kauffman systems one 1980

8/12/2019 Kauffman Systems One 1980

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Draper L. Kauf fman , J r .

SystemsOne: A n Introduction to SystemsThinkingTHE F U T U R E S Y S T E M S S ER IE S

Futu re Systems Inc /TLH A s s o c i a t e s , IncSt. Pau l


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Systerns One: cln In roduc/ion / o Sys erns Think ing198 b y F u tu r e Sybterns , Inc .

A l l r i g h t s r e se r ve d . P r i n t e d i n t h e U n i te dS t a t e s o f A me ri ca . No p a r t o f t h i sp u b l i c a t i o n may b e r e p r od u c e d o r u s e d i na n y m an ne r w h a t s oe v e r w i t h o u t t h e w r i t t e np e r m i s s i o n of t h e p u b l i s h e r . F o ri n fo r m a t i o n , o r a d d i t i o n a l c o p i e s , w r i t eF u t u r e S y s t em s , I n c . , S u i t e 9 0 0 , M i nn e so t aB u i l d i n g , C ed ar a t F o ur th S t s . , S t . P a u l ,MN 10 1 . (612) 227-8866S e c o n d E d i t i o nThe Second E d i t io n of Systems One: AnI n t r o d u c t i o n t o S ys te m T h in k in q s b e i n gp u b l i s h e d f o r F u t u r e S y st e ms , I n c . , b y TLHA s s o c i a t e s .T h i s t e x t o r i g i n a l l y e n t i t l e d T he HumanE n v i r on m e n t : An I n t r o d u c t i o n toE n v i r o n m e n t a l S y st e m s w as d e v e l o p e d u n d e r ag r a n t f ro m t h e O f f i c e o f E n v i ro n m e n t alE d u c a t i o n , O f f i c e o f E d u c a t i o n , D e p ar t me n to f H e a l t h , E d u c a t i o n , and W e l f a r e .The Fu t ur e Sys t ems Se r i e s was madep o s s i b l e , i n p a r t , by a g r a n t f ro m t h eEmployees ' Co nt r i bu t io n Counci oN o r t h w e s t e r n N a t i o n a l B ank o f M i n n e a p o l i s .I l l u s t r a t i o n : F r ed e r i c k S t ou tDes ign Co ns ul ta nt : Dorothy McNaughton


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Hu man be ings a re warm-blooded, of course , andour t e m pe r a t u r e c on t r o l s ys t e m s a r e us ua l l y qu i t eaccurate. Most people have body thermostats that arese t for a round 98.6 degrees . If your body temperatures t a r t s t o fa l l be low tha t , your thermos ta t makes anumber of th ings happen. F i r s t , i t t urns up your" furnace" caus ing you to burn fue l ( foo d) fas t e r , t huscreat ing more heat . Then i t wi l l s tar t you shivering,which makes your m usc les work harder even when youare not do ing anything , and tha t c rea tes even more hea t .And while these and other things are going on , your bodysends a message t o your bra in saying, " I'm cold " andyou s t a r t looking a rou nd fo r hot foo d, heavier c lothes ,or a warmer locat ion. Similarly, i f you get too hot yous t ar t t o s w ea t . the b l ood vesse ls unde r t he sk i n e x ~ a n dso tha t your blood can car ry body h ea t t o the sui facemo re quickly , and y ou a re l ike ly t o ge t a s t rong urge tos low down, loosen your c lothes , and f ind a cold dr inka nd a s po t i n t he s ha de .

WONTTURURNACE

Float Valves: Another k ind of s imple , self-regulatingmach ine was probably invented lon g ago by a fa rmer tokeep a pond f rom e i ther f looding or drying up. Whatthis early genius did was to pivot a s t ick in the middle,fas ten on e end to a chunk o f wood f loa t ing in hi s pon d,and fas ten the oth er end t o the ga te o r va lve which l etwater in to the po nd. Th en, whenever the water l eve l i nthe pon d dro ppe d, the f loa t pul led o ne end of the s t ickdow n, which pul led the other end up, which opened thegate and let mor e water in.

Pond.2

As the water rushed in to the pon d, i t pushed the f loa tup, a l lowing the ga te to se tt l e back in to place, gradua l lyshut t ing of f t he f low of water .

As the water evapo rated o r was used up , the water leveldro ppe d, an d the whole cyc le s t a r ted a l l over aga in . T hefeedba ck diagra m of th e cycle looks l ike this :It turns upyour ?furnace:thus cre ting he&Ei ther way, th e sys t em keeps the t em pera ture in w a t e r l e v e lthe middle of your body near ly cons tant . Even whenyou f l so hot o r cold tha t you can bare ly s t and i t , your f l o a t - v a l vebody t empera ture ra re ly changes more than ha l f adegree (unless you get s ick) . Th e feeling of being to o hotor too cold i s par t of the feedback loop, and what i tactual ly tel ls you is how hard your body is working to L i k e t h e r m o s t a t s , f l o a t v a l ve s a r e s i m p l e ,cont rol it s t empera tu re . So when you say, " I 'm cold , re li able , an d cheap t o make , and they save people a lo twhat you real ly mean is , "M Y body is having to wo rk of t ime an d hass l e. As a resul t, t hey have fo und a lo t oftoo hard keeping me warm " ... nd vice versa. uses. There are more than a billion of them in use today


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h d had spread to v ry corner of t h a t large ontinen+things that didn't direct ly affect his survival , and noway to record what he learned. When he died, most ofwhat he had learned died with him. Knowledge could bes tored only in the f ra il hum an m emory .I f very knowledgeable people d ied beforeteaching what they knew to people around them,informat ion was los t , and the next generat ion ended u pknowing less abo ut i ts environmen t than i ts parents did.If everything went well , i t might know more. In whatmust have been the norm al s i tuat ion, i t usual ly ended upknowing jus t abou t the same amount , for o ld fact swould be forgotten and new discoveries made. Overmany thousands of years , the gains might ou tnumberthe losses, but by a very small margin. An epidemic orfamine could set knowledge back sharply at any t ime.So progress w as painful ly s low.G r a d u a l l y , h o w e v e r , e n o u g h k n o w l e d g eaccumulated that people could run their l ives moreefficient ly. Inventions l ike fire, farm ing, and astro nom ygave them pro tect ion f rom the world around them an d abet ter food supply. The new knowledge broughtchanges that permit ted st i l l more knowledge to besought . People had somewhat longer, calmer l ives, sothey could spend more t ime and ef for t l earn ing abouttheir world and passing their knowledge on to others .They preserved and enjoyed i t in paint ings an d carvingsin the huts and caves where they l ived, and in tales an dsongs they performed an d remembe red.

Even so, the accumulat ion went on very slowlyunti l the invention of wri t ing, about 5,000 years ago.Here, f inal ly, was a way for people to record theirknowledge for. future gen erat ions without having topass i t on by word of mouth. The advantages weree n o r m o u s . N o l o n g er w o u l d i n f o r m a t i o n b eunavoidably lost because someone died. No longer wasit necessary f or an individual to spen d t ime teaching theknowledge directly to everyone who wanted t o learn i t .No longer did discoveries have to be put in an art is t icform to be remembered. Writ ing provided a permanentrecord which could be used by any one who knew how t oread. Writ ing great ly speeded up the process ofa c c u m u l a t i n g k n o w l e d ge . T h e d e v e l o p m e n t o ftechniques for precise measurement and calculat ion,especial ly the developm ent of a ri thmetic an d geom etry,also made the process move faster. Increased knowledgealso al lowed people to produce food and wealth moreefficient ly, which al lowed more people to spend t imepursuing mo re knowledge.Eventual ly, people discovered that they couldlearn more and learn faster i f they went about learningin a systematic way, a nd they began to discover the bestways of doing this . The resul t is the process cal ledscience which is really nothing but a set of guidelinesfo r t h e m o s t e f f ec t i v e way s t o i n v es t i g a t e an dunders tand the world arou nd us . Some of i t s too l s are


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kauffman systems one 1980

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