Quotes About Systems

Ultimately, information and energy play complementary roles in the universe: Energy makes physical systems do things. Information tells them what to do.

A relationship is the union of two psychological systems.

It is necessary to do a systems analysis of your life. Look at where you gain power and where you lose power.

All working, practical political systems, even those professing to originate in moral grandeur, are based upon and operate by contempt of human life and the individual fate.

Extremely important work is being done in the brain biochemistry section of the National Institutes of Mental Health on the subject of brain-body interaction. One of the pioneers in this research is Candace Pert, once chief of that section, whose work is demonstrating communication between the brain and different parts and systems of the body. For those interested, an excellent review of this work appeared in the June 1989 issue of Smithsonian, written by Stephen S. Hall.

The study of psychoneuroimmunology is highly scientific and will play an important role in our understanding of many serious disorders, such as cancer and the autoimmune diseases (like rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes), but in my view it is but one segment of a larger study of how emotions may influence any of the organs and systems of the body. TMS

GREAT ADVANCES DO NOT COME OUT OF SYSTEMS DESIGNED TO PRODUCE GREAT ADVANCES.

AS SYSTEMS GROW IN SIZE AND COMPLEXITY, THEY TEND TO LOSE BASIC FUNCTIONS

SYSTEMS TEND TO MALFUNCTION CONSPICUOUSLY JUST AFTER THEIR GREATEST TRIUMPH. Fully

IF A SYSTEM CAN BE EXPLOITED, IT WILL BE. ANY SYSTEM CAN BE EXPLOITED. CHAPTER

WHEN BIG SYSTEMS FAIL, THE FAILURE IS OFTEN BIG

A COMPLEX SYSTEM THAT WORKS IS INVARIABLY FOUND TO HAVE EVOLVED FROM A SIMPLE SYSTEM THAT WORKED. A

As I understood it, what really mattered was simply that some systems ('system' is just a jargon word for anything, like a swinging pendulum, or the Solar System, or water dripping from a tap) are very sensitive to their starting conditions, so that a tiny difference in the initial 'push' you give them causes a big difference in where they end up, and there is feedback, so that what a system does affects its own behaviour.

Virginia joined John and Richard at the house to model her work with family systems and the three of them collaborated to write the book, Changing with Families.

Analysing complexity Analysis of complex systems almost always turns on finding recurring patterns in the system's ever-changing configurations. The game of chess provides a useful analogy: a dozen rules determine

enough for the Republic—but the Empire is order from chaos. What we do here—and in thousands of systems just like this one—brings us closer to our ultimate goal." Sloane thought for a moment. "Perfection?" "Whatever the Emperor wants.

In fact, biology is chaos. Biological systems are the product not of logic but of evolution, an inelegant process. Life does not choose the logically best design to meet a new situation. It adapts what already exists...The result, unlike the clean straight lines of logic, is often irregular, messy.

biology is chaos. Biological systems are the product not of logic but of evolution, an inelegant process.

The separation of the fields of AI and human-computer interaction, or HCI, is partly a question of approach, but it's also an ethical stance about designing humans either into or out of the systems we create.

Where money and publicity meet, there's always excitement, but good behavior is rarely a part of the mix. Manners are the operating rules of more stable systems. I got caught up in the rising excitement of pro tennis—in some ways, I was the personification of that excitement—and yes, my behavior got away from me. That's a big subject.

Here is the rub: Systems that are constructed for order cannot provide satisfaction in domains that require a unique and personal human solution. They are unable to provide the satisfaction that they promise because of their very nature. This is not a critique of any individual's leadership or method of operation. It is that systems have a limit; by their nature, they cannot provide prosperity or peace of mind or a life of satisfaction.

Whereas associations are organized to express the properties and capacities of a competent community, systems are organized to produce services and products.

But as you said, the complexity of our organizations almost guarantees that there are not many of them.

Only exploitation under various systems all claiming to be different, but all amounting to the farming of the many to make wealthy the few. Serfdoms and indenturehood and chattel slavery.