Systems, Systems, Systems

In my "Name Change" entry a few days ago I wrote about singular vs plural Earth systems. But what is all this noise about systems? What makes "systems thinking" so important?

Systems thinking is usually contrasted with reductionism. Reductionism is the mode of inquiry that has taught us most of what we know about how Earth works. A reductionist approach to a problem considers the problem in isolation from all other problems and influences. It takes the problem apart bit by bit and then takes the bits apart (turtles the rest of the way down). At the heart of a reductionist approach to learning is the assumption that if all of the bits are understood, then the whole will also be understood. Just as it isolates the problem, the reductionist approach isolates the understanding of each of the component bits from each other (OK - I am bashing a bit here, but as I noted early on, I do that sometimes). Reductionism works well to the extent that problems and bits are actually fairly isolated from each other and that understanding of the bits in isolation is neatly related to the understanding of the bit when it is put back into the whole.

However when bits interact with other bits in non-linear (unexpected / interesting) ways in the context of the whole, then reductionism does not work as well as a mode of inquiry because understanding the bits in isolation only tells you about its behavior in isolation. It doesn't tell you the complete story of how the bit contributes to the function of the complete (here it comes...) system.

So systems thinking is an effort to understand problems in their entirety complete with all of the messy interactions among bits. I sometimes think of the systems approach being one which considers a problem from the perspective of black boxes. Where in a reductionist approach one would relentlessly deconstruct the boxes, a systems approach focuses on the function of the box. How does the box transform a given input into an output? Where does the box get its inputs? Where does a box send its output? The detail of how the box transforms an input into an output is ignored in favor of understanding the interconnection of black boxes and the transformation of signals as they move through the system.

Now clearly systems can have subsystems. (I really must write get the hierarchy thread started soon!) And deconstructing a system into subsystems definitely has a reductionist quality to it. I tend to think that one of the fundamental differences is that reductionism has an inherent assumption of linearity underlying it. In a reductionist frame, the bits have to go back together again in such a way that what you learned in isolation is still the dominant thing to be known, this seems to obviate any cross terms or feedback relationships. In a systems approach it is not assumed that the role of any box can be understood completely on its own. It might be useful to send signals through a box in isolation in order to understand its transforming properties, but by keeping track of and focusing on connections in a systems approach, the "putting back together" problem is always under consideration.

Begin Aside
If any one is actually reading this, I would love some feedback on my equating reductionism with linearity!
End Aside

So wrapping up for tonight - Reductionism has taught us a lot about how the world works and it will teach us more. But by adding a strong measure of systems work to our knowledge producing endeavors, we can gain an richer understanding of problems by focusing on interactions among subjects of interest.