Systems Theory

 

The Science of Complexity

Systems Science is the transdisciplinary study of the abstract organization of phenomena, independent of their substance, type, or spatial, or temporal scale of existance. It investigates both the principles common to all complex entities, and the (usually mathematical) models which can be used to describe them.

Systems: A system is simple if all its models are simulable (Ex. XXXX). A system that is not simple, and that accordingly must have a nonsimulable model, is complex.
Robert Rosen http://www.panmere.com/rosen/faq_complex1.htm#sec1

Reductionism - A p rocedure or theory reducing complex data or phenomena to [inadequately] simple terms
Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged . Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (19 Mar. 2005)

Systems Theory was proposed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy in the 1940's. He was reacting against reductionism, and trying to revive the unity of science.

Rather than reducing an entity (e.g. the human body) to the properties of its parts or elements (e.g. organs or cells), systems theory focuses on the arrangement of and relations between the parts which connect them into a whole.
Principia Cybernetica Web http//:pespmcl.rub.ac.be/SYSTHEOR.html

Recently, curriculum for uniting the 7 heretofore distinct disciplines of Astronomy, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geology, Physics, and Mathematics, has been implemented at the college freshman level for non-science majors. Modules of academic study revolve around "systems" common to each. Special units feature individuals whose discoveries united previously distinct fields of scientific inquiry, or whose work connected several at once.

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

The 9 Systems Processes

Scale Heirarchies & Emergence	Form and Existance Symmetry, Stability & Equilibrium	Change Variation & Development
Supply Flows, Networks & Fields	Adjustment Feedback & Regulation	Transformation Evolution, Integration & Fragmentation
Identity Boundaries & Limits	Tempo Cycles & Cycling	Beginning Chaos & Origin Processes

as compiled by James Clover http://www.csupomona.edu/~isge/private/html/themes.html

Systems' Structures

Maturana-the-biologist [1970's] was unhappy with enumerating features of living systems to define 'life', and wanted to capture the invariant feature of living systems around which natural selection operates. He wanted to do this in a way that retained the autonomy of living systems as a central feature, and hence without recourse to referential concepts like 'purpose' or 'function'.
tom quick http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/t.quick/autopoiesis.html

Autopoiesis
The private world of the Autopoietic system is based on maintaining organization. They try to keep as stable as possible this dynamic process, which is in turn the basis for their identity -- as an ongoing process, rather than a particular set of bits and pieces, which might change over time.

tom quick http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/t.quick/autopoiesis.html

Systems' Functions

...that is to say how they control their actions, how they communicate with other systems or with their own components.

As a Metaphor in Social Science
Maturana's and Varella's work tied the pursuits of the cognitive scientists (Noologists) to that of Biologists, Computer Scientists, and Social Scientists.

Biologists labored, identifing pieces ands parts, evaluating them independantly of their ernvironment, and hoping for the information needed to predict future states.

Cognitive Scientists engaged in the cartesian dualism of mind over matter, and looked to the power of symbols. (A remnant of Colonial Times, "power" in systems theory is an "epistemological lunacy.") Gregory Bateson http://www.global-vision.org/bateson.html See the Binary Opposition Page for clarification.

Computer Scientists were reveling in information theory (the mathematical modeling, and subsequent commercial application of the channel/encoder that takes sound input, and turns it into sound output.)

But because they interact, something more is added. If these parts did not interact, the whole would not be more than the sum of its components.

Rules of Scale show how sublevels take on specific characteristic of a parent level. This does not happen in reverse. What is true for a sublevel, is true for the levels beneath it, but not necessarily level that preceed it.

There are three types of interactions with a closed autopoietic system: 1. an encounter which does not trigger structural change, 2. a perturbation which triggers structural change, and 3. a destructive encounter (such a large change that the organization is no longer conserved.) http://world.std.com/~lo/97.03/0165.html

this chart belies my commitment to a "systems approach" because I set it up as a binary comparison

The Connection to Cybernetics

Artificial Intelligence Studies applies Maturana and Varella's work of Autopoiesis, and the whole of systems science.

Since structure and function of a system cannot be understood in separation, it is clear that cybernetics and systems theory should be viewed as two facets of a single approach (The Science of Complexity.)

Principia Cybernetica http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CYBSWHAT.html

2nd-Order Cybernetics
...[as] distinguish[ed] from these more mechanistic approaches, by emphasizing autonomy, self-organization, cognition, and the role of the observer in modelling a system. In the early 1970's this movement became known as second-order cybernetics.

Cybernetics and Second Order Cybernetics. Francis Heylighen (Free University of Brussel,) & Cliff Joslyn (Los Alamos National Laboratory.) R.A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Physical Science & Technology (3rd ed.), (Academic Press, New York, 2001). http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/Cybernetics-EPST.pdf

s