Child well-being, Silver Superdreams, DEEP care and DEEPer voices

On the website [archived 2015 - page may not remain] there's a small page that highlights DEEP things...

That is DEEP ECOLOGY, DEEP TIME, DEEP SPACE and of course DEEP CARE. These days it seems everything is DEEP. So it isn't noise that's damaging your ear drums it's pressure.

When I wrote that page deep care was left to fend for itself (there's a books worth there I bet); but then I remembered a day as a student...

In those days I had a silver Honda 250cc Superdream. I'd swear that bike had a built in gyro (except for the time I dropped it in the snow). The bike not only helped me with the a2b; on community experience I had to spend a day at a children's home...

The day started at 2pm working through to 9-10pm. Many of the kids were not yet home from school. So I was able to chat with the house-mothers as the two female staff members were called and I do remember their names. This was a quiet interlude before the chaos ensued. It was spring and the 'instructions' were - when the children are home, join-in outside while tea is prepared.

Well, arrive they did and there I was in this big garden playing football and inevitable rough and tumble with the lads. While all this was going on I could see the house-mothers at the window watching. Watching a bit more. Then not just watching: staring. Was I doing something wrong (and who was cooking tea)?

Anyway, a bell announced tea time to be followed with more antics outside then some indoor games and then time for bed. Stories first of course. I was asked to take a youngster upstairs and settle him down. He couldn't have been more than 5. On my shoulders up the stairs. A brief flight through the air along a carefully judged flight-path suddenly filled with giggles to find the book...

As I started to read one of the house-mothers came in and started to tidy the room and I suppose keep an eye on me. I like reading. As I read that feeling returned - being watched just like in the garden. This time it was a pair of very young eyes doing the staring, with an open-mouthed intensity that was dry-mouth disturbing. Next, I noticed the house-mother had stopped what she was doing to watch and listen. OK: What was going on? We reached a point were the book closed and it was time for lights out and prayers.

Then I was asked for a kiss.

It wasn't that I was upset or anything, but it was the way this little guy asked.

Now I know there are all sorts of considerations these days, equality and diversity, sex and gender roles. This WAS ALL about equality and diversity and something wasn't right.

I responded with that student-male awkwardness that I wasn't about to kiss him, but it would be great to shake his hand and say thanks for everything - the soccer, chocs, drawings, thumbs up for the bike....

So, phew - lights out upstairs - it was time for twenty questions downstairs.

As the home got quieter by the second, the questions were well-formed, but had to wait as I joined the two house mothers sitting at the kitchen table for tea/coffee. Straight away they guessed my star-sign: Aquarius. OK... Then they apologised for staring earlier. I acknowledged that this hadn't gone unnoticed. They explained how pleased and totally fascinated they were to see the young boys able to interact in ways that they - try as they might - just cannot manage. The house-mothers usually read the stories and while I'm no bass-baritone, my voice - a lone male voice - had really struck a cord.

Unfortunately, back then there were issues about recruiting male staff members. I passed on those same concerns and my experience to the school of nursing. The house-mothers agreed that as a consequence there were potential future mental health issues being incubated there - the clients of tomorrow. They were trying to bring about change themselves.

That day will stay with me - I hope. As I rode home I knew it was a real gem in terms of learning experience. Scary, the notions of 'self' and 'others'. I wonder how things have changed in the homes and in society at large?

Book: [ii] 'The Systems View of Life - A Unifying Vision'

The introduction highlights the oscillation through history between reductivism, holistic and integrative perspectives; the relationship between theology and the claims for and crystallisation of knowledge and the sciences. The development of cybernetics and systems theory in the 1950s and 1960s does not have it all its own way: 

'The eclipse of systems thinking from pure science had become so complete that it was not considered a viable alternative. In fact, systems theory began to be seen as an intellectual failure in several critical essays. One reason for this harsh assessment was that Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1968) had announced in a rather grandiose manner that his goal was to develop general systems theory into "'a mathematical discipline, in itself purely formal but applicable to the various empirical sciences.'' He could never achieve this ambitious goal because in his time no mathematical techniques were available to deal with the enormous complexity of living systems.' p.11.

(With Zeeman's book on Catastrophe Theory on-loan at present the above is helpful.)

I've picked up a book of Arne Naess's, put it down again: or did I buy 'The Ecology of Wisdom'? I can't check at present (the books I've left are all boxed / created), but Naess sets the scene for the mechanistic worldview.

'Care flows naturally if the 'self" is widened and deepened so that protection of free Nature is felt and conceived as protection of ourselves. .. Just as we need no morals to make us breathe... [so] if your "self" in the wide sense embraces another being, you need no moral exhortation to show care.. . You care for yourself without feeling any moral pressure to do it. (quoted by Fox, 1990, p. 217)

'What this implies, according to the eco-philosopher Warwick Fox (1990), is that the connection between an ecological perception of the world and corresponding behavior is not a logical but a psychological connection. Logic does not lead us from the fact that we are an integral part of the web of life to certain norms of how we should live.' p.14.

Science fiction gives you an appreciate of 'deep', even if not initially the philosophical connotations. Deep space, A.C. Clarke's Deep Range, and more recently deep time brought me to consider deep care on the old website and here on W2tQ with Hodges' model a means of navigation. Naess refers to shallow and deep ecology. Now we also have deepfakes, although the climate change deniers may struggle to believe their deepfake - that is: reality.  Although the book was published pre-sustainable development goals, sustainable development is discussed in detail. For me, the climate change and the SDGs demand we consider ecology, ecosystems, life, and the Earth across the domains of Hodges' model and the spiritual explored in chapter 13.

 

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

	shallow | DEEP

A table on page 13 contrasts several opposites across thinking and values:

As usual, I can't shift beyond the book's introduction, but these points for me underscore the value of the book and Hodges' model. Throughout the blog and papers various dichotomies, polarities, oppositions arise. The structure of Hodges' model lends itself to this, and consequently finding the middle. All the above can be reflected upon in relation to Hodges' model, and also searched.

Chapter 1 explains how the discoveries of Galileo, Descartes, Bacon, Newton and Darwin contributed to the world and life - in biology being viewed mechanistically. The focus of the book is 'Western' and the developed nations; as the main contributor to the current state of the planet. The Cartesian divide - mind & matter/body distinction (p.24) is implicit within Hodges' model:

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

res cogitans	res extensa

Newton's work is described and the limitations of Newtonian physics - the social sciences presented a challenge(!). Thermodynamics is introduced helpful for subsequent chapters.

For general science students the book provides a historical primer, and even an introduction to the philosophy of science. Chapter 2 is short but conjoins cells, molecules, genes (Mendel, Watson & Crick; Franklin & Wilkins, and others), and mechanistic medicine. 

'This will not change until medical science relates its study of the biological aspects of illness to the general physical and psychological condition of the human organism and its environment, The conceptual problem at the center of contemporary healthcare is the confusion between disease processes and disease origins. Instead of asking why an illness occurs and trying to remove the conditions that led to it, medical researchers try to understand the mechanisms through which the disease operates, so that they can then interfere with them. These mechanisms, rather than the true origins, are seen as the causes of disease in current medical thinking. In the process of reducing illness to disease, the attention of Physicians has moved away from the patient as a whole person.' p.43.

Thinking about this in basic instrumentalist terms the reliance on optics, the craft of telescopes and microscopes to discover the very large (our Milky Way as 'a' galaxy) and the invisible - germs, bacteria must have been a profound factor.

If you are selecting subjects for age 16 exams, do not underestimate the value of SOCIO-ECONOMIC history. It has helped me as a community mental health nurse. Especially in light of austerity (UK), the cost of living and energy crisis and the 'housing disaster' (book 2024 with) posts to follow. Chapter 3 uses b&w illustrations of key figures, such as, Locke, Adams, and Marx. I remember in the media, economics education being questioned. That is part 1: concise (p.59!) and yet still relevant today.

Many thanks again to CUP for the pb copy.

Fritjof Capra and Pier Luigi Luisi (2014) The Systems View of Life - A Unifying Vision. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/life-sciences/genomics-bioinformatics-and-systems-biology/systems-view-life-unifying-vision?format=HB&isbn=9781107011366

Michel Serres in "A planetary art beyond the human"

Individual
|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------ mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

Group

"In the mid- 1990s, Michel Serres was already registering the devastating impact of ‘dense tectonic plates of humanity’ on a hitherto ‘mute world’.1 Our excesses, he writes, have awoken the ‘mute, passive, obscure things’ around us that had ‘obediently slumbered’, but will now respond to us with violence.2 In such discourse we recognize the now common tropes of thresholds and tipping points, often deployed by climate scientists and echoed by scholars who assert that humans are now truly ‘geological agents’ in their impact on the planet.3 ...

... Getting to grips with the consequences of human activity for the Earth’s systems is unarguably an essential step in forging policies to mitigate the damage. But in the political urgency that shapes many debates about climate change, there is a risk, as Dipesh Chakrabarty points out, that ‘humans emerge as the subject of the drama of the Anthropocene’ while geological time fades from view.4 An emphasis on human agency may simply lead us full circle, back to the anthropocentric conception of a docile Earth made up of inert matter, only stirred by our own excesses, and waiting to be saved or destroyed by its human inhabitants." p.31.

 

Page, J. (2021). A planetary art beyond the human. In Decolonizing Science in Latin American Art (pp. 31–65). UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv18kc0mw.6

 

Joanna Page is Reader in Latin American Literature and Visual Culture at the University of Cambridge. 

See also:

Jones, P. (2008) Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons, IN Kidd, T., Chen, I. (Eds.) Social Information Technology Connecting Society and Cultural Issues, Idea Group Publishing, Inc. Chap. 7, pp. 96-109.

Michel Serres on W2tQ

Consider also - 'deep' within Hodges' model:

DEEP space, time, ecology, links, design ... DEEP CARE.

  

Review: iii Kinchin's Visualising Powerful Knowledge to Develop the Expert Student

Also aimed at general as well as readers in education, this is an accessible read. The book's compact size, eight chapters across 134 pages invites completion even though I took quite a few weeks.

Book reviews here are a bit 'unconventional' with the two axes I have to grind [ ;-) ]. Returning to chapter 2 momentarily and map topography. Kinchin explains how concept maps of various types can be better understood and evaluated - a process of 'topological normalisation' (p.27). On W2tQ I may sound like 'I have it in' for process and processes. I do, in the importance they seem to assume within project management. I do 'get this'. A focus on processes is inevitable and readily appreciated in Hodges' model.

No process then ... no time, sequences, events, change, movement, spatial references and so on ... Kinchin's inclusion of  'topological normalisation' is very constructive (imho) as it indicates a method (as with measuring concept maps) and suggests something beyond an algorithmic approach.

The phrase (inevitably?) reminded me of database normalization:

".. the process of structuring a relational database."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization

So, topological normalisation and associated structures provides the icing.

Little wonder then that next up in chapter Kinchin's Table 1 lists the characteristics of

'Deep Learning' and 'Shallow Learning'

So cake and icing clearly.

On deep learning the first item is ''Linking new information with prior knowledge'. This is central in Hodges' model and the reflection (individual or group) and critical thinking that the model can help generate. With all the claims for VR AR, this (reflection / reflective practice facilitated by Hodges' model) is conceptually immersive (and a definition of learning?).

From this, another item is realised. As learners engage with content; find, 'own' and sustain their enthusiasm for their learning, understanding and the subjects and parts of the curriculum they find themselves learning within. The sum total is: structured networks of knowledge (p.36).

This gets even better with the subheading: 'Oppositional Binaries'.

Hodges' model provides two binaries - but (apologies - another time!) let's get back to the book.

While 'Deep learning' has its advocates, Kinchin quotes Tormey (2014:4) who warns:

'a framework that is simple enough to be a powerful metaphor may be too simple to adequately account for learning in different contexts' and that its blind acceptance by new entrants to the profession has 'imposed blinkers that make alternative conceptualisations invisible'.

Finding further evidence to support Hodges' model within this debate is invaluable.

to be continued...

Roland Tormey (2014) The centre cannot hold: untangling two different trajectories of the ‘approaches to learning’ framework, Teaching in Higher Education, 19:1, 1-12.
DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2013.827648

Novak, J.D. and Symington, D.J. (1982) Concept mapping for curriculum development. Victoria Institute for Educational Research Bulletin, 48: 3–11.

Kinchin, I., (2016) Visualising powerful knowledge to develop the expert student. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

See also:

Intro post

Review One

... Two

... Four

... Five

... Six

Many thanks to Brill for my review copy.

Two one-day events in September: BCS SPECIALIST GROUP ON AI

BCS SPECIALIST GROUP ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (BCS-SGAI)

 

There are two one-day SGAI events arranged for September, both at the British Computer Society London office (near Moorgate underground station).

 

Trustworthiness and Safety in Generative AI - Friday September 11th 2026

https://www.bcs-sgai.org/genai2026/

 

Real AI 2026 - Friday September 25th 2026

https://www.bcs-sgai.org/realai2026/

 

There are online registration forms available from the event websites.

 

Trustworthiness and Safety in Generative AI - Friday September 11th 2026

Despite impressive breakthroughs in capabilities across text, vision, audio, and multimodal reasoning, current generative models remain prone to unpredictable failures and exhibit unresolved challenges in alignment, grounding, and robustness techniques, including hallucinations, instability under distribution shift, hidden internal representations, and limited theoretical understanding of how large‑scale models encode and propagate knowledge. This colloquium aims to create a forum for discussing cutting edge advances and emerging challenges in the trustworthiness and safety of generative AI.

 

The talks will include:

• Beyond the Pixel: Trustworthy and Safe Generative AI for Medical Image Quality Transfer
• Spoofing Deep Leakage Attacks in Federated Learning
• Can We Trust the Voice on the Line? Robust Audio Deepfake Detection from Real-World Calls to the First “Hi”
• The Scenic Route to Deception: Dark Patterns and Explainability Pitfalls in Conversational Navigation
• Differential Adjusted Parity for Learning Fair Representations
• Decision-theoretic uncertainty quantification in generative deep learning
• Zero Trust Architectures for Secure Multi-Agent AI Systems: From Identity to Collaboration Integrity

Registration fee: £50 (plus VAT) for BCS and SGAI members and £90 (plus VAT) for others. This includes attendance at the event, lunch and refreshments.

Students and unwaged: £35 (plus VAT).  Group discounts are also available.

 

Real AI 2026 - Friday September 25th 2026

This event is aimed less at deep AI specialists and more at those who may be interested in understanding what AI can offer, and what it is doing right now. The event will feature talks from leading exponents and case studies outlining practical applications of AI from a wide range of application domains. Plenty of time has been allowed in the programme for discussion.

 

The talks will include:

• Evolving the SDLC: Our Journey Towards Agentic Software Engineering
• Robotics in the Age of AI: Adoption, Illusion and Direction of Travel
• Is Judgement Uniquely Human?
• Agent Trust and Coordination in Autonomous Multi-Agent Cyber Defence Systems
• Agentic AI: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Three Real-World Use Cases

Registration fee: £90 (plus VAT) for BCS and SGAI members and £110 (plus VAT) for others. This includes attendance at the event, lunch and refreshments.

Students and unwaged: £50 (plus VAT).  Group discounts are also available.

 

Max Bramer, Chair, BCS-SGAI 

bcs-sgai.org

[And my source.]

Deep *and* Broad ... Hodges' model is no blank slate ...

"Beyond deep learning

Steeper than expected

Different researchers have different ideas about how to try to improve things. One idea is to widen the scope, rather than the volume, of what machines are taught. Christopher Manning, of Stanford University's AI Lab, points out that biological brains learn from far richer data-sets than machines. Artificial language models are trained solely on large quantities of text or speech. But a baby, he says, can rely on sounds, tone of voice or tracking what its parents are looking at, as well as a rich physical environment to help it anchor abstract concepts in the real world. This shades into an old idea in AI research called "embodied cognition", which holds that if minds are to understand the world properly, they need to be fully embodied in it, not confined to an abstracted existence as pulses of electricity in a data-centre.

Biology offers other ideas, too. Dr Brooks argues that the current generation of AI researchers "fetishise" models that begin as blank slates, with no hand-crafted hints built in by their creators. But "all animals are born with structure in their brains," he says. 'That's where you get instincts from.'" p.11.

The Economist, Technology Quarterly: Artificial intelligence and its limits. The Economist, June 13 2020, 435:9198. [and image source].

'Deep and Broad' - as required.

Book: (more than) Skin Deep ...?

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

	"For decades now tattoos have been potent symbols of the Los Angeles gang-life scene. The black and white tattoos with recognizable gang symbols appear on members’ faces, necks and all over their bodies, making their gang affiliation immediately clear to whomever crosses their path. This can mean the difference between life and death on he streets, and just as often, in prison. ..."

My source: Sandhu, S. Crime ink: lifting the layers of prejudice, 20 October, i news, pp.30-31.

Photos: http://www.powerhousebooks.com/books/skin-deep-looking-beyond-the-tattoos/

Award winning educational video, Vis Lab & Martian caves

Here are a few links:

Mars is pure enigma tainted red and placed in the sky with warm cave entrances spotted at night. Drawing the retrograde motion of Mars was a powerful early lesson on the power of manual visualization (paper and pencil).

VISUALIZATION LAB UC Berkeley.

Sense.us below provides a pdf and a 20MB video:

Voyagers and Voyeurs: Supporting Asynchronous Collaborative Information Visualization

Looking at the potential of these tools health care managers and decision makers are going to have indigestion. Health care information departments will no longer be playing catch-up, but will be providing data and information (directly or through a clearing service of some sort). The key issues then will be analysis, interpretation-significance and action. That latter point seems a perfectly timed invitation for public engagement, engagement beyond tokenism.

I found this short (award winning) film entitled TEACHING TEACHING & UNDERSTANDING UNDERSTANDING, very interesting especially in light of the deep post last weekend. For me this video highlights a role for Hodges' model in education. If students arrive at university with a well-used conceptual framework will they be predisposed to deep understanding?

There is this thing - 'universal construction'

The problem of bugs in software is an ongoing problem across all IT industries. For application that are safety critical we are still reminded of the risk implications and consequences if bugs are software is not tested and bugs - errors identified and corrected.

Back in the 90s during BA(Joint Hons. Philosophy & Computing) studies, I was introduced to the formal specification language 'Z'. It was designed for definition, and modelling of computer software, working from specification to implementation, as per these images:

https://personalpages.bradley.edu/~young/CS592M120_OLD/handoutZed.pdf

https://personalpages.bradley.edu/~young/CS592M120_OLD/handoutZed.pdf

To be clear I've never worked as part of a software project and my 'tinkering' - Drupal, Pharo, online groups, hosting platform - reveals how the development stack and work processes have developed apace. The challenge is keeping up. Simultaneously, there is the sense of being on the bank of deep water; or, a vertiginous cliff:

A little learning is a dang’rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fir’d at first sight with what the Muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts,
While from the bounded level of our mind,
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind,
But more advanc’d, behold with strange surprise
New, distant scenes of endless science rise! 

Pope. https://interestingliterature.com/2021/09/a-little-learning-is-a-dangerous-thing-meaning-analysis-origin/

 Acknowledging the need for an 'evidence-base' and theoretical underpinning the effort to 'push' Hodges' model forward is ongoing. Maths remains an alien territory to me, but the 'secret garden' is as tantalizing as ever. Over the years I have posted - with much overlap about:

• maths
• relation
• logic

- and more recently:

• isomorphism
• category theory
• and as previously posted - laws of form.

In an effort to get to grips with the above, I'm following various online videos, books and papers. Bartosz Milewski's videos, blog and publications are aimed at programmers, but are very interesting nonetheless. The first video provides an introduction to the motivation and philosophy of category theory. In another, Milewski refers to 'universal construction' on YouTube and in a blog post about 'Function Types'.

The 'universal' figures in healthcare too: universal health access, and universal health coverage appear to over-shadow 'universal health care'. The quality of 'universal' also creeps into assessment. Data gathering is not merely complete, it is comprehensive. It has to be, to contribute not just to a care plan, for one that is (supposedly) person-centred, with risks identified, strengths, weaknesses - needs, history, social network, and much more. The care plan informs and orchestrates the interventions; then evaluation follows. Are we delivering? What is the patient's (client's, carer's) level of satisfaction. Have care stages and actions been completed as per policy (in time!)? (More on this to follow later this year in light of UK mental health/illness news.)

So as I consider (wrestle with...) initial, and terminal objects, sets and categories … I can hopefully, especially with help, extend the number of posts tagged 'universal' here on W2tQ. In this vein, is Hodges' model a universal construction? There may not be a universal truth to reveal, but it will prove a marvellous learning journey.

HIFA discussion on Alcohol Use Disorders, 5 Feb - 17 Mar 2024

Dear all on HIFA,

It's just 4 days to go before the official launch of our deep-dive discussion on Alcohol Use Disorders, 5 February to 17 March 2024.

Please forward this message to your contacts and networks and invite them to join! www.hifa.org/joinhifa

More information here:
https://www.hifa.org/news/hifa-announces-deep-dive-discussion-alcohol-use-disorders-starts-5-february-2024

HIFA is grateful for sponsorship from the Ulrich and Ruth Frank Foundation for International Health known online as NextGenU.org.

Note: We have opportunities for further sponsored discussions in 2024. We have 20 working groups on standby to plan and implement a discussion [ https://www.hifa.org/projects ]. Or we can start a new group to address a topic that is important to you. Also new in 2024 there is the option to have live webinars to complement our forum discussions.

To discuss possibilities, please contact: neil AT hifa.org

With thanks, Neil

HIFA Partnerships and Projects working group: https://www.hifa.org/projects/partnerships-and-projects

HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization.

"David Lynch: A Thinking Room"

Where is the Thinking Room?

Individual

|

      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

Ah! Surely this one? It's deep!	Is it here? This is deep too! Please take a chair.
I trust you are comfortable, so what about this place?	Yes, you can think here - but you must check first before you do: Think.  If you must ... N.B. Please rate your experience too.

Soraya Roberts. A Room Of His Own, FT Magazine, 30-31 March, 2024, 1067: pp.38-41.

https://www.ft.com/content/bf6a6eaa-30d1-4704-9aea-4ff2d117f407

David Lynch’s dreamlike rooms at the Salone del Mobile.Milano 2024:
https://www.salonemilano.it/en/articles/david-lynchs-dreamlike-rooms-salone-del-mobilemilano-2024

Most typical face in the world revealed (amid deep irony)

National Geographic Magazine has revealed what the most typical human on the planet looks like.…

There is a deep irony here (since we are talking about 'skin') in that as the global demographics flow across the decades to alter this typical face, there is a growing proportion of the population who hope that health and social care delivery is not typical and a 'composite'.

They hope that health, nursing and social care is truly personal and individual - taking in their preferences, needs and priorities.

Having said that though - would it be progress if everyone could expect at least to receive what is deemed a 'standard' level of basic nursing care that is in a way 'typical'?

more to follow - more will follow - are we ready?

Tony Buzan: Mind mapping - mental literacy

Tony Buzan, The Times, April 17 2019, p.57

There are a great many diagrammatic reasoning and argumentation tools available in various forms, paper concept maps and a variety of software. As noted previously on W2tQ ever since watching Tony Buzan's Use Your Head programmes on BBC TV in the 1970s I have been fascinated by the use of drawings to represent a situation, problem and solutions. I was primed to be hooked by Hodges' model in 1987-1988.

I've been sitting on this obituary for over a year. It was sad to hear of Mr Buzan's death and still quite young by today's standards at 76 years. I never managed to make contact with Mr Buzan, although I'm sure I tried, the inevitable email - undoubtedly well-lost.

Now, letting revisions 'relax' [the draft SDGs, public health and Hodges' model resubmission(?)] I'm looking at Drupal (again) and papers that address fundamental questions about h2cm; the axes, care domains.

As an influence I've an old pb copy of Use Your Head and a recently acquired hb copy of The Mind Map Book published by the BBC.

Some of the points of interest to me include:

BULL, B.L. and WITTROCK, M.C. (1973), IMAGERY IN THE LEARNING OF VERBAL DEFINITIONS. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 43: 289-293. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8279.1973.tb02269.x

Bull and Wittrock's study was on 9-10 year olds (p.84). I've often wondered about the age at which Hodges' model could be taught.  I'm sure there are other, 'current' sources but this is a start.

There is a refreshing cultural contrast between the three Eastern basic instructions:

'obey, 'cooperate' and 'diverge'.

While the mind mapping equivalents are the three A's:

'ACCEPT', 'APPLY' and 'ADAPT'. pp.92-93.

If "drawing boundaries on a Mind Map has obvious mnemonic advantages;" is this, to some degree, what the care (knowledge) domains of Hodges' model also achieve? p.103 (and p.149).

Some chapters I can directly 'translate', e.g. -

Chapter 13 - Organising your own ideas -

Self-reflection, Self-care -

- similarly Chapter 18 Self-Analysis

The Mind Map Book

(Ideas stand for 'concepts' the latter no specific entry in the index.).

Chapter 19 Problem-Solving actually refers to interpersonal problem-solving using Mind Maps.

Chapter 19 might be extended to case formulation and especially so chapter 21 Family study and story-telling. I'm thinking of the way in health, whether physical or mental health context there is a narrative to told and listened to, acknowledged and acted upon.

Chapter 22 Thinking and Chapter 23 on Teaching, perhaps has a current analogue in Threshold Concepts and for the former Conceptual Spaces - both chapters stress learning.

The meaning of 'deep' and 'surface' learning has perhaps changed today, but deep being intrinsically motivated still stands - and could be related to the Socratic form of dialogue for engagement. p.228.

On pages 229-232 Mr Buzan demonstrated how people with special education needs can also utilise Mind Mapping. Hodges' model was created, very much with this population in mind, and in the Political domain.

'Mind Maps' ™ Acknowledged.

Humanistic motivations for study - c/o Harris et al.

 "Asking '[I]n what sense . . . can mathematics be considered a democratic regime . . .' open to all, Pimm and Sinclair quote (Supergiant) Henri Poincaré to the effect that 'only mathematicians are privy to the aesthetic sensibilities that enable' the decision of 'what is worth studying.' The article, published in a journal for educators, is motivated by the 'view that mathematics can do something for me in a humanistic sense that repays the the careful attention and deep engagement it may require; one that may expose students to a fundamental sense and experience of equality . . . and provide them with another sense of human commonality.'" p.33.  

Harris, M. (2015) Mathematics without Apologies: Portrait of a Problematic Vocation. Princeton University Press.

Hodges' model - Axes - Structure :: Domains - Content

Reablement, Rehabilitation, Recovery: Everyone’s business c/o BGS

In March 2023, we published Joining the dots: A blueprint for preventing and managing frailty in older people. This set out seven touchpoints of care that should be available to older people, as and when they need them and 12 recommendations to systems. One of the recommendations is specifically around the provision of rehabilitation and one of the touchpoints is ‘Integrated urgent community response, reablement, rehabilitation and intermediate care.’  

In this new document, we take a deep dive into this Blueprint recommendation, looking at the evidence behind the provision of rehabilitation for older people and highlighting examples of best practice from across the UK and internationally. We argue that rehabilitation should be a component of virtually all care for older people, across all care settings, and that there is no such thing as ‘no rehabilitation potential.’ 

This document has been led by Professor Anne Hendry, Honorary Professor at the University of the West of Scotland and Senior Associate at the International Foundation for Integrated Care and a group of BGS members from across the UK and across disciplines have contributed to drafting the document. We hope that BGS members, commissioners and system leaders will find it useful in planning rehabilitation services for older people in their communities. 

More information - full report.

The Listener ... and remarkable hearing

The Listener
Giuseppe Penone

 INDIVIDUAL

|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

	Giuseppe Penone, The Listener, 2008, installation view, Gaggiandre, Arsenale, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice © Giuseppe Penone/2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano, courtesy Vuslat Foundation
We used to till the land, cast our nets, now all we hear are the tills ...	Listeners Hearers - needed here.

My source:
Heathcote, E. 'Space - but not as we knew it', Venice Biennale, Life&Arts FT Weekend, 22-23 May 2021. p.1.

I see and hear you too Talio Havini, 'Deep listening across time', p.3.

The Difference that Makes a Difference: an interdisciplinary workshop on information and technology

Location: The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

Dates: 7-9 September 2011

Few people would argue that the development of information technologies has had a profound impact on modern society. Information is communicated, stored and manipulated using digital computers, the Internet, and fixed and mobile telephony, resulting in a deep and extensive impact upon all aspects of our lives. While talk of information is routine and unproblematic for engineers and technologists, it has been recognised since the early days of digital technologies that there is an uneasy relationship between the engineer’s concept of ‘information’ and wider uses of the word (cf. Roszak, 1986).

It is nevertheless appreciated that information, whatever is meant by this concept, is important – indeed it is foundational – to a quite remarkably diverse range of disciplines. Information is emerging not only as the new language of science - from quantum information to the genetic code - but as a key commodity of business, a major concern of the state, the front line for crime and crime prevention, the primary arena of technological development, an increasing concern of philosophy, and even a focus for conceptual art. Indeed, it is difficult to identify any field of life in the developed world that can not now be seen to some degree to have a significant information aspect, and to a greater or lesser extent this has all emerged because of developments in information technology.

The idea of information as a distinct concept, applicable across a wide range of disciplines, is growing in prominence. It has been especially emphasised within the natural sciences (von Baeyer, 2003; Vedral, 2010; Davies and Gregersen, 2010) and philosophy (Floridi, 2010). Much of this work takes information theory as developed by technologists, beginning with Shannon (1948), as its starting point, but draws little on contemporary work of technologists. At the same time, a different strand of work has arisen, drawing its inspiration from the growing influence of the Internet, and largely conducted by technologists (e.g. Weinberger, 2007; Brown and Duguid, 2000). This research in turn has little connection with the work in natural sciences and philosophy.

As we move further into the ‘information age’, we need to make the bridge between information of the information technologist and understanding of information in other disciplines. As researchers and practitioners in diverse fields grapple with an understanding of information – what it is, how it can be modelled and tools for coping with it – now more than ever is the time to share insights and bring some clarity and coherence to these differing perspectives.

We have begun some of that work, largely with colleagues around the Open University, resulting in a recent edited book (Ramage and Chapman, 2011). However, these discussions need to go much wider and deeper. We therefore propose to hold an international workshop to bring engineers and technologists together with scientists, philosophers, social scientists and artists – leading thinkers from all and any discipline that uses the language of information – to talk and listen, and to share their insights with us all.

There have been and continue to be many conferences, symposia and workshops addressing the technology, the applications and the consequences of information technology, but it is rare to find opportunities to address the understanding of the nature of information itself.

The need for work addressed more specifically at understanding the nature of information is exemplified by a problem expressed by Terrence Deacon (2010):

For more than half a century we have known how to measure the information-conveying capacity of any given communication medium, yet we cannot give an account of how this relates to the content that this signal may or may not represent. These are serious shortcomings that impede progress in a broad range of endeavors, from the study of basic biological processes to the analysis of global economics.

This workshop seeks to bring together those working with information in a wide range of disciplines - engineers and technologists together with scientists, philosophers, social scientists and artists - to discuss and expand our collective understanding of what we mean by information in our different disciplines. We are not seeking to combine these different understandings, but to share them and to explore commonalities.

The title of the workshop is based on a celebrated definition of information by Gregory Bateson (1972, pp.457-9), who wrote:

A difference is a very peculiar and obscure concept. It is certainly not a thing or an event. This piece of paper is different from the wood of this lectern. There are many differences between them – of color, texture, shape, etc. But if we start to ask about the localization of those differences, we get into trouble. Obviously the difference between the paper and the wood is not in the paper; it is obviously not in the wood; it is obviously not in the space between them, and it is obviously not in the time between them. (Difference which occurs across time is what we call “change”.) ...

Kant, in the Critique of Judgment – if I understand him correctly – asserts that the most elementary aesthetic act is the selection of a fact. He argues that in a piece of chalk there are an infinite number of potential facts. ... I suggest that Kant’s statement can be modified to say that there is an infinite number of differences around and within the piece of chalk. There are differences between the chalk and the rest of the universe, between the chalk and the sun or the moon. And within the piece of chalk, there is for every molecule an infinite number of differences between its location and the locations in which it might have been. Of this infinitude, we select a very limited number, which become information. In fact, what we mean by information – the elementary unit of information – is a difference which makes a difference.

The workshop will consist of four main sessions, each with keynote speakers and a number of presentations from others. Our goal is for maximum participation. If you are interested in the role and nature of information, we invite you to join us in Milton Keynes in September.

Magnus Ramage and David Chapman

Thanks to David for my being able to post these details here. I have registered and if time permits will submit an abstract. I'm really looking forward to this workshop. pj

Jones, P. (1996) Humans, Information, and Science, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 24(3),591-598.

'information' on W2tQ

"Where are we?" Take Two, Three, F.... (witheringcare?)

In Five Senses, Serres does not overtly discuss mortality, loss, depletion and omission (Connor, 1999). Management consultants advise that to succeed ‘think outside the box’, but the population pyramid is casting an ever larger shadow, highlighting an ageing population and the box is frequently found full and yet empty? Plaques disconnect, disable the memory; the critical biological box no longer registers and connects. The noise that counts, the background bioelectrical hum is disrupted or absent. Memories once ready to roll downhill, surfing the wave of potential are inaccessible, if marshalled at all. Wither the neural crossroads; the informatique mote in Hermes’ eye?

Our older people, those not yet ephemeral have become peripheral, their personal space an adjunct to furniture. New quantities in life, beg questions of quality, especially quality of care and what it means to care. The concept of self, person-hood is a prime distinguishing factor in terms of describing the attitudes of cultures and communities to older adults and memory loss. In the developed nations the debate continues: is this the price of a long life, or a way of life? In a search for the locus of informatics: the sign on this door reads deep informatics. Listen carefully, as inside the seniors are cared for at home (touched*) remotely courtesy of telecare solutions. The values here of course extend from inappropriate use of informatics to lack of access to such services (Barlow et al., 2006). ...




*For Serres touch is the interface.




We must ensure remote care is not a total substitute for face-to-face interaction.

Barlow, J., Bayer, S., Curry, R. (2006). Implementing Complex Innovations in Fluid Multi-Stakeholder Environments: Experiences of ‘Telecare’, Technovation, 26, 3, pp.396-406.

Connor, S. (1999). Michel Serres’ Five Senses.
Retrieved May 19, 2007, from http://stevenconnor.com/5senses.html

From submitted chapter: Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons - forthcoming...

P.S. Sorry about the two posts today - trying to figure some things out...

"Welcome (nursing) home?"

Sometimes people residing in nursing and residential care facilities become so ill they need to go into hospital. In community mental health terms this can mean that an individual's behaviour can be so disturbed they need specialist assessment and care. It is essential to ensure they can have the best quality of life that their circumstances can provide, without resort to 'care by medication'.

The job means listening to people in care asking to go home. Staff need to be skilled and sensitive in how they respond to such requests, especially when they are repeated time after time. Family members can really struggle with this; should they visit? It is amazing how things can change though...

Quite a while ago I visited a care home and had arrived a bit early. As I turned-up the lady I'd called to see had just returned back from a stay in hospital. It was remarkable to see her recognise the home as home. She responded warmly to the nurse in charge, the many greetings and reassurances offered plus the familiar surroundings. As we accompanied this lady through to her room, it made our day (my week) to hear the deep sigh of relief when the door to her room was opened.

She said, "Oh, it's good to be back."

Walking over to the side of her bed, this highly trained life-trooper stopped.

Sometimes when a tree falls in the forest and someone IS there, there is no sound - just emotion.

Suddenly this lady made like a falling pine in Grizedale forest. In slow motion she fell sideways to greet her bed with another sigh - satisfaction and rest. The home manager and I just looked at each other....

Close call that - just missing the wall - but so good to be 'home' at last.

Image source: http://www.english-lakes.com/grizedale_forest.html

Review: A systematic review and mixed- methods synthesis of the experiences, perceptions and attitudes of prison staff regarding adult prisoners who self-harm

The systematic review featured here was tweeted:

https://twitter.com/t_hewson/status/1533800510343499779

- and being mixed-methods caught my eye. 

Below, I have mapped some of the concepts, themes and findings of the review to Hodges' model, adding some italicised points of my own.

The relevance of Hodges' model, in carceral, forensic, health and justice contexts is marked. The vertical axis's distinction of individual and group and the need to protect the public from dangerous individuals stands out. As does an individual's physical and mental state to the State - in the political domain. This extends to the Sociological as to the public's expectations over 'law and order' and what - should, must - happen to wrong-doers.

Where the model can help reflection, scoping, critical thinking and problem solving is in the disciplinary bridges it provides between knowledge, or what can be 'silos'; and, the many interfaces that are found within our activities, health, educational or generally. There are several interfaces in this systematic review: Prison staff - prisoner; prisoner - prisoner; prisoner - family; and where the custody function, butts up against that of the health - and how physical and mental health needs are met - or in this environment (literally) negotiated. There is a related finding (page 6):

"In contrast, in one establishment with low rates of self-harm, staff felt that their roles of ‘carer’ and ‘security officer’ were well integrated."

INDIVIDUAL

|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

SELF: Prisoner / Prison Officer (and Other roles) Prison staff - perceptions & attitudes self harm (thoughts, motivation) suicide (thoughts, motivation) Staff confidence, skills: Awareness - Prevention Caring - empathy 'manipulative', 'attention seeking' Insufficient training expressed emotion Staff member's wellbeing Capacity to care 'deep acting' emotional intelligence 'hope' QUALITATIVE

SELF: Adult Prisoner, Prison Staff [repetitive] self harm (means, action) suicide (means, action) Carceral environment (PRISON) self-harm - factors Research: Methodology, [Mixed] methods Systematic Review self-report - non-validated questionairres TIME [shift]: 'all the time', 'every time' location, time Staff member's wellbeing Capacity to care 'surface acting' Effect of COVID on self-harm: men/women Assessment tools ACCT - Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork processes QUANTITATIVE

Prison - Staff Culture male::female staff -> prisoner -> relatedness Staff - Prisoner interactions in self-harm management Behavioural - learning/copying role - models clarity 'shared/pervasive sense of hope' 'Life skills - literacies' Social determinants of Health (Crime?)

Self-harm: Policy NICE guidelines 'Correction', Young Offender Inst. control–support model demands - resources model Occupational stress Staff Support Training Prison officer training 'Intro 101'?

The comments gleaned from staff are very informative. Also of interest here are ongoing developments in trauma-informed care and this can cover emotional trauma, as in abuse, plus head injury which is a key screening initiative. Achieving parity of esteem across physical and mental health, demands a more delicate balance in health and justice.

'Hope' is a concept subject to much analysis, for example, in the healthcare, sociological and philosophical literature. Incarceration, must bring its own 'trauma', which will vary in its signature across individual, age, first-offence, recidivism, offence, legal processes ... and its impact upon hope. From the challenge of the individual prisoner and their hope, there is the challenge for prison management and policy to instill, facilitate a shared, sense of hope. Amid the news on the state of prisons, there are no doubt examples where this can and is delivered.

Hewson, T., Gutridge, K., Bernard, Z., Kay, K., & Robinson, L. (2022). A systematic review and mixed-methods synthesis of the experiences, perceptions and attitudes of prison staff regarding adult prisoners who self-harm. BJPsych Open, 8(4), E102. doi:10.1192/bjo.2022.70