Saturday, May 23, 2015

A Digital Mind with System Intelligence

To try to be "objective" is to try to let go of one's bias, but the human condition is to be filled with desire.

System Intelligence (SI) and System Thinking (ST) might well be considered emergent properties of the complex adaptive system we call the human mind. System Intelligence sounds like a blend of Systems Thinking, evolutionary psychology, and complexity science. SI and ST might well be considered emergent properties of the complex adaptive system we call the human mind.

Some see any system from three points of view: “What it is, knows and does.” What it knows is embedded in the form of models which it uses as part of does to play “What If” scenarios, thereby discovering preferred trajectories for achieving its goals.


System Thinking can discover dynamic beneath static things: Systems Thinking as a discipline involves the recognition that beneath every apparent static element in our consciousness, we can find something dynamic if we take the time to think of it in that way. When we perceive the dynamism in the world, we also inevitably see connectivity and the possibility of change for evolution. One of the most powerful moves in Systems Thinking is to see something that appears static (a noun) as dynamic and changing (more verb-like, in motion, or moving). In thinking about the world, we long to bring some kind of order to it, and this sometimes involves noting what is stable, the recognizing patterns. So Systems Intelligence helps to bring order from chaos or keeps the things flow as it does always.


Systems Thinking is analytic in the sense that is generally focused on answering questions about what is, about what is happening now. In diagramming, one must be explicit about whether one is trying to diagram what is vs. what is wanted. Yet these questions about "current reality" are always framed by human desire. What we want in the world inevitably shapes the questions we ask, shapes the focus of our attention. We like to believe that we can find the world as it is and know it in itself, but on reflection, we see that our personal and community desires profoundly shape our interests and conclusions. When we see the world through different lenses, we see different systems. This reflection on human desire and how it shapes our understanding of truth is one gateway to finding ourselves within the systems we are attempting to think about. We study the world because we are interested in our capacity to change it. The changes we seek give rise to the realities we see. To try to be "objective" is to try to let go of one's bias, but the human condition is to be filled with desire.

It is still an only small percentage of the population who are equipped with a “Systems Mind” to applying Systems Intelligence for problems solving or decision making, is it possible for 'anyone' to "think systems"? Perhaps there is a measure of Systems Intelligence that can signify to what extent an individual is able to apply or understand systems concepts, Systems Thinking is a verb (something we do) rather than a noun (an object or quality) that we could possess as a capacity.

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