Johnson Reading Assignment
Johnson makes extensive use of the phrase “organized complexity” in his essay. Now, this phrase in and of itself seems odd and contradictory, as anything complex is usually far from organized, especially if large groups of people are involved. Johnson explains organized complexity as a “motorized billiards table, where the balls follow specific rules and through their various interactions create a distinct macrobehavior, arranging themselves in a specific shape, or forming a specific pattern over time” (Johnson, 203). Through this example, Johnson describes both elements accurately, though there is no such thing as a “motorized billiards table.” The system is complex because of the vast array of balls moving around, but at the same time it is organized because of the “rules” each ball follows. In his other anecdotes, Johnson describes how large systems of individuals, each with their own directive, move to form a change on the macro level, citing examples ranging from ants to software. He ties this with the idea of an organized complexity by explaining how order emerges from the entropy of these systems: ants use pheromones to communicate and coordinate, AI use groups of “demons” to perform small tasks and work upwards.
Though Johnson writes to explain while Davidson primarily argues, the two texts draw similarities in their stance on learning. Davidson calls for crowdsourcing, while Johnson describes AI as drawing from a collective group of programs. The two both advocate that when drawing on a large number of people in an organized fashion, the group can perform feats surpassing the capability of any one member alone. On the topic of learning, Davidson supports the idea of experiencing many different things to build various different connections. Johnson uses the example of AI to show how it learns by strengthening or weakening connections based on its experiences. Both of these rely on the idea of building connections to learn and develop, albeit in different methods and forms.
I found the parallels interesting as well. Both Johnson and Davidson present observations of how humans can work together in order to create a product or idea. Rather than "organized complexity," what I chose to take away from Johnson's passage was that of unconscious collaboration. Humans were able to somehow create something cohesive without clearly deciding any plans. This seems to bridge that gap between Johnson's observations and Davidson's argument for collaborative classrooms.
ReplyDeleteThe second section of your post offers many options for relating the other works to Lethem's. You reference how both Davidson and Johnson advocate that drawing on a large number of people can result in outperforming the capabilities of a single person. This closely relates to Lethem's main argument. As an example, on page 223, Lethem references how Don Swanson was able to discover Raynaud's syndrome by solely reading across passages, rather than commissioning new research. Additionally, your discussion in the first section of organized complexity is reminiscent to the structure of Lethem's text as a whole. The essay is composed of a complex, lengthy series of plagiarisms. Extraordinarily, Lethem organized all of the plagiarisms to form a coherent, effective essay.
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