Portal:Systems science

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The Systems science Portal

Systems are sets of entities, physical or abstract, comprising a whole where each component interacts with or is related to at least one other component and they all serve a common objective. The scientific research field which is engaged in the interdisciplinary study of universal system-based properties of the world is general system theory, systems science and recently systemics. This field investigates the abstract properties of matter and mind, and their organization, searching for concepts and principles which are independent of the specific domain, substance, and type of system, and of the spatial and/or temporal scales of its existence.

Systems science can be viewed as ... "a metalanguage of concepts and models for interdisciplinary use, still now evolving and far from being stabilized. This is the result of a slow process of accretion through inclusion and interconnection of many notions, which came and are still coming from very different disciplines. The process started more than a century ago, but has gathered momentum since 1948 through the pioneering work of Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Heinz von Foerster and W. Ross Ashby, among many others" (Charles François, 1999).

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Systems art is art influenced by systems analysis, which reflects on natural systems, social systems and social signs of the art world itself. Systems art emerged as part of the first wave of the conceptual art movement extended in the 1960s and 1970s. Close related and overlapping terms are Anti-form movement, Cybernetic art, Generative Systems, Process art, Systems aesthetic, Systemic art, Systemic painting and Systems sculptures.

In systems art the concept and ideas of process related systems and systems theory are involved in the work and take precedence over traditional aesthetic object related and material concerns. Systems art is named by Jack Burnham in the 1968 Artforum article "Real Systems Art". Burnham had investigated the effects of science and technology on the sculpture of this century. He saw a dramatic contrast between the handling of the place-oriented object sculpture and the extreme mobility of Systems sculpture.

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Planets and dwarf planets of the Solar System; while the sizes are to scale, the relative distances from the Sun are not.

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Selected Systems scientist

Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894, Columbia, Missouri – March 18, 1964, Stockholm Sweden) was an American theoretical and applied mathematician. He was a pioneer in the study of stochastic and noise processes, contributing work relevant to electronic engineering, electronic communication, and control systems.

Wiener also founded cybernetics, a field that formalizes the notion of feedback and has implications for engineering, systems control, computer science, biology, philosophy, and the organization of society.

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Did you know

...that systems art is an art movement from the 1960s influenced by systems theory, which reflects on natural systems, social systems and social signs of the art world itself?

...that a successful experimental system must be stable and reproducible enough for scientists to make sense of the system's behavior, but unpredictable enough that it can produce useful results?

... that the anthropologist, linguist, and cyberneticist Gregory Bateson's most noted writings are Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972) and Mind and Nature (1980).

... that a multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents, which can be used to solve problems which are impossible for monolithic system to solve.

... that the American systems scientist John Nelson Warfield found systems science to consist of a hierarchy of sciences.
- Beginning at the base, with a science of description,
- continuing vertically with a science of design,
- then a science of complexity,
- and next a science of action, called "Interactive management".

...that British Columbians will get a second chance to vote on replacing the winner-takes-all election system with a single-transferable-vote system?

... that self-organization is a process of attraction and repulsion in which the internal organization of a system, normally an open system, increases in complexity without being guided or managed by an outside source.

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Systems science topics

Subfields of and scientists involved in cybernetics

Subfields	Polycontexturality Second-order cybernetics Catastrophe theory Connectionism Control theory Decision theory Information theory Semiotics Synergetics Biological cybernetics Biosemiotics Biomedical cybernetics Biorobotics Computational neuroscience Homeostasis Management cybernetics Medical cybernetics New Cybernetics Neurocybernetics Sociocybernetics Emergence Artificial intelligence

Cyberneticists	Igor Aleksander William Ross Ashby Anthony Stafford Beer Claude Bernard Ludwig von Bertalanffy Valentin Braitenberg Gordon S. Brown Walter Bradford Cannon Heinz von Foerster Charles François Jay Wright Forrester Jacque Fresco Buckminster Fuller Ernst von Glasersfeld Francis Heylighen Erich von Holst Cliff Joslyn Stuart Kauffman Sergei P. Kurdyumov Niklas Luhmann Warren McCulloch Humberto Maturana Talcott Parsons Gordon Pask Walter Pitts Alfred Radcliffe-Brown Robert Trappl Valentin Turchin Jakob von Uexküll Francisco Varela Frederic Vester Charles Geoffrey Vickers Stuart Umpleby John N. Warfield William Grey Walter Kevin Warwick Norbert Wiener Anthony Wilden

Systems and systems science

Systems categories	Systems theory Systems science Systems scientists Conceptual Physical Social

Systems	Biological Complex Complex adaptive Conceptual Coupled human-environment system Database management Dynamical Economical Ecosystem Formal Global Positioning System Human anatomy Information systems Legal systems Systems of measurement Metric system Multi-agent system Nervous system Nonlinearity Operating system Physical system Political system Sensory system Social system Solar System Systems art

Theoretical fields	Chaos theory Complex systems Control theory Cybernetics Earth system science Living systems Sociotechnical systems theory System dynamics Systems biology Systems ecology Systems engineering Systems neuroscience Systems psychology Systems science Systems theory World-systems theory

Systems scientists	Russell Ackoff William Ross Ashby Béla Bánáthy Gregory Bateson Stafford Beer Richard Bellman Ludwig von Bertalanffy Kenneth Boulding Murray Bowen West Churchman George Dantzig Heinz von Foerster Jay Wright Forrester Charles A S Hall George Klir Edward Lorenz Niklas Luhmann Humberto Maturana Margaret Mead Donella Meadows Mihajlo Mesarovic James Grier Miller Howard Odum Talcott Parsons Ilya Prigogine Anatol Rapoport Claude Shannon Qian Xuesen Francisco Varela Kevin Warwick Norbert Wiener Anthony Wilden

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