Russian Dolls or A Cybernetic View of Systems – Part I

We will start with the premise that we are interested in things that are connected.  Never mind now why, for now it is sufficient just to state that we are interested in such a connection of things.   To make coversation easier, rather than always saying ‘the collection of things that are connected’ we will attach the label ‘system’ to this collection.  To be clear, we shall define a system as any cohesive collection of items that is dynamically related.

So, for example, a game of darts is something that, according to this premise, we are interested in.  It consists of several darts, a dart board, and of course a couple of people competing against each other according to a set of rules that define the game.  Each of these parts does not define our game – only the collection does. And this is a system and by our premise, of interest.  On cursory examination, the dartboard, or a dart for that matter, would appear not to be of interest by our definition above but, of course, it does’t take all that much reflection to reveal that we have caused ourself a problem.  For we can’t just dismiss either the board or the dart that easily, for each is not an indivisible whole but rather itself the connection of a number of items put together in a fairly complex constuction. Consider the dart components: the barrel, the point, the shaft, the flights and each can be made in of various materials… enough variations in style, construction and material exist that there are literally thousands of different styles of darts made each year! Note that each combination is a different instatiation of  the system called ‘dart’.

In fact, if our definition of a system appears somewhat arbirtary, it is not just appearance it is indeed true that a definition of any particular system will be arbitrary.  We can look at one of the pieces of our game of darts and quickly see that it is composed of systems just as it, itself, is a part of a larger system – indeed it is likely part of arbirtrarily many larger systems (perhaps in our example the game is part of the ‘pub’ or ‘recreation center’ system, or perhaps in a somewhat different perspective it is one game in a match or a full tournament or ???  Actually it is characteristic of our systems that they will indeed be part of many different systems – depending on how we look we will see something different.

All our systems, no matter where we look, seem to be made up of sets of systems with each contained within larger systems – a sort of cosmic set of Russian Dolls.  And just as we can always expand our view to see a system of larger scope, it is also possible to go in the other direction of scale and see a system of smaller scope.  Take the ‘point’ of the dart itself – it would be easy to claim that we have reached the end of the reduction process and claim that this is no loner a system (it certainly won’t fly with enough precision to be called a ‘dart’ in the game sense of the word).  But consider this, the temper (and other characteristics) of the metal is determined by a myriad of interactions arising from a complex system of metallurgical components that interact.  Even further reduction of scope takes us from looking at ‘grains of steel’ to looking at the atomic structure.

In general, to consider the interactions affecting any given item we define that item as being part of a system.

We define the system in such a way that it contains interrelated parts and, accoding to some perspective we have taken, it is a complete whole.  The trick, of course, is stating the system in such a way that its study or understanding thereof, is useful to us.  In each case we can possibly consider, however, the things we are interested in can be regarded as a simple aggregate – that is, bits and pieces if you will – but they only become truly interesting when connections are made between the bits and pieces.  And what is even more interesting is that our system is dynamic, there are interactions between the bits and pieces that change over time, and understanding requires study of the dynamic interactions of the whole.

Control, as an aspect of this type of system, is what we will consider in cybernetics and indeed this concept provides the context for our study:

Cybernetics: the study of systems

But there is more because for all this talk there are some systems which will prove ‘more interesting’ than others if for no other reason that they are more difficult to comprehend than their simpler bretheren … but this kettle of fish is something we will discuss elsewhere, when the discussion of complexity will be addressed head on.

For now, returning to the matter of control, it is crucial to note that as indicated earlier, control is an aspect of systems. In deed we will state that the kind of thing that can be controlled is a system.  Cybernetics, in particular, is interested in those areas where systems are most complex – where control is not just an aspect of the system but a crucial component of the ongoing existence of the system.  Our game of darts, physical systems such as a car or the human body, a national economies – all are systems in this sense; and all have an attribute of Control.