General Systems Theory

While man and his situation are the central focus of all social and humanistic sciences, each science pursues its studies from a certain point of view. Political science concentrates on the society’s political and administrative organization. Business economics are concerned with the commercial organization, geography with the physical structure and philosophy with the pattern of thought, views of life and ideologies, to name some examples.

In Chapter 2 some of the properties peculiar to theories of general systems were identified. When considering the systems theories and models presented in this chaper we find that they fulfil the demands to varying degrees. A feature common to all (with one exception) is that they are hierarchies of both complexity and size. Another common property is that their structure seems to exist at all levels and on all scales.

In comparison with other animals, human beings are relatively slow and ineffective. Our physical strength and general performance fall far below that of animals of our own size. The human life-span is also short when compared with such different animals as the elephant or the Galápagos tortoise which limits the amount of human accumulated experience. We cannot remain in water for a long time, or fly; our body can only survive within a very limited internal and external temperature range and we must have oxygen to breathe.

Progressive scientific optimists in Western societies are often heard to promote two main projects: that of nuclear fusion and of artificial intelligence. While billions of dollars have been invested in both of these areas and very little has happened, proponents are still claiming that a breakthrough is very near. To understand why the difficulties seem to be insurmountable just before reaching the goal, it is necessary to investigate some of the main thoughts and attitudes of the artificial intelligence, or the AI, area. However, as we shall see, this investigation will be less about computers than about the nature of consciousness and mind.

Systems can be described in terms of inputs transformed into outputs, as a process of fulfilment of a purpose, or the pursuit of a goal. The last is the equivalent of decision making and is a basic human activity. As a scientific area it is called praxeology and includes both normative and descriptive decision theory. In normative theory the goals are given and the decision method to reach them is prescribed and considered the ultimate. Descriptive theory is concerned with the way people actually make decisions without reference to the efficiency of their method. Belonging to the area of decision theory there is also game theory, a mathematical approach to problems of games involving conflict or competition among the participators. A decision which is not communicated and put into action is, however, no decision at all. Therefore decision making and communication must be considered as totally interdependent.

Systems science has assumed as its primary responsibility the task of handling real-world, large-scale, intertwined problems of complex systems. It is applied with the assumption that these problems are of a certain similarity, regardless of the system they have originated from. The systemic view therefore includes a special attention to the threat of technological ‘fixes’ and pervasive side-effects of the far more common mega-technology which is invading society. Also, the emergent properties, possessed by the system but not by its parts, are extensively involved.

In the foregoing chapters, an attempt has been made to present the current state of systems theory and some of its applications. To predict the future of an area which still has not celebrated its fiftieth anniversary is of course extremely difficult. Any effort to predict the coming fate of systems theory must however be made from two starting points. One with respect to the state of science in general where its environment is to be found and the other with regard to the state of the world we live in where it should be used. After all, the highest purpose for the intellect is the search for general principles that would allow us better to understand, predict and manage the world’s problems. We begin by taking a critical look at the science of today.