Introduction

Of course, we all use the word "system" all the time and understand the general idea of what a system is. But, did you know that there is an entire academic field of Systems Theory, with researchers and students pursuing all sorts of questions about how to better understand systems, ones as simple as how a thermostat regulates temperature to as complex as how the global macroeconomic, material, informational, political, and ecoligical system functions?

Systems Thinking pioneer Donella meadows writes, "A system isn't just any old collection of things. A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something. If you look closely for a minute, you can see that a system must consist of three kinds of things: elements, interconnections, and a function or purpose." Researchers such as Meadows explore questions around how to draw, map, and visualize systems, how to model systems with computers, how to predict system behavior, how to adjust system behavior, how systems can be nested within and interact with each other, and how different types of systems can classified and compared.

But what benefit does studying systems provide? For those interested in solving or addressing problems with systemic causes, essentially every problem our bodyminds, communities, businesses, organizations, and societies face, a systems thinking approach forces the thinker to consider:

• What are the system's elements?
  • What's included and excluded? Why?
  • What enters the system and what exits the system?
  • How do these elements change over time?
• How do the system's elements interact?
  • Do they create "feedback loops?" In other words, to they combine to produce more of something, or do counteract each other to stablize somthing?
  • Do interactions create new elements?
  • Do interactions always occur?
• What is the system's function or purpose?
  • "A system's fucntion or purpose is not necessarily spoken, written, or expressed explicitly, except through the operation of the system. The best way to deduce the system's purpose is to watch for a while to see how the system behaves... Purposes are deduced from behavior, not from rhetoric or goals." (Meadows, Thinking in Systems p. 14)
  • How does a systems purpose differ from the rhetoric or goals of those in power or those normally thought of as "in control" of a system?

By addressing these questions, systems thinkers can gain a more complete understanding of the problem they are trying to tackle. As well, it forces thinkers to outline their previously unspoken assumptions, which can often be the most significant factor in determining how we think about a problem. For example, classical economics assumes that in the economic system, everyone is rationally interested in reducing expenditures and maximizing self-interest, and that everyone is always interested in comsuming more stuff. Those assumptions pervade the entire economics field, all college courses taught, all the decisions businesses make, all the economic policies that governments design, but they are not always true! For many cultures, they're never true!

Today, economists still take for granted that the 2 key inputs into the economy are capital and labor. Yet by taking a systems thinking approach, we can understand that ignoring the input of energy is akin to trying to model how the body functions without ever considering that the body needs food to fuel itself and function.

Lastly, systems thinking attemtps to address issues with a more wholistic analysis, focusing on all the consequences of an intervention, rather than just the intended conseuences. Many times, when we jump at solving a problem with a narrow focus on that seems to be the immediate solution, we create more problems for ourselves, or exacerbate the very issue we attempted to solve in the first place.

<aside> 🌱 "I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when looked at in the right way, did not become still more complicated." - Poul Anderson

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This class aims to provide a few examples for how a systems thinking approach can clarify our understanding of the climate and ecological crisis and its causes.

Pre-Class Materials:

Watch, examine, and read the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_BtS008J0k

(Systems on video on global economy)

• How Exponential growth works... (visualizing doubling!) infinite economic growth incompatible with finite planet... Tyler is looking for a good video he watched awhile ago.