Systems

Systems are a broad and somewhat elusive topic. A system is defined as a set of interacting components to form a whole. They have characteristics like structure (the components), behavior (process from input to output), and interconnectivity (relationship between structure and behavior). [1] As you can tell this can be applied to many different fields. In fact, the General System Theory or GST states that system thinking can literally be applied to anything in our every day lives. With this being said we use system thinking everyday to make decisions. One basic example of a system is an ecosystem. An ecosystem is a "biological community that occurs in some locale, and the physical and chemical factors that make up its non-living or abiotic environment". [2] In an ecosystem things like the plants and animals living there along with the lay of the land and the transfer of energy are studied. This is considered a system because it is clear the all of these individual things are interacting to create something bigger. These eco systems are not limited in size and the world as a whole can be considered one massive eco system. An interesting application of input and output is applied to a specific system with the measure of mass. Scientists who study ecosystems calculate how fast the system is changing by finding the difference between input less the output and then adding internal change. This can also be applied to energy because energy in a system can not be created not destroyed. An elementary example of a system is our solar system. This includes our Sun and everything in orbit around it, like the planets and their moons. The objects in orbit is the structure of the system while gravity and other forces define the behavior. These two combined form the interconnectivity. Energy is the input and output here as well as mass. If you can wrap your head around it, is it interesting to apply this type of thinking to not so obvious things. A final and very small example of a system is the Microsoft program Excel. Excel is a spreadsheet application that lets its users easily manipulated data in a grid of cells. Each cell can hold letters, words, or number according to whatever the user inputs. This data can then be processed in many different ways using hundreds of different complex formulas or using simple operations. [3] The data which can now be considered important information can now be stored for later use or further manipulated or analyzed. The output is valuable information to an individual or company that can be used for improvement. As you can see, everything can be a system if you look at it the right way. With the application of GST and knowledge from our textbook, we should all now have a good understanding of how to do so. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System [2] http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/kling/ecosystem/ecosystem.html [3] http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/