The
Systems Thinking
Have
you got an idea what ‘holistic view’ is all about? If you have an interest in
Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, Naturopathy, Ecology, Environmental Sciences,
Spirituality etc. this word is oft-repeated. Its nothing but a bird’s eye-view.
You take everything into account instead of concentrating on just one part. The
road ahead with markers is in full view as well as the shanties by the side of
it. Are you inclined to believe that it is just impossible to live without
free-ways and fast lanes? In that case,
you can’t afford to slow down. It is an offense too! In short, you can’t afford
to look sideways…you are in a race. Well, join the race, if you feel like, And
be prepared to face the risks involved.
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| K.P.Reji- "Taste Seller" |
If
you enter a race, you are bound to miss all flowers and greenery.
A
race-horse jockey with his eyes covered with blinkers! Having said this, let me
explain Holistic View as clear frontal vision with equally clear side and rear vision,
while you are on a mission.
The System Thinking has been developed from
the Holistic View. The System is a mechanism which is complete in itself. It can have an input and output and various
parameters for control. The output can even be the input for another system. I
other words, while being complete in itself, a system can be a part of a
greater system.
Imagine
a circle. Draw another circle with the same centre and larger radius. Draw yet
another. Each circle is complete in its own way, sharing the same centre and
enclosed in other larger circles.
The
Systems Thinking is diametrically opposite to the cartitian thinking put
forward by Rene Descartes. (1596-1650). The cartitian coordinates tend to
reduce everything into basic building blocks. According Descartes and his innumerable
followers, the Universe can be compared to a well-built house. Obviously, its
foundation should be really strong. The Systems Thinking negates this and
refutes the idea that Science needs a solid base! Nobody believes anymore that
the Universe is a massive house and there is any such thing called its
foundation. The old metaphor of the House is already replaced by the new
concept of ‘Net’. Where is the relevance of foundation in a Net/Web?
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| K.P.Reji- No Place to Die |
However,
Descartes has already had his toll. Isaac Newton (1643-1727) compared the
Universe with a clock. William Harvey (1578-1657) who detailed the Blood
Circulation again equated the human body to a machine. The organs were just
part of it. The heart was an efficient, high capacity pump. Antony Lavosier, adjudged
as the Father of Modern Chemistry, reduced the human breathing to a process of
oxidation. Even now, Descartes makes a remnant impact and many scientists
believe that Natural Sciences can be explained with laws of physics and
chemistry! If at all, these biological
processes can be explained only with Systems Thinking. For the simple reason
that everything we see around us is a system by itself. Systems Thinking could
be extended to Engineering, Management, Cybernetics etc., to name a few.
Probably by now, you might have got a grip on techie-terms such as Systems
Engineering, Systems Management and Systems Analysis.
The
unique characteristic of a system is that of interconnectivity and
inter-dependence.
See
the figure. As we said earlier, a system has got several sub-systems. The
Biological system is given below.
Starting
with
ATOM
MOLECULE
ORGANELLE
ORGANS
NERVES
SYSTEM
BLOOD
CIRCULATORY SYSTEM
MAN
FAMILY
SOCIETY
NATION
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| K.P.Reji-To Move the Mountains- Oil on canvas - 2009 |
We
can see that each of these systems, while complete in itself is part of a
bigger system. The system can be physical, biological or societical. All the
three are interconnected and inter-dependant. For structuring the economy or
anything better, Systems Analysis is a
pre-requisite. First, you are going to find out the inter-relations and
subsequently, you are to integrate it. A unified mode is not possible in any
other way. The Whole determines the characteristics of the Part! Take sugar for
example. It contains Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen. None of these elements has
the characteristic that is unique to sugar - i.e., sweetness. According to
cartitian thinking, the complexity of any system can be fully analysed by
breaking it into constituent parts. In fact, if you do so, the characteristic
of a system is bound to loose, forever. The Nature cannot be broken into
separate parts like forest, rivers, deserts etc. Conversely, if you add up all
these, the sum is not Nature! It’s an organic whole. Experiments carried out in
particle physics have proved that sub-atomic particles have no separate entity and
they should be expressed as relationships. Extrapolating this, we should say
that the Universe is not the sum-total of its constituent parts. Science cannot
exist by itself, it is also inter-related and inter-dependant. Science is a
system. Quantum Physics has already proved that sub-atomic particles are just
networked patterns. No use breaking an atom into its constituent parts,
because, you just can’t add it up to get back the original entity. It is an absurdity too, a networked pattern
cannot be added up.
Our
Universe is a Web, a Web of Life, a Web of Relationships.