by Hugh M. Lewis

General Systems Relativity refers to a fundamental condition of the limits of our ability to know systems in either certain detail or in a general sense. It may be thought that general systems relativity comprehends and encompasses all identifiable forms of relativity of knowledge or information, including the forms of physical relativity that have been identified. Therefore, general systems relativity may be considered to be inherently complex and heterogeneous in its implications and significance.

Any particular system may be considered from multiple points of view in a complementary manner. A system may be analyzed discretely upon any level of order that it encompasses.

All general systems are relative to the general meta-systems context in which they instantaneously occur.

All general systems are relative to the integrative order and level that they occur upon.

All general systems are unique when considered in terms of the specific features of their state-path trajectory. We may say that the grammatical structure of any particular system, or any given kind of system, is unique and particularistic to that system. Therefore, we cannot take the transformation rules of another kind of system and apply it in an unmodified way to a system of a different kind. Incompatibility of structures will result in a misfit and destructive interference between the different models or representations. Take for instances two different languages--we would find them incompatible upon a number of levels of their structural articulation, and this is the basis of the mutual unintelligibility of two such different systems. In order to be a human language, all such systems are constrained in similar kinds of ways, but the actual patterning of these kinds of constraints varies considerably between different languages, and even within a given common language that is widely shared.

We may have a billion leaves upon a single tree, and a thousand of the same kind of tree in a single forest, but no two leaves, or no two trees, will be exactly alike. Each will have specific sets of features unique in pattern and arrangement to each unit or entity of our analysis.

The general relativity of systems is a fundamental condition of our reality and our knowledge of reality. Systems are themselves relative to the contexts in which they occur, and our ability to understand these systems depends upon our interaction with them such that our interactions influence the behavior of systems. Fortunately, many natural systems are relatively robust as such, and hence we may claim a basic sense of objectivity of our knowledge of them.

General Systems Essays, Vol. I