9 May 2016 – George Mobus is an Associate Professor in Computer Science & Systems at the University of Washington in the U.S. He was one of my first introductions to systems structure, function, and modeling as applied in all fields of science and engineering. Systems understanding is increasingly recognized as a key to a more holistic education and greater problem solving skills, and is also reflected in the trend toward interdisciplinary approaches to research on complex phenomena.
From George’s blog last week:
“There is a fundamental language of systems that provides a way to describe both structures and functions that is universal across any kind of system. I am nearing completion of the basic specification of the language and will be presenting my results at the next ISSS conference in Boulder CO this July… This language, which I formally call SL, but privately call “systemese”, is like the machine language of the universe. Any system you choose to analyze and model can be described in this language…!
The beauty of the approach is that the end product of analysis is a compilable program that is the model of the system. The language does not just cover dynamics (e.g. system dynamics), or agents (agent-based), or evolutionary (e.g., genetic algorithms) models. It incorporates all of the above plus real adaptivity and learning (e.g. biological-like), and real evolvability (as when species or corporations evolve in complex non-stationary environments)… Systemese and mentalese (the language of thought), a concept advanced by philosopher of mind Jerry Fodor, are basically one in the same! That is, our brains, at a subconscious level, use systemese to construct our models of how the world works.
The ISSS conference he notes is the “International Society for the Systems Sciences”. The ISSS was founded in 1956 to “encourage the development of theoretical systems which are applicable to more than one of the traditional departments of knowledge”. The conference is held every year in a different location around the world.
I have only attended once and that was last year in Berlin, a brilliant event whose theme was “Governing the Anthropocene”. It is among the first and oldest organizations devoted to interdisciplinary inquiry into the nature of complex systems, and remains perhaps the most broadly inclusive. It is a fascinating meeting of AI experts, anthropologists, complexity scientists, cyberneticians, systems thinkers, etc. worldwide who discuss new application areas, practices, systems methodologies, and theories and philosophies.