Posts Tagged ‘The Netherlands’

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About Chaos Theory, Pendulums, Emergence and the New Leaders

Tuesday, October 30th, 2007

Chaos theory describes the behavior of nonlinear dynamic system that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions. As the result of this sensitivity, the behavior of these systems appears to be random. The cases of most interest arise when the chaotic behaviour takes place on an Attractor since then a large set of initial conditions will lead to orbits that converge to a region.

The Dutch Scientist Christiaan Huygens observed that clocks always synchronize. They converge to the same rhythm. How this was possible was resolved when Chaos Theory was developed.

The problem of Huygens is now reformulated as “Coupled Oscillators“. When the Parts of a System are more or less “the Same”, they Unite and start to behave as a Collective.

“In recent years it has become more and more evident that well organized structures arise out of chaotic states. The functioning of these systems can be maintained only by a flux of energy (and matter) through them.In contrast to man to man-made machines, which are devised to exhibit special structures these structures develop spontaneously they are self-organizing”.

The appearance of Self-organization is called Emergence. Suddenly a new structure emerges out of the blue.

A few years ago I was asked to participate in an event where many people were drumming. We started with our own rhythms. Suddenly a Pattern Emerged. I felt this pattern and started to play the rhythm. Suddenly everybody Synchronized with my pattern. I was in the Lead and started to play Variations. Suddenly a new pattern appeared. This went on for hours.

When I was drumming I felt there was an new ATTRACTOR emerging. The state before the Pattern Emerged was an “In-Between-State”. Many people felt something was Moving but they did not know where the Pattern was going to.

The world is now in an “IN-BETWEEN-STATE”. Many ATTRACTORS are Possible. The ATTRACTOR is dependent on how many People will be “The Same”.

Some people are Sensitive. They feel the new pattern much earlier than others. They can take the Lead and show others where we are heading to.

In Dutch Politics the new Leaders are visible. They preach the War against Islam just like Pim Fortuyn. They use the Fear to Change as an Attractor. In the Media another type of Leader is visible, The Star. She is using Desire (Ego) to Attract.

We are waiting for other types that use Soul, Spirit and Harmony as an attractor. Some of them will come out of the New Religious Movement (The new Mystics) that is very visible in the Netherlands. Others, Artists, will create new Myths and Music. Others will stimulate People to Take Care of the Others (Charitas). Perhaps One of Them is able to Unite Everybody.

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About the End of the EG, the End of the Dutch Political Parties and the Death of Pim Fortuyn

Monday, October 29th, 2007

It all started in 1996. In this year I was asked to become a member of the HP Corporate Advisory Board, the ESPRIT Advisory Board and the W3C-Advisory Board. Suddenly I started to talk with very high level executives about the Future.

ESPRIT is a huge program of the European Union. It invests money in Research all over Europe. Every four years the priorities are formulated and I was asked by the Dutch Government to be the Dutch representative.

The panel was constructed by combining Country and Branch. I was the Netherlands and Banking. Another member came from the UK and was an expert in the Future of Medicine. We were asked to give a presentation about our expertise. Later all the presentations would be merged in next sessions.

It was a big surprise to the managers of ESPRIT that we were telling more or less the same story. Finding a shared view always took many discussions but we finished in one day.

I asked my manager if I could visit my colleagues of the panel to dig deeper in what they were telling. At that time I was responsible for Corporate Search. I had to define the Future Strategy of the Bank. After some explaining he agreed and I traveled Europe.

What we found out was that behind the scene a new shared foundation was visible. Every Industry was moving to a Center and out of the Center completely new Industries would emerge.

In 1996 I wrote the first English document I ever produced. It was about the Future of Banking. A few citations:

“By definition, the bank has always been a facilitator of trading processes”. It means that the bank must try to penetrate more deeply into the sales and production processes of the suppliers”, “the role of the intermediary will have to be investigated, and the positioning of the bank at the user-interface of the client (in the first instance, private client) defined. What is more, it is recommended that we do not sell only our own products. In the private client market, the struggle will revolve around the user-interface and ‘convenience’. Customers must be captured, seduced and retained. The ‘convenience’ is created when the ‘network organization’ (bank + retailer + producer, if there is one) finds ways of relieving the customer of certain troublesome matters“.

The document was discussed on many levels in the Company. To my big surprise the majority of the senior managers found the document interesting but in essence they did not believe “this” would ever happen. Banking would stay the same “for Ever”. It was a nice Vision but it was not based on Reality. I produced many other Presentations and Documents to show what was happening. I even build a Demonstrator together with Scientists of the Erasmus University (Eurides, Ron Lee & Yao Tan). It used Deontic Logic. The Demonstrator was financed by the EG ESPRIT Fund.

A year later I left the bank. My first job was to create a lobby office of ABN AMRO in Brussels. My ESPRIT-contacts proved to be of great help.

The new emerging foundation came back in many activities between 1997 and today. In March 2006 I finally saw the Light. To share my insight I wrote a document called “The Moving Boundary” (Dutch, De bewegende grens). Suddenly I saw that we were not only moving to a new foundation but that the foundation, the Center, was “On The Move itself”. I used a new Prediction of the Dutch Cultural Planning Bureau (SCP) to prove my point.

The SCP showed that five (!) factors were the main drivers. They called the drivers Individualization, Intensivation, Globalization, Automation and Informal-isation. I mapped the five factors on the Model of Will McWhinney and hoped one of the five factors would disappear. At that time I believed in four World Views.

Suddenly I saw that the factor Informal-sation was related to a Center. This center is pushed by four forces Equality, Diversity, Uniqueness and Cooperation. They are trying to find Balance. Until that time the Centre is moving in many directions. Every time we think we have found something to “Hold On” it moves.

I found out that we are moving from the time of the OR to the time of the AND. Before the Center started to move we had a Choice.

We could be in favor of Equality (Conservative, Christian Democrats), Uniqueness (Liberal) or Cooperation/Solidarity (Socialist) but the old boundaries are disappearing.

The Old Parties are holding hands in the Political Democratic Centre of The Hague but also Centralized Democracy is not a concept that is there to stay.

The AND-process in politics showed itself for the first time in 2002. A completely new party led by Pim Fortuyn took over Dutch Politics like an Earthquake. Unfortunately Pim Fortuin was killed just before the Elections. Many people believe it was a Political Crime.

The Netherlands are still in a very incomprehensible process of political restructuring. New parties grow and die. Old parties are splitting and restructuring.

The central structure of the EG is falling. Many “old time” politicians are playing strange games to show that people of Europe like what is happening in Brussels. They all know they are unable to hold the European Center.

The same is happening with NATO and the UN.

The Center is Moving!

Much later I discovered the Final Secret.

The Center is now moving at random but is trying to Jump to a new Level.

The Jump can be a Fall or a Rise.

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About Story-Based-Games

Saturday, September 29th, 2007

About ten years ago I was asked to write a book. It was the first time somebody asked me to do this. The person who asked me to write a book was the former director of a foundation called SMO, Wim de Ridder. SMO is a Dutch think tank paid by many big companies in the Netherlands.

Together with Wim de Ridder, Erik Vreedenburgh and Gerard Rijntjes a team was formed. We wanted to explore a concept called Open Form.

Open Form uses the principles of evolution. We organized the book as a process. We started to interview many scientists and artists about evolution and created an interaction between them. People in isolated field of science got together and created new combinations. The book was a picture of a certain state of the process but the process went on after the “book” was published.

Konstapel. J. Vreedenburgh E, Rijntjes G.J.P. De onvermijdelijke culturele revolutie. Den Haag, SMO, 1998.

Open Form became the method SMO wanted to use and the first project was a big one. Big companies in the “Stimulant” Industry like Heineken wanted to start a dialog with the Dutch Government about the prevention of addiction. They gave us a budget to explore an innovative approach. The new approach was based on the theory of Roger Schank. Roger was a friend of mine and he was asked to become an advisor. He adressed the so called Les Indes Meeting in the Hague and the participants were so impressed that they gave us a budget.

What we wanted to build was a game and the inputs of the game were “real life stories”. The story of the project is told in this book “Virtueel Genieten. Diekstra, Drs. J. Konstapel, J.G. van der Leij, Prof.Dr. J.B. Rijsman, Drs. M.A. Visse, K.B. Vos, Drs. N. van Geelen”.

The game was a success. It was such a success that many government paid institutions started to block the implementation of the game. They were producing brochures and employed many researchers. The blocking of the implementation was successful. Strangely enough the researchers never paid any attention at the theory of Roger Schank. Sadly enough they have not done this until now. Researchers always want to re-invent the wheel.

Later a new tool was developed to support people that were un-employed and mentally ill (Virtual Work). The story of the project can be found in this book INTERNETSTURING IN DE ZELFREDZAME SAMENLEVING, Prof.dr. J.B. Rijsman, Drs. N. van Geelen, Drs. T.J. Golder.

We still used the theory of Roger Schank but combined his theory with the theory of Will McWhinney. The same thing that happened with our former project happened again. The government agency that was paying for the tool was unable to use it. Until now they are unable to help people to find suitable work. The main reason is that they are blocking every innovative action of a person who wants to start all over again. There are many rules that prevent this.

The next project was called Time Out. The target of this project was to build the most advanced story-telling-engine ever made. All the experience we had gathered in the former project would be used and the budget was spectacular. Unfortunately the project was never started. SMO decided to do it their own way. This is the game they created: http://www.mazzle.nl/.

This is the book they wrote about the project. MAZZLE, Nieuw perspectief op gezondheidsvoorlichting, Jeroen Duijvestijn.

Have a look at our project plan (Dutch).

It this project we also used the theory of Emotions of Nico Frijda  and Interpersonal Theory.

Many people are now developing story-based websites but developing an effective story based game is something (I think) almost nobody has accomplished.

I will give you a two hints why all of them will fail.

The first thing is the collection of stories. Many people are telling stories but after a some time you realize that 80% of the people are telling the same story all over again. They are the victims. When you want to motivate people to “change their lives” stories about how people are not changing their lives are not helpful. This is also the problem with many self-help-cites. Victims always find places where they find other victims. The victims are entrained by the stories of the other victims. Nothing changes.

So when you want to find people that were successful you have to look elsewhere. This was the real problem with the project Virtual Work. The Dutch Government Agency that is taking care of the unemployed UWV , was unable to provide us with people with a success story. We used our own network to find them and they were rare.

The second problem is the Interview itself. You need a special gift to get the right story out of people. This gift is called empathy. You also need to know all the stories that are already told to know when the real important facts are “coming”.

Have A Look at this PowerPoint Presentation.

LINKS

My article in the book “De onvermijdelijke culturele revolutie” (in Dutch)

The book about the project “Virtueel Genieten” (in Dutch)

About Addiction

About Entrainment

About Crowds

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Money Makes The World go Round

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

I am working again for a big software company. They have asked me to help to define their strategy. To make this work I wanted to talk with their CEO. His secretary phoned me and I heard that his mother died last night. She died at the age of ninety.

I talked with his secretary about how strange it is when your mother dies and your parents are gone. My father died much earlier. I am their only child.

With the death of your last parent your childhood is wiped out. Suddenly you are the oldest of your generation. With the death of your last parent not only your childhood but also her childhood is wiped out.

She was a storyteller (like me) and I learnt a lot about what happened in the beginning of the 20th century. My mother was born in 1914, the beginning of the First World War. Her father was working at a famous Publisher in Leiden (Brill). He was a typesetter. He was fired when the economy collapsed (the Great Depression) and his family (four daughters) became very poor. His wife and children were forced to work in the houses of the rich people.

My mother did not finish school. I was her only child and she projected, like all parents, a better future in me. I was a bright person and I was stimulated to learn, learn, learn, read, read, and read. I am a product of her imagination.

My grandfather was a christian socialist. My mother was also a revolutionary person. She was a feminist. She believed in the equality of males and females. She was a pacifist.

I was not allowed to play with weapons. She opposed alcohol and I was not allowed to drink. She was also a Christian. She believed in “giving away everything to the poor” and she practised her faith al her live. I am a product of her ideals.

Later in life she became a very critical person. She gave away everything but nobody gave her back what she gave away. When she was old she was alone and she wanted (!) me to visit her. She even demanded this. In the end of her life she got dementia.

I tried to help her but I was unable to fulfill her dream. She wanted to live with me but this was impossible. I cried. I tried to find a solution. Many advisors visited and promised beautiful things.

Every time they did not keep their promises because there was a shortage in mental care for old people with dementia. I became very angry. I phoned, talked, send letters but nothing worked.

My mother and my father worked with numerous others to rebuild the Netherlands after the war. When she was old The Netherlands was a very rich country but the government was unable to take care of aged people.

I know why.

You know why.

Money makes the world go around
The world go around
The world go around
Money makes the world go around
It makes the world go ’round.

A mark, a yen, a buck, or a pound
A buck or a pound
A buck or a pound
Is all that makes the world go around,
That clinking clanking sound
Can make the world go ’round.

[GIRLS]
Money money money money money money
Money money money money money money
Money money money money money money
Money money

[EMCEE]
If you happen
To be rich,
[GIRLS]
…….Ooooh
[EMCEE]
And you feel like a
Night’s enetertainment,
[GIRLS]
…Money
[EMCEE]
You can pay for a
Gay escapade.
[GIRLS]
Money money
Money money
Money money
Money money
[EMCEE]
If you happen to
To be rich,
[GIRLS]
…….Ooooh
[EMCEE]
And alone, and you
Need a companion
[GIRLS]
…Money
[EMCEE]
You can ring-ting-
A-ling for the maid.
[EMCEE]
If you happen
To be rich
[GIRLS]
…..Ooooh
[EMCEE]
And you find you are
Left by your lover,
[GIRLS]
…Money
[EMCEE]
Though you moan
And you groan
Quite a lot,
[GIRLS]
Money money
Money money
Money money
Money money
[EMCEE]
You can take it
On the chin,
[GIRLS]
…..Ooooh
[EMCEE]
Call a cab,
And begin
[GIRLS]
…Money
[EMCEE]
To recover
On your fourteen-
Carat yacht.

[EMCEE]
Money makes the world go around,
The world go around,
The world go around,
Money makes the world go around,
Of that we can be sure.
(….) on being poor.

[ALL]
Money money money-
money money money
Money money money-
money money money
Money money money money money money
Money money money money money money
Money money money money money money

[DANCE BREAK]

[EMCEE AND GIRLS (In Canon)]
If you haven’t any coal in the stove
And you freeze in the winter
And you curse on the wind
At your fate
When you haven’t any shoes
On your feet
And your coat’s thin as paper
And you look thirty pounds
Underweight.
When you go to get a word of advice
From the fat little pastor
He will tell you to love evermore.
But when hunger comes a rap,
Rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat at the window…

[GIRLS]
At the window…

[EMCEE (spoken)]
Who’s there?

[GIRLS (spoken)]
Hunger!

[EMCEE (Spoken)]
Ooh, hunger!

See how love flies out the door…
For

[EMCEE]
Money makes
The world…
[GIRLS]
…Go around
[EMCEE]
The world…
[GIRLS]
…Go around
[EMCEE]
The world…
[GIRLS]
…Go around
[EMCEE]
Money makes the
…. Go around
[GIRLS]
…Go around

That clinking
Clanking sound of
Money money money money money money
Money money money money money money

[EMCEE]
Get a little,
[GIRLS]
Money money
[EMCEE]
Get a little,
[GIRLS]
Money money
[EMCEE]
Money money
[GIRLS]
Money money
[EMCEE]
Money money
[GIRLS]
Money money

[EMCEE]
Mark, a yen, a buck
[GIRLS]
Get a little
[EMCEE]
Or a pound
[GIRLS]
Get a little
[EMCEE]
That clinking clanking
[GIRLS]
Get a little
Get a little

[EMCEE]
Clinking sound

[GIRLS]
Money money
Money money…

[EMCEE]
Is all that makes
The world go ’round

[GIRLS]
Money money
Money money

It makes the world go round!

I miss my mother.

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Hahahaha Dadadada: About Childisch behavior and Decadence

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

This evening I talked with a friend of mine. He runs a business in Knowledge Management Tools. His brother-in-law is very rich and he was invited to visit him in Spain (Valentia). His brother-in-law owns six cars, a big house and a very expensive sailing ship but he is not able to sail.

My friend is an expert in sailing and he is helping his brother-in-law to sail his ship to Alicante. This weekend a huge sailing event is taking place. It is organized by Switzerland. They needed a sea so they made a deal with Spain.

Organizing the whole events costs 2.000.000.000 Euro (Tax money). To develop a sailing boat an investment of 20.000.000 Euro is necessary just to experiment. Building the ship costs much more (200.000.000 Euro).

Winning the race gives you status in the network of rich people. Larry Ellison the owner of Oracle is one of the persons who is investing billons just to win and another Russian billionaire is doing the same. Anderson made his money by creating and selling software to big companies and government agencies. The Russian billionaire just grabbed everything he could get in Russia. He not only owns a expensive ship but also the most important Soccerteam in Brittain (Chelsea).

Normal (poor) people can watch the race on television and rich people don’t even watch. They have their private parties and my friend is invited. I advised him to find somebody that would buy his environment just for fun.

His Sister-in-Law shows strange behavior. She is wasting enormous amounts of money (six cars) but she also looks at the small things. She is “pound foolish and pennywise”. Her main interest is faking the luggage system of the airplane. She does not want to pay more than the normal fair and she has developed numerous tricks to fake even the customs. She is an expert in smuggling. She acts like a big child and she does not knows she is playing with fire.

My friend is an analytic observer and he observes the same thing in government projects (also tax money). His tools are very cheap and very advanced (Open Source) but Government Agencies and especially Government Research Organizations are spending billions to create something that is already available for free.

Rich people don’t pay a lot of taxes. They pay advisors to find holes in laws and the advisors advise governments to create holes. If they don’t do that the rich people move to other places in the world. Switserland is the expert in “helping” rich people. Banks are doing everything you want to do secret things with your money.

Last night I was asked to help the sun of a friend. He was having troubles with mathematics. I am a mathematician. (Not) to my surprise I found out that his problem was not insight but just doing something at school. He was spending all his time with friends, making fun in school and he did not spend a minute to listen to the teacher or to read his book. I couldn’t do anything to help him.

My friend also wanted to talk about the “career” of his sun. He had to make a choice and after some debate I found out that he wanted to become a banker. I have worked for a bank and I explained him what bankers are doing. He wanted to work in the money-market. I told him economics or mathematics is needed. He understood that his behavior in school was not helpful. After some debate I found out that he did not want to become a real banker. Banking was about doing nothing, driving big cars, nice suits and having fun. He just wanted to be rich.Unfortunedly his father was not a rich person so the only thing that was left for him was to play the lottery.

What is happening?

What is happening is called decadence. We are so rich that we don’t know what to do with our wealth.

But we are also very stressed. Why? Because we are convinced we have to work to make money.

To employ people we give them fake-jobs. Many jobs are about advising the advisor. This is a well know play in the Netherlands. Behind every teacher (we have a shortage, it is not paying much) twenty people are advising. Behind every nurse (and we have a shortage, it is not paying much) there are twenty advising. And it goes on. There are advisor to advisor and at a certain point they create a loop. This loop causes complexity and we employ advisors to make it simple and a new complexity arises. In the end we don’t know what is happening, we get stressed and we employ advisors (ok I stop).

It’s like a strange dream and the dream can turn into a nightmare when the system collapses (and it is collapsing) and suddenly we don’t have enough electricity (Fall-outs happen) and the trains are not running (They do).and computer systems are going out of control (They do) The advisors know that the reason is complexity but they don’t know how to solve it.

Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in neutral Zurich, Switzerland during World Ware I and peaked from 1916 to 1920. The movement concentrated its anti-war politic through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti art. The movement influenced later styles, movements, and groups including Surrealism, Pop Art and Fluxus.

The artists created art out of junk and shit and made a fool of the governing class. Surrealism uses the Dream World to show how the elite is behaving. The “leader” Andre Breton was trained in medicine and psychiatry. He used the psychoanalytic methods of Freud with soldiers who were shell-schocked. He admired anti-social attitudes and disdain for established artistic tradition. He hated them and wanted to show the fake and the nightmares of poor innocent people that were fighting a useless war that was all about Power and Status.

Now the rich persons are paying millions to buy a piece of shit of Dada.

Andre Breton is laughing in his grave and the rich people are laughing also because they also have fun.

Hahahahahaahahaha

Dadadada. Childisch Behavior.

Decadence.

Are we watching the End of Western Civilisation?

I don’t know.

The rich have all the money and therefore the power to stay in power.

The children watch the Jet-Set on Television and also want to be rich.

If they are very poor they Join the Army.

Loop.

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