Systems thought is the disciplined [i.e., scientific] effort to consider the connections between things. Systems are about relationships. Science is about essence [i.e., the identity or nature of a given thing--orange] and process [i.e., the transformations of a given thing--rotting orange]. Systems go beyond given things to their connection with other things: oranges and apples and pears and walnuts and christmas and Vitamin C and colds and Burt Reynolds.
A system is an organization of energy or information consisting of nodes, relations, and a network. A node is any concentration of energy or information. A relation is a flow of energy or information between two or more nodes. A network is the set of relations and nodes of a given system. There can be different kinds of systems; each system is distinguished by the specific content of its information or its energy flow. For practical purposes systems can sometimes be treated independently, but in terms of the ultimate energy flow that is the basis of all systems, all systems are interconnected and interdependent. Systems may be simple or complex: in simple systems, the number of nodes and their relations are finite and directly measurable; in complex systems, the number nodes and value of relations may not be fully knowable knowable or measurable. The science of statistics is used to measure complex systems. A systems analyst discloses and describes the nodes and relations of a network; a systems manager monitors, adds, removes, and alters nodes and relations and the network array of a system in order to attain a goal. A goal is a desired configuration of a system. Technology is the manipulation of a system in order to attain a goal.
SYSTEM CHAOS ------ ----- house with a roof leak in the roof phone book shredded pages gravity/solar powered hydrologic cycle flood "control" dams cokes or beers in a pack can by the road
To restore a can to "order"--to reverse the process of entropy--requires the infusion of energy. This is why recycling will never work: it ultimately requires more energy to sustain than was required to produce the products needing to be recycled: all energy is costly; recycling only works if there is excess energy or if it is free and not paid for. The energy required to reassemble the trash represented by the purchased merchandise of Walmart will never equal the energy which was required to produce it: in a capitalist [profit driven] society production means that trash is inevitable. It is impossible for such societies to generate social energies in excess of the economic energies which drive production. The economic cost of such social energy would destroy the capital base of such societies. The economic cost of social energy is called taxes. The best enviromental fixes/solutions are those that are system-oriented: it is better to fix the roof, not buy buckets. It is better to build the cost of recycling into the product than it is to try to derive it from the social system at a later point: objects that are intrinsically worthy--costly--will be recycled sooner than worthless objects. [Cost of coke can]. It is better not to build in flood plains and not to build dams and levees; dams & levees do not "control" flooding; they use enormous infusions of energy to re-distribute flooding--that is, to make sure that Fayetteville, Tennessee floods but not New Orleans. Dams are always political and economic structures of power before they are ever sources of hydro-electric "power". In the long run, it is more energy efficient not to build on land that floods.
The purpose of liberal education is to allow you to become effective, humane systems managers. The ultimate profit is not the generation of capital but the saving of energy; by saving energy, you enable the nodes of the human community to establish relations in terms that escape the entropy of the universe. Community is possible only when love exceeds entropy. Make friends, not profits; rethink, not recycle.