Labeling things helps us cope and reduce uncertainty by making the complex world more manageable. Embracing uncertainty is crucial as it is inevitable, despite humans generally disliking uncertainty due to the anxiety it brings. People often have binary reactions to uncertainty, either overly optimistic or fatalistic. Understanding that systems are more than the sum of their parts is key, as fixing parts of a system does not fix the whole in the way one might fix a machine, leading to more complex issues over time. To navigate uncertainty effectively, one must acknowledge the interconnected complexity of living systems and embrace humility and ambiguity in processing information.
On this episode, we meet with award-winning filmmaker, writer, educator, and President of the International Bateson Institute, Nora Bateson.
Nora brings us beyond the descriptions of the physical science that underpins our predicament to the nuance and perception of the complexity that we live within. How can we improve our relationships with others, as well as the broader world?
Nora helps us understand how systems dynamics inform our predicament. How does an ecosystem develop and mature through mutual learning? What are ways we can apply this thinking to our profit-focused superstructure?
About Nora Bateson
Nora Bateson is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and educator, as well as President of the International Bateson Institute, based in Sweden. Her work asks the question “How can we improve our perception of the complexity we live within, so we may improve our interaction with the world?”
An international lecturer, researcher and writer, Nora wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary, An Ecology of Mind, a portrait of her father, Gregory Bateson. Her work brings the fields of biology, cognition, art, anthropology, psychology, and information technology together into a study of the patterns in ecology of living systems. Her book, Small Arcs of Larger Circles, released by Triarchy Press, UK, 2016 is a revolutionary personal approach to the study of systems and complexity.
For Show Notes and Transcript visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/10-nora-bateson