Critical Reflections on the benefits and limitations of ‘An Action Learning Set’

Christine Sterne 27th September 2007

ABSTRACT
I have to admit I have not been a fan of education theory. I feel that teaching and learning
strategies have done little to truly assist lecturers at the ‘coal face’. The research I have read has
seemed to me to be reiterating the bleeding obvious but renaming it in new ‘sexy’ jargon. Terms
such as ‘transferable skills’ and ‘reflective practice’ are I feel essential components of good
teaching and cannot be avoided, if you are doing your job properly.
In this context Action Learning has been a terrific surprise.
This paper will examine personal experiences and reflect on the experiences of ALS members;
analyzing participants Conversation, Discourse, and Protocol in addition to evaluating the
groups’ ‘Symbolic Interaction1’. I will evaluate the contribution Action Learning has made to
developing my PhD proposal. I will also reflect on the benefits of action learning and suggest
creative strategies to develop learning in the future.

Conversation analysis

Discourse analysis

Protocol analysisSociology/linguistics

Sociology/linguistics

PsychologyAnalysing the way in which talk is structurally

organised, focusing on sequencing and turn-taking
which demonstrate the way people give meaning
to situations

Examining the way knowledge is produced within a

particular discourse and the performances, linguistic
styles and rhetorical devices used in particular accounts

Examining and drawing inference about the cognitive

processes that underlie the performance of tasks
Symbolic
interactionism
Sociology/social
psychology
Exploring behaviour and social roles to understand
how people interpret and react to their environment

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INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS ACTION LEARNING
Reg Revans is the originator of action learning. An award winning physicist and Olympian, it
was at Cambridge University that Revans developed the concept of action learning. He
experienced first hand the importance of team working, collaborative thinking, and the creative
effect of having views challenged by coworkers. His clear incisive reasoning and elucidating
definitions of specific factors such as the difference between a puzzlei and a problem are
pragmatic and practical.
The innate appeal of Reg Revans’s methodology is that it is based on an ethical attempt to
resolve real-life problems. His consternation at the ridiculous and ineffectual hierarchical
management structure of the Titanicii and the deeply embedded and stultifying class structure
that was underlying this, due to its’ historical context; caused him to create an egalitarian
learning environment within the company structure, constructed to generate ‘the upward
expression of doubt (in contrast to the downward expression of certainty)’ [Margerson Charles.
1995] to avoid such horrors re-occurring.

1. Participants experience
The Set Advisor had a diverse range of knowledge. Her experience of creating new businesses
and innovating existing businesses; both within the private and public sectors in addition to her
creative understanding as a practicing artist allowed empathy with every ALS member. Using
this erudition she was able to connect with the existing knowledge of each participant to
recommend highly specific and personal strategies for both cognitive and affective learning.

Student One is a pedagogic researcher with a commitment towards resilient therapy.

She was unsure how to advance her research and had not yet enrolled on the PhD programme.
Her research is involved with investigating how and why some children are more resilient than
others when confronted with emotional trauma, abuse and problems. Her intentions were to
find a means of disseminating her ideas to a wide audience; and to write a handbook for
parental guidance.

Student Two is a graphic designer having completed a highly successful masters programme is
now researching her PhD; she is investigating Fugitive Moments from the Edge of Memory: how
Social History and artwork can be integrated to reveal perceptions of women’s’ roles.
She was having problems finding the best matched supervisor. She was concerned to strike a
harmonic balance between a creative supervisor and a more theoretical and academic
supervisor who could challenge her intellectual concepts. She had to complete an application for
a research grant, and also had a responsibility as a single parent to address problems of bullying
2
at school with her young son and negotiate a consensus with her ex-partner.
The Set Advisor recommended someone who could provide a list of supervisors.

Student Three (Me) I arrived at the ALS with an idea of researching the semantics and
archetypes contained in tarot cards and hopefully locating where they originated and if they
have a relationship with the kabbalah. I have a great interest in alchemy, symbolism and
semiotics.
My initial concern is to refine my research to a more specific area. It was suggested that I should
investigate female archetypes within tarot, as this was an area of interest to me.

Student Four was researching for a professional doctorate in the area of childhood
bereavement and how this affects their educational progress. I was impressed by his genuine
concern and commitment towards resolving bereavement issues for children who are often
neglected by society at this difficult and sensitive time.
After a detailed discussion it was suggested he should talk to his supervisor at the next available
meeting and renegotiate how to progress and make changes regarding feedback and
correspondence.
I felt a little worried by the amount of anger being expressed and a focus on emotional issues
rather than discussing and developing research ideas, which I was very interested in.

Student Five is from a business background but with surprising areas of knowledge in other
subjects, particularly alternative theology. He is researching reasons why ethics are not upheld
within business and has great commitment to engendering ethical and morally responsible
attitudes in the workplace.
He is finalizing his in-depth proposal and analyzing what to pursue.

2. Review of participants learning from actions taken

Some of the problems outlined in Tom Bourner’s article Action Learning comes of age are
applicable to this experience.
The two comparable experiences were similar to those described in the ‘The uncommitted set’
and the ‘The set adviser’s set’ but for very different reasons.
Student four did not continue the ALS; it was disappointing and upsetting, as he would have
made an interesting contribution. I tried to persuade him to re-attend but he was not interested.
I think he felt it was not structured enough and he was extremely angry that medical students
3
can receive a masters in research after completing the URTF whereas other students only
receive a diploma.
It is interesting that a student on a professional doctorate course, which is considered to have
the highest level of support, seemed to need the greatest amount of emotional support. This
contradicts the assumptions of higher levels of effective support in the article 'Professional
Doctorates in England' [Bourner, Tom et al. 2001.]
Both student one and student four seemed to have predominately emotional issues to resolve;
one participant was ex-services and had severe difficulty accepting the ‘ill-disciplined and
lackadaisical’ university approach to time keeping and deadlines. The other set member was
undecided about their commitment to post-graduate study and exceedingly nervous about
embarking on a solo project without the safety net of an organization to hide behind; both for
reasons of professional accountability and the implementation & publicizing of the research
result.
Student one attended several sessions but failed to continue the module; again this was a big
disappointment and threatened the continuance of the ALS. Fortunately the hard-core members
had a firmer resolve.
Student two displayed great emotional intelligence and gave student one excellent advice,
student two has the ability to pinpoint underlying anxieties by creative and incisive questioning.
She is sensitive and creative and her skills are in direct opposition to student five.
Student five with many years experience in the business world was of great value to me in
structuring my ideas and organizing and developing arguments, he displayed a passionate
interest in my subject area and a great knowledge of the Hindu and Buddhist religion which
became increasingly relevant as my research developed.
Student two had many unfounded insecurities it was very exciting for me when she brought in
her MA work, it is one thing to discuss ideas for creative pursuance, quite another to see the
artwork itself.
The formal structure of the URTF and its bias towards business and engineering, caused student
two’s confidence to nosedive. I have made recommendations to combat this in section six.

3. Critical reflection of actions taken

What I found most surprising was the genuine lack of ego and the group commitment to the
greater good. It was as if we had taken an unspoken pledge to work for the maximum benefit for
all participants.
I was genuinely shocked, in retrospect, at how earnestly I pressurized myself to meet targets set
by myself in the company of peers. I was also greatly encouraged by the level of warmth, support
and genuine interest shown by participants. I have certainly saved at least six months of
research time in honing my ideas to specific area of research.
4
The discussion of personal aims and setting personal targets has a much more potent impetus
on the work ethic of a student. The intimacy of the ALS structure creates camaraderie and group
loyalty especially in a post-graduate context because issues of commitment have already been
established. I feel the cross-cultural nature of the participants was an unexpected bonus, really
helping to evaluate and synthesize ideas from multilateral perspectives.

Student five has certainly reflected on making his ethical code more culturally current
embracing issues of discrimination and postpositive postmodern research values.
Student two has successfully surmounted a creative block and addressed issues of an artists´
role within an academic setting.

4. Contribution of the ALS

Understanding the emotional pressures and feelings of inadequacy felt by other group members
really helped put my own anxieties in perspective.
It was very useful to learn the linear logical organizational strategies of student five to add to my
repertoire of skills.
My initial reaction on meeting group members and the benefit of the many stratagems and
approaches I have learnt from the other contributors has taught me not to judge anyone by
appearances or first impressions.
Because of the structure of the ALS I have refined my research proposal from a topic which
makes supervisors shriek in horror (tarot [astrology, aromatherapy anything new-age can have
the same effect]) to a subject which is at the cutting edge of systems theory and may well make a
significant contribution to teaching and learning.
My Research Proposal is ‘MAPPING THE UNIFIED FIELD; THE BLUEPRINT FOR
CREATION’
I will answer the following research questions;
This research will aim to prove that the unified field/super string field and the universal
consciousness are one and the same. (How the scientific explains the metaphysical)
I will investigate the evidence that Hindu yantras & mantras and Buddhist mandalas and the
footprints of Buddha are an ancient attempt to catalogue the unified field. (Lost or forgotten
knowledge)

It is also deeply satisfying to have the chance to contribute to a leap in knowledge or a eureka
moment for another researcher.

5. Integration of reflective thinking and strategic thinking in researcher

5
 development.
Reviewing the history of research it is possible to analyze the limiting factors in the
advancement of knowledge. In evaluating the history of research and considering situations
where research was discouraged it has been within societies where there had been a dominant
dogma. This is why I have come to believe in a multi-disciplinary approach employing
triangulation and phenomenology. There is a tension between the current fashion for qualitative
research in the Naturalistic Paradigm; and the fact that, as Shank [Shank, Gary. 1995] so
carefully points out, Denzin and Lincolns’ [2005] methods rely on a positivist quantitative
confirmation for a qualitative method i.e. using triangulation. It is for this reason I advocate
Plastic Paradigms.
The ‘Tomorrows World’ vision of the 1960’s has failed to materialize. In the 50’s and 60’s it was
imagined we would now be living a life of luxury and leisure, serviced by robots and electrical
appliances that would remove mundane tasks from our lives. The development of artificial
intelligence has proven infinitely more complex than scientists and engineers envisioned
prompting wonderment at the phenomenal complexity of the natural world. The benefit of
employing natural systems are the three billion years of BETA testing they have already
experienced. Advances in neurological study have revealed how the brain is structured; it’s
plasticity and its capacity to be reconstructed.
The power of Action Learning is its focus on real and ethical solutions to genuine problems. The
benefit of natural, symbiotic and egalitarian solutions to real-life problems avoids the pitfalls of
unnatural and synthetic systems for example: Communism, Behaviorism, and Freudian
Psychoanalysis etc.
The structures of educational systems we have inherited are all the products of patriarchal elitist
society – and not necessarily the most creative solutions to learning. It is clear from historical
reflection that the formation of groups with similar ideologies and aims are able to create
groundbreaking leaps forward in knowledge. i.e. The pre Raphaelites, the Bauhaus, the ‘William
Morris’ group, Renaissance artists…
The advances in physics created by quantum mechanics suggest and reiterate the hermetic ideal
of observing nature. Ideas and systems such as stigmergy are yet to be fully explored. But
successful examples such as Wikipedia, You Tube, and My Space hint at the enormous creative
potential [Elliott, M. 2006/7].
The phenomenal vision of Tim Berners Leeiii in gifting the Internet to humanity has already
allowed the development of stigmergic learning. The phenomenon of UNIX and other freeware
software has disproven the negative selfish model of humanity that is the foundation of modern
politics. i.e. we are all selfish individualsiv working for our own selfish desires regardless of the
impact on others [Curtis, A. 2007].

6
 6. Strengths and limitations in researcher development.
Limitations of ALS
1. Competition – If the participants are in direct competition there will be reluctance to
share ideas and the group will collapse [Bourner, Tom et al. 1996].
2. Complex Subject –The limitations of action learning are probably within highly
technical fields. I know in group discussions with engineers designing engines I felt I had
insufficient scientific and technical knowledge to suggest innovative design stratagems.
If the participants are specializing in a field unable to be understood by the rest of the
group they will not receive directly apposite subject specific creative solutions.
Although they may receive support and solutions to more general problems.
This need not mean that cross cultural action learning sets will not be highly productive
and inspirational. This is the trail-blazing future of action learning. Its ability to generate
original and provocative ideas, and the opportunity for totally diverse disciplines to share
and disseminate information. Providing students with a commitment to cross cultural
research are selected the potential for original research is infinite.
3. Creative researchers - In this specific ALS and throughout the URTF programme
there was a bias towards academic subjects. Such situations may alienate creative
researchers; Artists and Designers – Within subjects, which are traditionally creative and
not academic, participants may feel inadequate and inferior because they are working
within such a different paradigm.
Some Solutions
1. Anonymous blogs/Anonymous feedback -
It would be useful in sensitive and political environments such as a university to have
anonymous feedback and blogs to enable realistic and honest discussion of issues without fear
of recrimination or negative perceptions.
2. Additional modules to support specialisms.
3. Email Buddies/Subgroups – support for known vulnerabilities.
4. Creative writing for emotional health.
Recent research has shown that if one writes down anxieties regularly it has excellent benefits
for long-term health. This could be a long-term project between post-graduate courses and the
medical research team. Post-graduate students could vent anxieties anonymously which could
be analyzed and the findings fed back into redesigning and adapting learning environments.
5. Plastic paradigms.
In analyzing the history of research and considering situations where research was discouraged
it has been within societies where there had been a dominant dogma. ‘when opinion ossifies into
dogma, vision can ossify into blindness’ is a fundamental principle of phenomenology as

7
outlined in Goethe’s way of seeing [Bortoft, H. 1996]. Learning frameworks should be plastic
and malleable to allow innovation and reinvention.
6. Students who leave their ALS module before completion should be required to design
their own set – this will ensure that issues which may not be addressed otherwise are
brought to the fore.
Personal Reflections
During ten years of teaching graduates I found that many art and design students had ended up
in art and design by default. Many students had had interrupted educations for a variety of
reasons;
Dyslexia
Army families
Parents from different cultural backgrounds
Moving from country to country or town to town
This meant they had fallen into art and design as a lack of continuity in academic subjects had
meant that art and design was the only available area to excel in. Most problems arose in the
second year, as this was when any issues of family expectations, personal expectations and
emotional problems came to the fore.
In post-graduate learning the pressures are different, as at this point it is certain that issues of
commitment and dedication are definite.
Throughout the action learning set the most common problem was a lack of confidence and a
need for encouragement. The other main issue was finding a supervisor who shared the same
philosophical values.
I found that this confidential group environment to be the most beneficial and encouraging
learning environment I have ever experienced.
Many students had emotional problems of confidence generally physiologically related to status
and educational background. I.e.: mature students felt under-qualified isolated and ill equipped
to cope with the protocols and politics of academic life.
I suppose issues of paranoia are much more likely to raise their head in a post-graduate
environment. Lecturers may feel challenged and insecure when faced with students who have
superior knowledge.
EMOTIONAL SUPPORT
I have found the process of having a PhD proposal accepted a very testing experience; much
time has been spent shadow boxing. The introduction of the URTF is an excellent development.
It would be good to see the introduction of a module specifically designed to support creative
people. This could be useful to other disciplines such as engineering and software design.
There are many issues that artists and designers share.
1. Feelings of academic inferiority.
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 2. Creative blocks, lack of inspiration
3. Disenfranchisement.
4. Plagiarism. Fear of Failure, feeling unoriginal. Finding an artist has produced similar
work and feeling compromised.
There are many useful strategies that can enable artists to kick-start the creative process.

Perhaps it would be an idea to create action-learning sets specifically for emotional support. It
has been recognized for a long time that isolation is the most fundamental stress on a doctoral
student (ABRC, 1982; Becher et al., 1994)
When researcher for my proposal I was shocked to learn how many researchers had killed
themselvesv. Analyzing the statistics and the status of the researching, there seem to be three
main reasons for this; inability to solve a puzzle or the inability to revisit the intense excitement
of originating a new theory or paradigm, or alienation due to a vision far in advance of current
understanding.
This understanding of the pressures of isolation in research have long been recognized, ‘social
and intellectual isolation’, [ABRC, 1982; Becher et al., 1994]
The trend towards professional doctorates will possibly partly alleviate this as students are
enrolled through cohorts.
This is an aspect of post-graduate education, which must be addressed by student support
systems; there is much good new research, which helps to pinpoint risk factors.
The incisive research of Florida State University psychologist Thomas Joinervi, in his article
‘Why People Die by Suicide’ (Harvard University Press, 2006) is very elucidating: "People desire
death when two fundamental needs are frustrated to the point of extinction; namely, the need to
belong with or connect to others, and the need to feel effective with or to influence others."

CONCLUSIONS
NEW STRATEGIES FOR LEARNING
Gary Shank has begun to explore the possibilities of the type of strategies I am advocating in his
article ‘Semiotics and Qualitative Research in Education: The Third Crossroad’ 1995.
He advocates combining semiotics in the peirceian model as an effective way of structuring
qualitative research so it may be evaluated with a rational evaluation system.
The growing field of systems theory will provide new solutions and new models for teaching and
learning, which are based on natural systems and symbiotic structures which have a successful
evolutionary history.
Such as;
Stigmergyvii
The benefit of using natural biological systems as models is that they have the benefit of 3 billion
9
years of evolutionary Beta testing and are likely to be a very sound and successful structural
system.
Plastic Paradigms
It is always beneficial to allow an element of plasticity within the model, this is true of
morphogenetic systems and allows the model to be extended innovated and reinvented as need
be.

And here ends my love letter to Action Learning and the memory of Reg Revans.

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15
Other Sources
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<http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/century_of_the_self.shtml>
Curtis, A. 2007. The Trap: What Happened to our Dream of Freedom? BBC series 2007.
<http://www.culturewars.org.uk/2007-03/trap.htm>

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Boundary Institute for the Study of Foundations. Boundary Institute is a non-profit scientific
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major research themes, one concerning the foundations of physics, the other the foundations of
mathematics and computer science. <http://www.boundaryinstitute.org/>

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16
i
The problem had not to be a mere puzzle, namely something to which a solution could be said
already to exist, provided some specialist acute enough could be let loose to find it; a problem is
some embarrassment to the top management to which different reasonable, honest and experienced
men would suggest different approaches, according to their personal value systems and individual
past achievements (Revans, 1980).
Revans, R.W. (1980), Action Learning - New Techniques for Management, Blond & Briggs,
London, pp.44.
ii
The sinking of the Titanic was to leave a lasting legacy in terms of Revans's ideas. His
father was His Majesty's principal surveyor of mercantile shipping and was deeply
concerned with the official inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic. The procession of
poverty stricken sailors coming barefoot to his home to report on their experiences aboard
the ill fated liner had a lasting impression on Revans.4 He heard time and time again how
the sailors had tried to warn those in authority about the risks posed by trying to break the
cross Atlantic record and how these views had been ignored, with disastrous results. The
lesson was not lost on Revans. The need to value all views, regardless of hierarchy or
status, and the importance of distinguishing between "cleverness and wisdom"
underpinned his ideas on action learning and his advocacy of egalitarian approaches in
learning sets.
Available at http://careerfocus.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/329/7461/59
iii
Weaving the Web by Tim Berners-Lee with Mark Fischetti, (Harper San Francisco; Paperback:
ISBN:006251587X, Abridged audio cassette ISBN:0694521256) and several other languages. 1997.
iv
Freud´s nephew Edward Bernays invented public relations. Freud said humans are driven by
inner desires and emotions; that deep within all humans are dangerous and irrational desires and
fears. To create a stable society this severe barbarism must be repressed. The conscious mind or
ego had to be manipulated to control the unconscious mind or id. [Curtis, A. 2002].
v
Why People Die by Suicide, By Thomas Joiner, Harvard University, 288 pp.,
Jason Altom (1998), Ph.D. student
Etienne Jules Adolphe Desmier de Saint-Simon, Vicomte d'Archiac (1868) French geologist and
paleontologist.
Edwin Armstrong (1954), U.S. inventor of FM radio; jumped from a 13th floor window believing
FM was a failure
Sir Richard Alan John Asher, MD, FRCP 1969 Doctor
Nina Karlovna Bari 1961 Russian mathematician
Gertrude Bell (1926), archaeologist, writer, spy and administrator known as the "Uncrowned Queen
of Iraq"
Walter Benjamin (1940), German cultural theorist
Hans Berger (1941), German physician and inventor of electroencephalography
Bruno Bettelheim (1990), American psychoanalyst
Arthur Black 1893) mathematician
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann 1906 Austrian physicist
Percy Williams Bridgman (1961) American physicist who won the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics
Renato Caccioppoli 1959 Italian mathematician.
Wallace Hume Carothers (1937), world renowned chemist, suffered chronic depression; killed
himself in a hotel in 1937
Claude Chappe (1805), French inventor
Vere Gordon Childe (1957), Australian archaeologist and historian, jumped off Govett's Leap in the
Blue Mountains
Alasdair Clayre (1985), British academic, writer, broadcaster and singer, jumped in front of train
Dr Robert George Clements physician
Leonardo Conti 1945 Nazi Doctor
Richard Croft (1818), obstetrician in attendance at Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales "triple
obstetrical tragedy" shot himself
Homa Darabi 1994 pediatrician Iran
Anne Darquier 1970 psychiatrist
Guy Debord (1994), French philosopher, member of Situationist International
Gilles Deleuze (1995), French philosopher, jumped from apartment window
Denice Denton (2006), University of California Chancellor, jumped from 42-story San Francisco
apartment building
Orville Adalbert Derby (1915) American geologist who worked in Brazil.
Rudolf Diesel (1913), Inventor of the Diesel engine
Paul Karl Ludwig Drude (1906) German physicist specializing in optics.
Dr. Jonathan Drummond-Webb (2004), American heart surgeon
George Eastman (1932), inventor of the Eastman Kodak Camera
Paul Ehrenfest (1933) Austrian physicist and mathematician
Paul Epstein 1939 German mathematician
Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1982), German film director (often listed as a drug overdose)
René Favaloro (2000), Argentinian doctor, creator of the coronary artery bypass surgery
Paul Federn (1950), Austrian-American psychoanalist
Hans Fischer (1945) German organic chemist and the recipient of the 1930 Nobel Prize for
Chemistry.
Andreas Floer 1991 German mathematician
Sigmund Freud (1939), founder of psychoanalysis (lethal dose of morphine)
Richard Gardner, M.D. 2003 clinical professor of psychiatry
Michel Gauquelin (1991), French psychologist and astrology researcher
Henri Giffard (1882), French aeronautical engineer
Kurt Gödel (1978), German logician and mathematician (refused to eat any food)
Clara Immerwahr Haber (1915) German chemical engineer, wife of Dr. Fritz Haber whose army
pistol she used soon after the first use of gas in WWI
Hannibal (182 BC), Carthaginian military commander
Felix Hausdorff (1942), mathematician, committed suicide with his wife and sister-in-law in a
concentration camp
Otto Hönigschmid (1945) Czech/Austrian chemist.
Clara Immerwahr (1915) German Immerwahr studied at University of Breslau, attaining her degree
and a Ph.D. in chemistry. She was the first woman Ph.D. at the University of Breslau.
Isocrates (338 BC), Greek rhetorician
Vittorio Jano (1965), automobile design engineer
Luc Jouret 1994 Doctor Cult Leader
Hugo Jury 1945, Austrian Nazi.
Paul Kammerer (1926) biologist who studied Lamarckian inheritance.
Dr. David Kelly (2003), British scientist, source of BBC story about the September Dossier
Robert William Kistner (1990) gynecologist
Jochen Klepper (1942)
Arthur Koestler (1983), journalist, novelist, political activist, and social philosopher
Sarah Kofman (1994), French philosopher
Lawrence Kohlberg (1987) American psychologist.
Dénes Kőnig 1944 Hungarian mathematician
Nicolas Leblanc (1806) French chemist and surgeon who discovered how to manufacture soda from
common salt.
Valeri Alekseevich Legasov (1988) prominent Soviet scientist in the field of inorganic chemistry
Primo Levi (1987), Italian author and Auschwitz survivor
Meriwether Lewis (1809), U.S. explorer with Clark; died in mysterious circumstances, either
murder or suicide
Sir Albert William Liley (1983) New Zealand surgeon, fetuses in utero.
Friedrich List (1846), German economist
Gang Lu (1991), Physics graduate student at the University of Iowa
Gherasim Luca (1994), Romanian surrealist
Lucan (65), Roman poet
Aleksandr Mikhailovich Lyapunov (1918), Russian mathematician, mechanician and physicist
James MacCullagh 1847 Irish mathematician.
James E. McDonald (1971) American physicist.
Kenneth Christopher McKinstry (2006) researcher in artificial intelligence.
Eugène Nielen Marais (1936) South African lawyer, naturalist, poet and writer. One of the first
scientists to practice ethology
Stefan Marinov (1997) Bulgarian physicist, researcher, writer and lecturer who promoted anti-
relativistic theoretical viewpoints, and defended the ideas of perpetual motion and free energy
Viktor Meyer (1897) German chemist and significant contributor to both organic and inorganic
chemistry.
Frank Olson 1953 , American scientist (suicide)
Clemens Peter Freiherr von Pirquet (1929) Austrian scientist and pediatrician, bacteriology and
immunology.
Nicos Poulantzas (1979), Greco-French Marxist political sociologist
Lev Genrikhovich Schnirelmann Russian 1938 Soviet mathematician
George R. Price (1975) American population geneticist, Physical chemist, science journalist.
Geoffrey Nathaniel Pyke (1948)British scientist and inventor (in British 1940s slang, a "boffin")
whose generally unorthodox ideas were often very difficult to implement. In lifestyle and
appearance, the stereotype of a "mad scientist".
Ramanujan Indian Mathematician
Rudolph Schoenheimer (1941) German/ U.S. biochemist developed isotope tagging of
biomolecules, enabling detailed study of metabolism.
Seneca the Younger (65), was ordered to commit suicide by the emperor Nero
Eli Siegel (1978), founded Aesthetic Realism
Herbert Silberer (1923) Viennese psychologist
James Leonard Brierley Smith, (1968), South African ichthyologist & paleoanatomist
Socrates (399 BCE), Greek philosopher, ordered to drink hemlock juice after his trial in Athens. In
the Crito, Socrates is offered a chance to escape but refuses
Sir Bernard Spilsbury (1947), U.K. forensic pathologist who helped convict Dr. Crippen; gassed
himself in an oven at his laboratory
Wilhelm Stekel (1940), Austrian psychoanalist
Dr. Elizabeth Sulzman of Oregon State University.
Baron Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás (1933) Hungarian-born aristocrat, adventurer, scholar, and
paleontologist. One of the founders of paleobiology and Albanian studies.
Yutaka Taniyama (1958), Japanese mathematician
Victor Tausk (1919), pioneer psychoanalyst
Mikhail Tomsky (1936), Russian revolutionary
Enrique Tornú (1901) Argentine physician and hygienist.
Silvanus Trevail (1903), Cornish architect, shot himself in the lavatory of a train
Felipe Trigo (1916) Spanish writer and Physician
Alan Turing (1954), British mathematician and computer scientist
George Washington Vanderbilt III (1961), American yachtsman and scientific explorer
Johannes Vares (1946), Estonian poet, doctor and politician
Vincent van Gogh (1890), Dutch Post-Impressionist artist, believed to have only sold one painting
while alive, has become world famous since his death by self inflicted gun shot.
Karl (or Carl) Wilhelm Verhoeff (1945) German zoologist, Myriapoda and woodlice.
Roland Weißelberg (2006) Lutheran vicar set himself alight in the German town of Erfurt, where
Martin Luther took his monastic vows in 1505, to warn against the danger of the Islamization of
Europe
Otto Weininger (1903), Austrian philosopher
Horace Wells (1848), dentist who pioneered the use of anesthesia
Kevin Whitrick (2007), British electrical engineer, died by hanging
Doctor Ralph Wilcox (1877), was the first teacher and practicing doctor in Portland, Oregon, United
States.
Alfred Witte (1941) German astrologer and founder of the Hamburg School of Astrology.
Virginia Woolf (1941), British novelist, filled her pockets full of stones and walked into a river near
her home.
Edgar Zilsel (1944) Austrian historian and philosopher of science.
Did 22 SDI Researchers really ALL Commit Suicide?
DOSSIER OF DEATH
1) AUTO ACCIDENT--Professor Keith Bowden, 45, computer scientist, Essex University. In
March 1982 Bowden's car plunged off a bridge, into am abandoned rail yard. His death was
listed as an accident.
2) MISSING PERSON--Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Godley, 49, defense expert, head of
work-study unit at the Royal Military College of Science. Godley disappeared in April 1983.
His father bequeathes him more than $60,000, with the proviso that he claim it be 1987. He
never showed up and is presumed dead.
3) SHOTGUN BLAST--Roger Hill, 49, radar designer and draftsman, Marconi. In March
1985 Hill allegedly killed himself with a shotgun at the family home.
4) DEATH LEAP--Jonathan Walsh, 29, digital-communications expert assigned to British
Telecom's secret Martlesham Health research facility (and to GEC, Marconi's parent firm).
In November 1985 Walsh allegedly fell from his hotel room while working on a British
Telecom project in Abidjan, Ivory Coast (Africa). He had expressed a fear for his life.
Verdict: Still in question.
5) DEATH LEAP--Vimal Dajibhai, 24, computer-software engineer (worked on guidance
system for Tigerfish torpedo), Marconi Underwater Systems. In August 1986 Dajibhai's
crumpled remains were found 240 feet below the Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol. The
death has not been listed as a suicide.
6) DECAPITATION--Ashaad Sharif, 26, computer analyst, Marconi Defense Systems. In
October 1986, in Bristol, Sharif allegedly tied one end of a rope around a tree and the other
end around his neck, then drove off in his car at high speed. Verdict: Suicide.
7) SUFFOCATION--Richard Pugh, computer consultant for the Ministry of Defense. In
January 1987 Pugh was found dead, wrapped head-to- toe in rope that was tied four times
around his neck. The coroner listed his death as an accident due to a sexual experiment gone
awry.
8) ASPHYXIATION--John Brittan, Ministry of Defense tank batteries expert, Royal Military
College of Science. In January 1987 Brittan was found dead in a parked car in his garage.
The engine was still running. Verdict: Accidental death.
9) DRUG OVERDOSE--Victor Moore, 46, design engineer, Marconi Space Systems. In
February 1987 Moore was found dead of a drug overdose. His death is listed as a suicide.
10) ASPHYXIATION--Peter Peapell, 46, scientist, Royal Military College of Science. In
February 1987 Peapell was found dead beneath his car, his face near the tail pipe, in the
garage of his Oxfordshire home. Death was due to carbon-monoxide poisoning, although
test showed that the engine had been running only a short time. Foul play has not been ruled
out.
11) ASPHYXIATION--Edwin Skeels, 43, engineer, Marconi. In February 1987 Skeels was
found dead in his car, a victim of carbon-monoxide poisoning. A hose led from the exhaust
pipe. His death is listed as a suicide.
 12) AUTO ACCIDENT--David Sands, satellite projects manager, Eassams (a Marconi sister
company). Although up for a promotion, in March 1987 Sands drove a car filled with
gasoline cans into the brick wall of an abandoned cafe. He was killed instantly. Foul play
has not been ruled out.
13) AUTO ACCIDENT--Stuart Gooding, 23, postgraduate research student, Royal Military
College of Science. In April 1987 Gooding died in a mysterious car wreck in Cyprus while
the College was holding military exercises on the island. Verdict: Accidental death.
14) AUTO ACCIDENT--George Kountis, experienced systems analyst at British Polytechnic.
In April 1987 Kountis drowned after his BMW plunged into the Mersey River in Liverpool.
His death is listed as a misadventure.
15) SUFFOCATION--Mark Wisner, 24, software engineer at Ministry of Defense experimental
station for combat aircraft. In April 1987 Wisner was found dead in his home with a plastic
bag over his head. At the inqust, his death was rules an accident due to a sexual experiment
gone awry.
16) AUTO ACCIDENT--Michael Baker, 22, digital-communications expert, Plessey Defense
Systems. In May 1987 Baker's BMW crashed through a road barrier, killing the driver.
Verdict: Misadventure.
17) HEART ATTACK--Frank Jennings, 60, electronic-weapons engineer for Plessey. In June
1987 Jennings allegedly dropped dead of a heart attack. No inquest was held.
18) DEATH LEAP--Russel Smith, 23, lab technician at the Atomic Energy Research
Establishment. In January 1988 Smith's mangled body was found halfway down a cliff in
Cornwall. Verdict: Suicide.
19) ASPHYXIATION--Trevor Knight, 52, computer engineer, Marconi Space and Defense
Systems. In March 1988 Knight was found dead in his car, asphyxiated by fume from a hose
attached to the tail pipe. The death was ruled a suicide.
20) ELECTROCUTION--John Ferry, 60, assistant marketing director for Marconi. In August
1988 Ferry was found dead in a company-owned apartment, the stripped leads of an
electrical cord in his mouth. Foul play has not been ruled out.
21) ELECTROCUTION--Alistair Beckham, 50, software engineer, Plessey. In August 1988
Beckham's lifeless body was found in the garden shed behind his house. Bare wires, which
ran to a live main, were wrapped around his chest. Now suicide note was found, and police
habe not ruled out foul play.
22) ASPHYXIATION--Andrew Hall, 33, engineering manager, British Aero- space. In
September 1988 Hall was found dead in his car, asphyxiated by fumes from a hose that was
attached to the tail pipe. Friends said he was well liked, had everything to live for. Verdict:
Suicide.
vi
Thomas Joiner is earnest in his research because of a personal journey to reach profound
understandings of the underlying contributory reasons for his fathers suicide. He further explains
other risk factors.
The first is ``perceived burdensomeness," a belief that one has ceased to contribute in useful ways
to life and has thus become a burden on others.
The second is ``failed belongingness," social disconnection and isolation expressing itself through a
devastating sense of aloneness.
The third factor in Joiner's theory is the development of the capacity to perpetrate lethal self-injury.
Joiner identifies the root and branch of this ability in repeated painful experiences that desensitize
the individual to the ultimate injury.
vii
Stigmergy definitions
Franz Narada lists distinctions for three phases in the development of peer production, based on the
intensity of the collaboration between peers, and its relation with the for-profit mode of
production.”’
1. The classical “prosumer mode”, in which everybody is working basically for themselves in using
and customizing productive abilities created or reinforced by industrial products that enable people
do use “embodied potentials” of information and automation. Alvin Toffler has discovered that in
the eighties, but only Shosanna Zuboff recently formulated that this will result in a “Copernican
shift” where the value-creation in the classical sense is replaced by the support economy.
2. The “swarm mode in which people are loosely aggregated in doing things, either for themselves
(ebay,musicsharing) or for an external task that uses the “least effort” way (Seti@home and
successors)
3. The “community mode”, in which the team up in new forms of voluntary social organisation.
(classical example Free Software). The interesting thing is that this three modes are pretty
separated, but there is a “hidden continuum” structurally connecting them, they become “mutual
enablers”. Michel Bauwens, p2pfoundation.net
Available at http://stigmergiccollaboration.blogspot.com/2006/05/defining-stigmergy-part-1.html