What IS Systems Science?

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What is Systems Science? Systems Science constitutes a somewhat fuzzily defined academic domain, that touches virtually all traditional disciplines, from mathematics, technology and biology to philosophy and the social sciences. It is more specifically related to the recently developing "sciences of complexity", including AI, neural networks, dynamical systems, chaos, and complex adaptive systems. Systems science argues that however complex or diverse the world that we experience, we will always find different types of organization in it, and such organization can be described by concepts and principles which are independent from the specific domain at which we are looking. Hence, if we would uncover those general laws, we would be able to analyze and solve problems in any domain, pertaining to any type of system. The systems approach distinguishes itself from the more traditional analytic approach by emphasizing the interactions and connectedness of the different components of a system. Although the systems approach in principle considers all types of systems, it in practices focuses on the more complex, adaptive, self-regulating systems which we might call "cybernetic". Many of the concepts used by system scientists come from the closely related approach of cybernetics: information, control, feedback, communication... In its present incarnation of "second- order cybernetics", its emphasis is on how observers construct models of the systems with which they interact*. Systems theory studies organization independent of the substrate in which it is embodied and is focused on the structure of systems and their models. ... from Principia Cybernetica Web http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ * This interaction demands the study of uncertainty, complexity, knowledge discovery, informatioin, decision making, formal concept analysis, dynamics and evolution. Common characteristics across systems • uncertainty • complexity • knowledge discovery • information • decision making • formal concept analysis • dynamics and evolution Control systems, Economic systems, Socio-technical systems , Biological systems , Ecological systems, Psychological systems, ... Cybernetic Cognitive Science: • Data is values, symbols, numbers etc. e.g., 20 • Data can have degrees of structure and context, 20C • Information is that which reduces uncertainty • Knowledge can be quantified as the conditional uncertainty of an action from R, given a disturbance in D: H(R|D). (The uncertainty or entropy H is calculated in the normal way , but using conditional probabilities P(R|D)). H(R|D) = 0 represents the case of no uncertainty or complete knowledge, where the action is completely determined by the disturbance. H(R|D) = H(R) represents complete ignorance • System - < A, R > (states, variables, source and data systems, behaviour systems, structure systems, metasystems) • Computation - rewriting strings according to rules • Machine - an entity which exhibits behavior • Computer - a machine that does computation. • Luck - random chance acting in your favour. .

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Moving Towards a New Urban Systems Science
Ecosystems DOI: 10.1007/s10021-016-0053-4 Ó 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York 20TH ANNIVERSARY PAPER Moving Towards a New Urban Systems Science Peter M. Groffman,1* Mary L. Cadenasso,2 Jeannine Cavender-Bares,3 Daniel L. Childers,4 Nancy B. Grimm,5 J. Morgan Grove,6 Sarah E. Hobbie,3 Lucy R. Hutyra,7 G. Darrel Jenerette,8 Timon McPhearson,9 Diane E. Pataki,10 Steward T. A. Pickett,11 Richard V. Pouyat,12 Emma Rosi-Marshall,11 and Benjamin L. Ruddell13 1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, City University of New York Advanced Science Research Center and Brooklyn College, New York, New York 10031, USA; 2Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA; 3Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA; 4School of Sustain- ability, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA; 5School of Life Sciences and Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA; 6USDA Forest Service, Baltimore Field Station, Baltimore, Maryland 21228, USA; 7Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA; 8Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California Riverside, Riverside, California 92521, USA; 9Urban Ecology Lab, Environmental Studies Program, The New School, New York, New York 10003, USA; 10Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA; 11Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, New York 12545, USA; 12USDA Forest Service, Research and Development, District of Columbia, Washington 20502, USA; 13School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001, USA ABSTRACT Research on urban ecosystems rapidly expanded in linchpins in the further development of sustain- the 1990s and is now a central topic in ecosystem ability science and argue that there is a strong need science.
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Warren Mcculloch and the British Cyberneticians
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Systems Theory"
General By the same author: System Modern Theories of Development (in German, English, Spani~h) Nikolaus von Kues Theory Lebenswissenschaft und Bildung Theoretische Biologie J Foundations, Development, Applications Das Gefüge des Lebens Vom Molekül zur Organismenwelt Problems of Life (in German, English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese) Auf den Pfaden des Lebens I by Ludwig von Bertalanffy Biophysik des Fliessgleichgewichts t Robots, Men and Minds University of Alberta Edmonton) Canada GEORGE BRAZILLER New York MANIBUS Nicolai de Cusa Cardinalis, Gottfriedi Guglielmi Leibnitii, ]oannis Wolfgangi de Goethe Aldique Huxleyi, neenon de Bertalanffy Pauli, S.J., antecessoris, cosmographi Copyright © 1968 by Ludwig von Bertalanffy All rights in this hook are reserved. For information address the publisher, George Braziller, lnc. One Park Avenue New York, N.Y. 10016 Foreword The present volume appears to demand some introductory notes clarifying its scope, content, and method of presentation. There is a large number of texts, monographs, symposia, etc., devoted to "systems" and "systems theory". "Systems Science," or one of its many synonyms, is rapidly becoming part of the estab lished university curriculum. This is predominantly a develop ment in engineering science in the broad sense, necessitated by the complexity of "systems" in modern technology, man-machine relations, programming and similar considerations which were not felt in yesteryear's technology but which have become im perative in the complex technological and social structures of the modern world. Systems theory, in this sense, is preeminently a mathematica! field, offering partly novel and highly sophisti cated techniques, closely linked with computer science, and essentially determined by the requirement to cope with a new sort of problem that has been appearing.
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