Advanced Systems Concepts

Many more advanced systems concepts are currently in vogue for research and theoretical writing, including chaos, complexity, bifurcations, and feedback loops. Chaos studies investigate such things as how paint flows out of a can, or how bees behave in hives, or how clouds move through the air—all apparently chaotic systems yet with complexity within that chaos. Complexity sciences take this one step further to look deeper into the complexity of systems. Bifurcations are those moments when a system takes a giant leap forward, one that is not reversible. Such moments exist for all systems, seen easily in history, for example, as in the move into the industrial age or the first flight by the Wright Brothers, when history is changed forever. Some might argue that Steve Jobs' challenge to bring the computer to the masses was one such bifurcation moment.

These moments are interesting, particularly when recognizing IF or WHEN we're in one's midst, since then clues may be discerned as to what may happen next, though the science of systemic prediction is a precarious one. Finally, feedback loops can be confusing and, though an advanced concept, are generally similar to any feedback loop wherein a loop is formed after the sender of a message learns that the message has been received. Of course, beyond the communications realm, we can see how much more complex these loops can be in complex social systems.