Real Systems as working systems

by Hugh M. Lewis

Real systems by type and definition encompass all natural systems that are possible in reality, as well as the set of alternative or artificial systems, that do not exist naturally, but that exist primarily, as we understand them, as the consequence of our own construction. Such alternative systems do not occur naturally--they are not self-organizing in occurrence, but exist deliberately as the consequence of our creative efforts at design. We may name many attributes of human civilization today that are the consequence of such efforts, and that can be classified as alternative systems--the wheel, boats, bows and arrows, farming & agriculture, systems of cultural selection, mechanical systems, electrical systems, and so on endlessly. This list and the set it subtends will be expanded considerably when we come into contact with non-human life forms with an intelligence and constructive capability that is comparable or even surpasses our own.

All real systems share at least one central set of characteristics--they are all constrained by the laws of thermodynamics as working systems that can obtain some level of operational efficiency. There is a class, or an order of real systems that in fact do not strictly obey the laws of thermodynamics, but demonstrate alternative principles of gravitational dynamics. I would therefore make a case of a unified field theory as being based on an expanded paradigm of thermo-gravitational dynamics, if we understand that thermo-dynamic and gravitationally dynamic systems are complementary to one another in the normal order of physical phenomena. It is likely as well that upon a very fundamental scale of physical reality, relations and events that occur may not strictly speaking follow the principles of thermodynamics, but occur in some alternative complementary manner to thermodynamic system behavior.

All real systems are constrained by the following conditions:

      1. They are subject to the laws of thermo-gravitational dynamics.

      2. They are subject to continuous change, both exogenous and endogenous.

      3. They are finite and constrained in time and space.

      4. They have some form of physical presence and appearance and are therefore subject to our inter-subjective observational methods and manipulation.

      5. They have a beginning, middle and end--they are temporary, and have a finite state-path trajectory.

      6. They are complexly articulated at multiple levels of organization.

      7. They are contextually defined and conditioned by the environment in which they immediately occur at different levels.

      8. They are able to be symbolically represented in our knowledge systems in terms of ideal types and logical relations that describe the structural charcteristics of their patterning in terms of their appearance, behavior and change dynamics.

      9. All real systems are composed of elements configured from the natural world, and at the end of the life-cycle of a real system these elements are returned to the natural order on a random basis.

     10. All real systems maintain an structural pattern of order that is minimally non-random (non-stochastic) or minimally self-determining by means of some boundary-maintaining mechanism and set of internalized processes. This structural pattern of order that is non-random and semi-determined in a self-organizing manner is a form of "working organization" that maintains functional equilibrium with its environment in a dynamic manner through time. As a working system it depends upon the input of greater amounts of energy than it can yield through the conversion or transformation processes of deterministic organization.

The main point is that any real system that we can delimit from its environment as a self-contained and distinct system with a material presence in its environment, may only operate at a given level of efficiency, in the conversion of energy to work, and work to some kind of finished product or by-product. Feedback is normally used to govern the input-output rates of such a system--too much output will induce a suppression of input, and so forth. Feedback is also used in a manner to increase the operational efficiencies of systems, to create higher output rates or ratios to inputs, by recycling energy or by-products back into input loops. The former function is known as resonance dampening, or first-order feedback, and the second function is referred to as resonance amplifying, or second-order feedback. A simple model of such a feedback is well described by the motions of an ideal pendulum.

All real systems have a fixed life-cycle--a beginning, a middle and an end. All real systems eventually decay as systems, and their elements are returned to the environment from which they were originally configured, either through self-organizational processes or through human (or some other) agency. Hence, real systems are limited in both time and space, and are by definition subject to the variables and dynamic constant of change. That we cannot have a completely changeless or unchanging real system is a derivative ultimately of the laws of thermodynamics. Such a system would represent conditions that no real system could possibly obtain.

We may classify and categorize all real systems, because we can delimit them and name them in terms of the nomic function of our symbolic language. Such taxonomic frameworks are really the basis for our traditional sciences--the definition of types, the typological features used to define classes, etc. Because real systems are finite, immediate to apprehend, subject to both our physical observations and our manipulations, such systems become available to our knowledge and thus measurable in systematic ways. Such measurement, if quantitative, is only accomplished through controlled comparison of other real systems, either directly or indirectly.

Each instance of a real system may be said to be ontologically and empirically unique and one of a kind--no two similar kinds of real system are exactly the same. Industrial production techniques have induced a value of the importance of apparent uniformity. We call this "cloning" and we must recognize the fallacy of apparent uniformity for what it is as well as for the illusion of ideological and symbolic conformity that it induces in people.

The complexity of real systems, in the detail of their articulation and in their contextualization at multiple levels of articulation as real systems, leads to their uniqueness and one of a kind character, and their uniqueness and complexity need to be equally appreciated when we consider the sublime beauty that real systems exhibit and embody.

General Systems Essays, Vol. I