System

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System (from Latin systēma, in turn from Greek language systēma) is a set of entities, real or abstract, where each entity interacts with, or is related to, at least one other entity.

There are natural and man-made (designed) systems. Natural systems may not have an apparent objective. Man-made systems normally have purpose, objectives. They are “designed to work as a coherent entity”.

Any object which is not part of that system is part of the system environment. Systems usually interact also with some objects in their environment, by means of some of their components.

So, what distinguishes a system entity from an entity in the system environment? A system — like a set— is a way of thinking of the world; a mental model. We determine a set by choosing the relevant membership criteria. Likewise, we determine a system by mentally choosing the relevant interactions we want to consider, plus choosing the system boundary —– or, equivalently, choosing external entities. We choose the “system of interest”, for natural systems, and we define and design our system of interest, for designed systems.

A subsystem is a set of elements, which is a system itself, and a part of the whole system.

Overview The scientific research field which is engaged in the transdisciplinary study of universal system-based properties of the world is general system theory, systems science and recently systemics. They investigate the abstract properties of the matter and mind, their organization, searching concepts and principles which are independent of the specific domain, independent of their substance, type, or spatial or temporal scales of existence.

The term system has multiple meanings Wiktionary, term system.:

A collection of organized things; as, a solar system.

A way of organising or planning.

A whole composed of relationships among the members.

Most systems share the same common characteristics. These common characteristics include the following:Michael Pidwirny, Definitions of Systems and Models, 1999-2007.

Systems have a structure that is defined by its parts and processes.

Systems are generalizations of reality.

Systems tend to function in the same way. This involves the inputs and outputs of material (energy and/or matter) that is then processed causing it to change in some way.

The various parts of a system have functional as well as structural relationships between each other.

The characteristics of systems have been studied in general systems theory.

History The term System has a long history which can be traced back to the Greek language.

In the 19th century the first to develop the concept of a "system" in the natural sciences was the French physicist Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot who studied thermodynamics. In 1824 he studied what he called the working substance (system), i.e. typically a body of water vapor, in steam engines, in regards to the system's ability to do work when heat is applied to it. The working substance could be put in contact with either a heat reservoir (a boiler), a cold reservoir (a stream of cold water), or a piston (to which the working body could do work by pushing on it). In 1850, the German physicist Rudolf Clausius generalized this picture to include the concept of the surroundings and began to use the term "working body" when referring to the system.

In the 1980s the term complex adaptive system was coined at the interdisciplinary Santa Fe Institute by John Henry Holland, Murray Gell-Mann and others.

Types of systems Evidently, there are many types of systems that can be analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. For example, with an analysis of urban systems dynamics, A.W. Steiss Steiss 1967, p.8-18. defines five intersecting systems, including the physical subsystem and behavioral system. For sociological models influenced by systems theory, where Kenneth D. Bailey Bailey, 1994. defines systems in terms of conceptual, concrete and abstract systems; either isolated, closed, or Open system (systems theory), Walter F. Buckley Buckley, 1967. defines social systems in sociology in terms of mechanical, organic, and process models. Bela H. Banathy Banathy, 1997. cautions that with any inquiry into a system that understanding the type of system is crucial and defines Natural and Designed systems.

In offering these more global definitions, the author maintains that it is important not to confuse one for the other. The theorist explains that natural systems include sub-atomic systems, living systems theory, the solar system, the galactic system and the Universe. Designed systems are our creations, our physical structures, hybrid systems which include natural and designed systems, and our conceptual knowledge. The human element of organization and activities are emphazized with their relevant abstract systems and representations. A key consideration in making distinctions among various types of systems is to determine how much freedom the system has to select purpose, goals, methods, tools, etc. and how widely is the freedom to select distributed (or concentrated) in the system.

George J. Klir Klir 1969, pp. 69-72 maintains that no "classification is complete and perfect for all purposes," and defines systems in terms of abstract, real, and conceptual system physical systems, bounded and unbounded systems, discrete to continuous, pulse to hybrid systems, et cetera. The interaction between systems and their environments are categorized in terms of absolutely closed systems, relatively closed, and open system (systems theory)s. The case of an absolutely closed system is a rare, special case. Important distinctions have also been made between hard and soft systems. Checkland 1999; Flood 1997. Hard systems are associated with areas such as systems engineering, operations research and quantitative systems analysis. Soft systems are commonly associated with concepts developed by Peter Checkland through Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) involving methods such as action research and emphasizing participatory designs. Where hard systems might be identified as more "scientific," the distinction between them is actually often hard to define.

Cultural system A cultural system may be defined as the interaction of different elements of culture. While a cultural system is quite different from a social system, sometimes both systems together are referred to as the sociocultural system. A major concern in the social sciences is the problem of order. One way that social order has been theorized is according to the degree of integration of cultural and social factors.

Economic system An economic system is a mechanism (social institution) which deals with the Economic production, distribution (business) and consumption (economics) of Good (economics) and services in a particular society. The economic system is composed of person, institutions and their relationships to resources, such as the Convention (norm) of property. It addresses the problems of economics, like the allocation and scarcity of resources.

Application of the system concept Systems in information and computer science In computer science and information science, system could also be a Method (computer science) or an algorithm. Again, an example will illustrate: There are systems of counting, as with Roman numerals, and various systems for filing papers, or catalogues, and various library systems, of which the Dewey Decimal System is an example. This still fits with the definition of components which are connected together (in this case in order to facilitate the flow of information).

System can also be used referring to a framework, be it software or hardware, designed to allow software programs to run, see platform (computing).

Systems in engineering In engineering, the concept of a system is usually well defined. It is used in numerous different concrete contexts, and it is the subject of the basic engineering activities, such as: planning, design, implementation, building, and maintaining. Systems engineering is also a generalized theoretical branch of the different engineering approaches and paradigms.

Systems in social and cognitive sciences and management research Social and cognitive sciences recognize systems in human person models and in human societies. They include human brain functions and human mental processes as well as normative ethics systems and social/cultural behavioral patterns.

In management science, operations research and organizational development (OD), human organizations are viewed as systems (conceptual systems) of interacting components such as subsystems or system aggregates, which are carriers of numerous complex processes and organizational structures. Organizational development theorist Peter Senge developed the notion of organizations as systems in his book The Fifth Discipline.

Systems thinking is a style of thinking/reasoning and problem solving. It starts from the recognition of system properties in a given problem. It can be a leadership competency. Some people can think globally while acting locally. Such people consider the potential consequences of their decisions on other parts of larger systems. This is also a basis of systemic coaching in psychology.

Organizational studies such as Margaret Wheatley have also described the workings of organizational systems in new metaphoric contexts, such as quantum physics, chaos theory, and the self-organizing systems.

In socio-cognitive engineering the concept system is generalized to so-called intelligence-based systems, enabling the analysis of heterogeneous human-organization-technology aggregates and recognition of their pathological properties such as organization, vulnerability, crisis and changes.

See also Examples of systems

Wikipedia:WikiProject Systems/List of systems
Complex system
Computer system
Meta-systems
Solar system
Systems in human anatomy

Theories about systems