SYSTEM THINKING
A few things Rusell Ackoff taught me
A “world view is the cement that holds a culture together”
We no longer have one worldview — no wonder we fight like cats and dogs.
We are now becoming entrenched in “The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties” (Book by Christopher Caldwell, a Senior fellow at the Claremont Institute)
We (humanity) are still working with the awareness we gained during the renaissance, where thinkers like Rene Descartes set the basic beliefs:
“The human mind can understand reality completely”
Based on this, a complete understanding of the universe was possible.
Then came — “The Machine Age”
ANALYSIS —
- Take apart
- Understand what the parts do
- Assemble an understanding of the parts aggregated into an understanding of the whole.
I dare say this is what all physicists know — this is what colliders are about. Reduce the particles the Universe is made of, hoping to understand how the universe operates, what its parts do, and how it will end.
OBJECT A (WHOLE) IS COMPRISED OF PARTS B AND C
REDUCTIONISM HOLDS THAT: A = B + C
EVERYTHING IN EVERY EXPERIENCE IS REDUCIBLE TO INDIVISIBLE PARTS
Reductionism states that understanding the simpler parts of a “system” is crucial to understanding the system itself.
EXAMPLE:
The problem until the 1970s — Cars break down very often Observations: parts fail, body rusts, tires blow out.
On Parts — Why is our Engineering the best in the world? Because we understood the simple but difficult-to-obtain concept of “Tolerance Stacking.”
Tolerance Stacking is about understanding the tolerances of each part and, when summing the tolerances together, knowing where the “weak link of the chain is.”
- The tolerances of each part
- How the parts are related
- yields the behavior of the system (behavior is a general word for the noise it generates, the wear and tear of the parts, and the life of the part)
Tolerance stacking research allowed us to build extremely quiet nuclear submarines that were very hard to locate, like the Akula class. A famous example is the spy scandal of the 1980s in how Russia found out secrets about precision machining based on tolerance stacking through the “Walker spy ring.” Then the Japanese Toshiba Corporation sold Russia exotic milling machines that allowed them to build comparable and more than competitive silent running subs. The Japanese protested that the French were there first but:
“U.S. government sources noted, however, that the Soviet submarines did not become “silent” until after the sale of the eight high-technology milling machines made by a Toshiba subsidiary, suggesting that the French technology was not sufficiently sophisticated to make the specially engineered, virtually noiseless propellers.” LA Times, Sep 10, 1987
Once all the parts are identified and understood…the Life of the system can be improved. Everybody (old enough) knows how often cars broke down back in the ’50s through the 60s. The life of parts was based on materials used and the tolerance stacking limitations of parts when put together. as the Japanese quality system improved greatly, their cars became “the cars to buy.”
Cause and Effect
What is the one simple, irreducible relationship between the parts
Two things need to be understood about Cause and Effect:
- The CAUSE is NECESSARY for the effect — AND
- The CAUSE is SUFFICIENT for the effect
To demonstrate Ackoff’s deep thinking ability, he explained three Fundamental Assumptions
- Observations can be accepted once we understand what the cause is
- Excluding the environment, theory can be developed to explain the observation
- Nothing happens by chance — only ignorance prevents us from knowing the cause
The realizations and assertiveness created friction with the first World Power known- The Catholic Church; however, the new freedom of thinking was embraced, and “Machine Age” thinking was born.
Two definitions came to light —
- Work is the application of energy to matter to transform matter
- A machine is any object which can be used to apply energy to matter
The “Industrial Revolution” was born. It was the manifestation of machine-age thinking.
Dilemmas
The machine-age thinking revolution did not come with some dilemmas.
- There is no free will — Everything that occurs is the effect of a cause. “Workers repeat steps as needed all day long”
- The universe can not be completely understood; parts need to be inferred — To this day, “A sub-atomic particle cannot be measured for both velocity and position at the same time”
Most understand Analysis almost intuitively; however, what is a “System?”
The basic concept for analysis is that we take things apart and study each. I was about eight years old when I realized the grandfather’s clock in my house was not working. Somehow I took it down from the wall and took it apart one afternoon “to find out why it was not working.” I did not know it then, but I was doing analysis. I thought by inspecting every part, I would find the one that was broken. I didn’t, and I could not put it back together again (too many little parts).
When your car breaks down, you take it to the mechanic, and he does analysis, a process of elimination to find where the problem is. is it mechanical or electrical? there are questions they ask to get an idea of where to start looking.
A System
“A system is a whole which consists of a set of two or more interactive parts.”
The Essential properties of a System
Properties of the whole that none of its parts have.
How do we know this? — When we take the system apart, it loses all of its essential properties.
For example The car is a system. The unique property of a car is to transport people and things from one location to another.
One of the essential parts of the car is the engine. If you take the engine out of the car, you no longer have a car. you have two parts, neither of which can do what the car does. That is what a junkyard is, a collection of used parts.
It took until the 1950s to understand the concept of the fact that analysis and systems were linked but not the same.
An Example, exercising our imagination If you take Nancy Pelosi to Mars to negotiate a peace deal with the Martians and explain to them that she is the head of the House of Congress, an important part of our system of government, will they understand what you are talking about? Will they take anything she says seriously? If they do not know “Our System Of Government,” “what a government is,” and how it works,” in the context of the World. They would not trust anything she has to say or sign any paper you want them to sign.
It’d be like taking a horse to water and trying to make it drink.
The system needs to be understood first to understand the context.
For example If you take the best parts of the best cars in the world, will you be able to build the best car in the world? NO. Why? The parts won’t fit together!
This is in context to what we are doing today with the Constitution. OUR “System” of government is no longer a system. They ignore the Constitution. They only pay it “LIP” service. Even worse, they added an illegal law engine to the car (think, “our government).” We now call it the “4th branch of government.” This branch has introduced more laws through regulations than any government throughout history. There is nothing we do every day that they don’t regulate except for the elites and influencers of government. Hell, they don’t even nearly pay the taxes we lowly serfs pay. This branch is so successful that to this day, they continue to add laws regarding bigotry and discrimination as if we still are!!!!! The worst part? Many believe it!! That is where WOKES come from. People are no longer that way; THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT IS.
THE 4TH BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT IS THE PART THAT DOES NOT FIT!
Our Constitution and what “WE” have done with it is a good example to understand “Synthesis.”
Our Constitution was a distillation of ideas from the Magna Carta; our experience with “The King;” the “lessons learned” from the “Articles of Confederation,” our first Constitution; and all that was written at length in the “Federalist Papers.” These were the parts of the larger system that became our Constitution.
Our “Whole” today is “the government.” Most people do not see the Constitution as “The Whole” containing the government and the LAW they must follow. In other words, there is neither knowledge nor understanding.
A system of systems would be “The United Nations” if it would work. however, they are light years away from achieving anything considered “Good for the world.”