, More Than Science, Sacred Naturalism, etc.)

Priority #2

• • F – the (pen-named auto-)fictional novel

Priority #3

• • • Pirsig / RPA – Timeline update + only a supporting role
    • Conferences (UK Only in 2025)
      • ISSS-2025 (Birmingham) follow-up to DC-2024 above.
      • HTLGI-2025 (Hay-on-Wye) – as the name says 🙂
      • OxfordLitFest-2025 (Oxford) McGilchrist et al
    • TS-SitP – local attendee / participation only
    • Other pub, blog & social-media dialogues.

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