Preface to the Second Edition

The offer to write a second edition is a gift to the author—a chance to correct errors that became obvious the moment the first edition came to print and an opportunity to clarify points, to respond to critics, to answer readers’ questions and, if possible, respond to their requests, and to deepen the work based on what has been learned in the ten intervening years. For readers of the first edition, rest assured, the old favorites are here—from Pinball to the Dance of Blind Reflex, the He/She dialogues, earthworms and slugs, and the Dance of the Robust System. And there is much that is new: new cases, a new Power Lab story, a deepened exploration into the Dance of Blind Reflex, and a new section on Uncertainty and the Tunnel of Limited Options.

This second edition has given me the opportunity to continue the exploration into the human and system costs of system blindness and the new level of humanity that comes to us with system sight. This was a gift to me, and I trust that it is a gift to the reader as well.