anotherfrenchstudent

I want to start my post by explaining what I thought before the course began, before going in details about what I learned and realized from it.

At first, I thought that the topics of this course would be too complicated for me, that I will not be able to follow it and I didn’t see quite how the topic would be linked to what I study at my home university.

Then we had our first class, we talked about how we are connected by first trying to explain what is a tree. From this moment on I knew that we were going to learn new things in a new way and that I will be able to follow, ask questions, and learn in a good atmosphere.

During this class I have learned what is system theory, a way of thinking in a context of the relation to the others. I learned that the systems view sees things as a living system in which everyone or everything its interconnected and instead of cutting things in pieces, it sees things as a whole. In this class we also had a reflexion on how we were not able to predict the raise of web technology, how our brains are constantly rewired by new technologies, and how this interconnexion seen in system theory, can be applied to us and the new technology. Indeed, we make innovation in technology and technology also changes us.

I think that the system view is something we can apply in a psychological practice. For example as a psychologist when we see a patient, we don’t see only them cut  from all reality, we see them and their families, job, memories interconnected to hundreds of others people.

In our second class we explained the difference between summing and systeming. A system is any group interaction interrelated, or interdependent parts that from a complex and unified whole that has a specific purpose. A summing is a collection of part without interdependencies. We also learned that a key to understanding any system is knowing its purpose either as a separate entity or in relation to a larger system of which it is a part. We now know that the system cannot work with any part missing, all parts must be present for a system to carry out its purpose optimally because if you take pieces away from something without affecting its functioning, then you have a collection of part not a system. 

To have an example for this theory we watch the video about how wolves changed river. I think it is the video that shocked me the most and is also the one that I remember the most. I thought it was such a beautiful video and I truly had no idea that one specie could change the whole system of living beings and nature. It truly made me realize how, such as in nature, as human we are interconnected and that the apparition or disparition of one person into our lives can completely change our way of thinking, acting and our future. We are all still animals that live in a connected community in which everyone as its place and I think we need to connect more deeply to this aspect of our lives. I think it is really easy to be focused on our own life and to forget about this inter-connection. We should remember that we are never alone, and that also we have a certain role to play in a lot of other people life stories.

Then in the next lesson we talked about reductionism. I understood that it was a way of reducing a complex things to some small parts and that it exist in theory and biology.  It is still for me a subject that I would need some precisions on, I’m not really sure that I understood everything correctly. 

We then talked about self organization which is a spontaneous appearance of some form of order without being imposed by an external force or guidance. It is a global order that comes from local interactions, with no leadership, where simple parts constitute a complex whole. It is a collective and resilient form of organization. When we talk about humans we can say that participants responds individually to environmental challenges that leads to a collective response. We can also define it as local synergies that are propagating in the whole system, as in a chain reaction system. We also saw the philosophical definition of emergence. It defines it by saying that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, the whole has different definitive properties of its own.

I was really interested by this subject, we can as well put it in relation with our relationships as human beings, maybe if we have local interactions that are benevolent, kind, compassionate in a family system for exemple or in a bigger system such as school or society in general, then it could expend to the whole system and make a greater atmosphere in which everyone could live.

The anthropocene was the subject of the following lesson. 

It is defined as a new geological era that is characterized by the presence of humans as the principal form of change on earth, overpassing the geophysical force. It is the « Human age ». It says that our activities nowadays are so impactful and large that it shapes the very form of the planet.

I think it is really important to understand this in order to act more reasonably. Indeed, by knowing that every act that we do have a huge impact on earth we can try for example to reduce our carbon impact, to eat better, to have a more sustainable life in order to not impact the earth in a bad way. We can even create projects in order to counter balance the negative impacts that humans have by collecting trashes, building sustainable houses, lunching sustainable brand of food.

In this class we also watched a video about intelligence and creativity, it made realize even more that in our everyday lives, with formal studies or work, we don’t have enough time to focus what we truly love, on creating and growing self confidence. We need to take a step back from social and peer pressure, try to understand who we are and what are our goals and focus on trying to make time for them each day. I think it is as important as making time to fulfill our everyday needs, because the regret of not trying or not making time for things that truly makes us feel alive, can be really bad for our health as well.

The next lesson we had was about complexity, linear causality, positive feedback loop and ad hoc solution. 

We can say that a system is complex when it is sensitive dependent on initial conditions. If we change slightly the initial conditions and it changes the effects enormously then we have sensitive dependence on initial conditions.

Linear causality can be defined as when an initial condition a0 causes an effect b0 while complex causality can be defined as an  initial condition a0 causes and affect b0 and a slight difierence in the initial condition a1 causes and affect b1 while another even slightest difference in the initial condition a2 causes a totally disproportional effect to b1 and affect b2. Such a system is sensitive dependent on initial conditions. Prediction then becomes impossible and the double pendulum is an example of this.

We also learned that haddock solutions are solutions that are found in a short term to a problem, that actually brings other problems. We watched a video about pesticide and how it was showed as the best solution at that time and how it is now a real societal problem. It made me think about the fact that sometime we don’t have any ideas of the consequences of our short term reaction, and I thought about if it was possible to find solutions in a short term that would be tested to not have bad long term consequences.

We then saw what is a positive feedback loop was. A positive feedback loop happens when an initial change in A change even more B.  The behavior reinforces the outcome, we see an exponential growth of the behavior instead of maintaining homeostasis. 

We can make a parallel with the application of this in education, the more we are compassionate, loving and kind and the more we reinforce positive behavior the more positive outcomes of this education we will have.

The last lesson that we had in class was about singularity and AI.

I loved talking about AI and its role in society but didn’t quite get the concept of singularity. It is still for me the most complex class we had and I would have liked to have more definitions and examples of this theme in order to understand it better. What I can say on this subject is that it is something that become infinite like gravity in a black hole.

Then we talked about AI and its place in our society. I was amazed to discover what we are able to do now with AI such as in medicine and even thought I feel they are some risks, like people loosing their jobs, I think it will help us some much in biological or medical researches.

I would like to finish this blog by saying that I learned more than what we learned in lesson, because in fact during this class I have learned about my classmates. The interactive time was always such a pleasure and it is thanks to this that I have met some amazing persons that I spent such good time with afterwards. A class that I will keep in mind will be the one where we learned about each other home cities. Erasmus gives us an incredible chance to sit at a table with people from such different countries, cultures and backgrounds.

Overall this class taught me about system theory and social media but also about humanity and showed me a different philosophy of learning and of living.

During this class I have learned the biological meaning of rizhomes as the connections, the roots of the plants that allows it to grow and connects with other. I have also learned the philosophical meaning which is a map that can be produced and always changes, it can be a path of connection.

About the interactive part of the class, I really enjoyed it. We had time to talk with other students, to share our experience of Athens and of Erasmus in general, and to put it through a drawing. It was an experience that brought us closer trough laugh and jokes, as we were trying to make a beautiful drawing with our own skills. 

I liked that we had this time to share our thoughts and anecdotes because for some of the persons in this class, it is the only time where I can spend some time with them and learn to know them. And sometimes when we only go to classes without pauses or where we are forbidden to talk, I feel like I’m missing the point of the Erasmus, which is for me to meet new persons and learn about their culture.

It was also really interesting to see the final results, to see how everyone first proceeded to agree on how to begin the drawing and how it turned out. I think each of the drawings were unique and represented well the group that made it. I loved the fact that nobody judged the skills of other and that we were only here to have a good time and learn about each other.

Hello !

This class was definitely my favorites one so far. Since I’m in Greece doing my Erasmus I had the chance to meet new people from all around the world. Every time it happens I try my best to acknowledge the chance that it is, and I try to learn as much as I can about other cultures, languages and way of thinking. But this class brought a new aspect to this sensation of luck.

 I knew that we came from different countries with different cultures but seeing all of the dots on the map truly made me realize how far we actually live from each other, and how blessed we are to have this opportunity of meeting one another. It seems crazy to me to see all of those cities, that for the most part I didn’t know, and to realize that at some point we all made the same decision that brought us here. It is quite like a fate decision.

I loved to learn about the hometowns of my classmate, it was so interesting to discovers cities through the eyes of an inhabitant. I think it brought us all together on a different level, it is always so nice to learn more about the people that surrounds you.

I felt quite emotional seeing that a lot of people felt homesick talking about their hometown, and it made me realize that sometimes you need to leave to understand the love that you actually have for where you live.

Hello !

Today’s lesson was a bit harder to understand for me than the previous ones. The singularity concepts and the Moore’s law still seems not so clear for me and maybe I would like to ask for a definition or a video to understand better the concept.

Nevertheless I understood better the part about AI. The video about AI was really impressive and interesting. As I am not into this subject I didn’t know that there were robot able to collect so much data especially emotional datas. I always thoughts that robots would never overcome humans because we have such a complex emotional intelligence that it would be impossible for a machine to have it. Now that I know that they are on the way to do so, it completly changed my point of view.

I think it is a bit scary but at the same time AI is so useful nowadays. As the video explains it can be used for a great purpose such as Watson working on cancer researches. I think it is a great invention that needs to be used carefully.

The interactive part of the course lead to an interesting discussion about transhumanism, robots, AI and their place nowadays. My partner showed me that now they are robots influencer on Instagram that are certified and that appears as a normal person. It really surprised me. We then talk about metaverse and it possible risks and consequences on social interactions and economy. It was really interesting and we had a great debate about it.

Hi everyone one !

It is the first time that I’m actually struggling to find something to say. Everything seemed quite clear to me in this class. I understood what is complexity, linear causality and complex causality. I understood as well the difference between a simple attractor/ predictor and a strange predictor. I also understood what is a positive feedback loop, but maybe I  would like to ask for the definition again just so that it will be even clearer.

I found interesting the video about DDT and it consequences on human and planet earth. It is weird to see that something that is now so clearly bad for us has been considered as good for our health. It made me think about cigaretts where at first doctors were advicing people to smoke for their health and now we know that it is really not good for you. It is interesting to see how science is always in progress and how we should never take anything for granted. We can always do better and also acknowledge our errors.

I would like to ask how can the hoc solutions be transformed in durable and healthier solutions. I would like to know if there are any ways to test an hoc solution before using it so that we are sure that it will be not harming in the future.

I think those notions will serve in my life to better understand math concepts, how things works and why such strange solutions was taking at a certain point.

As usual I liked the interactive part of the course because my partner helped me to understand better some part of the concepts that we saw and we had a good discussion.

In thursday’s class we talked about Anthropocene. I understood that it was about the fact that our activity nowadays is so impactful and large that it shapes the very form of the planet. 

 It is an interesting and important subject especially in an era where pollution and consummation is at the center of conversations.  The video about anthropocence made me think about the fact that we live in a time where we are certainly destroying nature and that we need to consume less and be aware of the pollution we are making.The youth is particularly sensible to this subject and tries to change things, maybe by understanding what is Anthropocene and what is at the roots of pollutions we could change things better. 

Next we saw a video about intelligence, it was an interesting video. I think that we underestimate our capacity in general, more especially our intelligence. For me, in our everyday life, especially in our studies, it isn’t simple to express yourself and be creative. We need to be more connected with our sense of self, learn about ourselves, what we really wat to do, to develop capacities that will be necessary to achieve our goals. We need to believe in ourselves and to take a step back from the social pressure of doing more everyday, and just focus on what we really want.

The interactive part of the class lead to an interesting debate on what was intelligence and its diverse forms, it is always enthralling to hear and understand different points of view.

Hello,

I found this class very interesting. It allowed me to understand concepts that I’ve never seen before such as self-organization, emergence and reductionism. The two first one are now clear in my mind, the reductionism is still for me a bit more complicated to understand fully, and to project what it could be, but I still find all of these topics really interesting.

I loved the fact that we get to watch videos to understand those ideas, it is entertaining, useful and makes everything clearer and easier. If I had some questions on this class it would maybe be about having examples on how can we describe reductionism in real life. 

I liked the videos of the metronome for the emergence’s description but I also liked the ones about ants. It was impressing to see how without a leader there were capable of forming a structure that helped them surviving even when they encountered difficulties.

When we were asked to form a pair and discuss about this subject my classmate and I talked about this video that left us amazed. We then argued about whether it was possible for us as a society to do the same, to cooperate without a leader and it lead to an interesting debate.

We then met with other persons of the class and express our feelings about the videos. It was interesting to see that our pairs felt really surprised and amazed by the video and that the other ones had different opinions and thought on it.

Sharing thought and opinions is always interesting and leads to deeper understanding of the subject and of the people around you, I really like those “debate time”.

Hello in this blog I’m going to focus on two things, the first one is what I felt watching the video and the second one is how I felt doing the exercise with my classmates.

I felt really emotional watching this video. It reminded me of the essential of our lives, nature and its inhabitant. It made me think that we are usually trapped in our minds, thoughts, and anxiety of our everyday lives, we are always living up onto what’s next. For example our next assignement our next trip, our next chores. This video reminded me that the present it what matters the most. That we should sometime sort of behave like animals : be connected to nature to our surviving habilities and to our gut.

I never thought that nature was that much of a system and so interconnected. I usually heard the bad aspects of reintroducing wolves in an habitat but never the good aspects of it. It made me think about nature as a society in which everyone as its place, role and its necessity. It is beautiful to see that wolves that are usually seen as killers are actually participating in creating lives. And also to see all of the connections between the animals.I didn’t think it was possible for one specie to change the environment thanks to its action and interdependencie with other species. It is spectacular for me. It is a subject that I find really interesting and I want to know more about it. It makes me think about how we are kind of the same in our social society. Even if sometimes we don’t see it everyone is interconnected,everyone has it place and will be missed if gone. We all change each other lives without knowing it consciously.

Then after the video we were asked to do a group project. I was kind of stressed to meet new people but also really happy that we had the opportunity to do so. In fact, we have the easy way of just staying with the persons that comes from the same country as ourselves and that is reassuring and great but sometimes we don’t have the courage to go and meet new people. I was really happy to talk with my group and to learn a bit about themselves, and I was happy to practice my English too.

Hello everyone,

In this first blog post I decided that I will talk about my experience of coming back to class after 1 year and a half of remoted classes due to covid.

At first I was quite scared to go back to normal life. I was asking myself : Will I be able to concentrate enough in class ? Will it be frightening to see a lot of people again ? WilL I be afraid of the overcrowded places ?

But actually I felt realy excited to be back on a campus, to see real humans again and to experience a glimpse of normal student life. I was happy that I got to meet new people in class because in my Erasmus experience I had the chance to meet people outside of the academic world, but not people that were going to share the same classes as me.

When the class first started I was motivated and curious but also quite anxious about the subject because I never heard about it before, I was scared that I will not be able to understand the course. 

But then seeing the positive and reassuring atmosphere that was going on I felt really comfortable. I felt listened, understood and reassured. I was really pleased to know how we will be graded and to see that it was really different from my home university. I think it will allow me to concentrate more on the informations themselves that on the grade and on how I need to learn everything fast for the exam.

It was a real pleasure to see everyone coming from such different countries in the same place sharing a good time. 

I really loved this first class, it felt like a safeplace and I did understand the subject.

I’m looking forward to the next one.

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