Science, Technology, and Systems (Essay Sample)

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Science, Technology, and Systems
Introduction
There ought to be a new way of perceiving the world since the world has to a large extent changed as regards some essential and fundamental aspects. Gone are the days when we used to view the world as being composed of simple machines though this perception might have been applicable in the past several decades (Homer-Dixon 2). During the mentioned era, we generally perceived our economy, the systems of natural resources for exploitation, and generally our societies as analogous machines comparable to a windup clock. Every system could be divided into different parts and analyzed with a good comprehension and understanding of the relation between the parts and how each is believed to contribute to the sum total of the overall system. Consequently, there was a belief that it was easy to precisely predict and manage the functionality of these systems.
How the practice of science might be legitimately called a system (or systems) similar to large, complex technological systems
The modern-day world is increasingly composed of complex systems; similarly, we have to build up coping mechanisms to face the challenges that come with these systems. An example of such a complex system is the earth’s climate. Though ecological systems can be complex most of the times, and worse enough have been miserably managed with the misconception and assumption that their operation resonates with those of simple machines an example being what was done to the east-coast fishery (Dekker 20). The global economy is another example of a complex system. Our systems of energy especially the power grids, are progressively showing attributes of complex systems. Systems of infrastructure and transport, food systems, and the entire societies all portray features of complex systems.
The necessary components of complex systems are to have a high level of connectivity. Moreover, complex systems are open thermodynamically. This implies that they cannot be bound easily; there is no clear line that can be drawn to demystify what is contained inside and what is outside the system (Dekker 21). Consequently, their causal relationship with the world surrounding them, there seems to be a bleeding out effect – concatenate out or ramify- into the surrounding larger systems. At the end, an arbitrary boundary is formed demarcating what belongs inside and outside the system.
Energy and information matters are the two most important things that flow across this arbitrary boundary. High quality energy flowing into the complex systems acts as the main source of sustainability for their complexity (Homer-Dixon 4). Thermodynamically speaking, these systems mainly maintain a state of disequilibrium. Taking away the energy from the systems causes their degradation and thus they maintain a state of simplicity and fall apart.
There is also a non-linear behavior depicted by complex systems. This means that small changes that occur in a complex system can affect the systems in a big way whereas enormous changes may have an insignificant effect. Therefore, these systems have been noted to portray a significant cause and effect disproportionality. On the contrary, a simple machine bears a proportionate cause and effect in that small changes cause small effects whereas big changes result in significantly large effects.
Another characteristic of complex systems is that of emergence. The property that probably comes closest to sufficiently representing complexity is emergence. Anything that is visible is most probably complex (New England Complex Systems Institute 1). Emergence arises when an overall system portrays simple features that are not easily comprehensible and maybe even predictable by simply referring to the features of individual parts of the system. Emergence mainly gains its relevance in the description of collective behaviors. Emergence describes how individual part properties combine to form collective properties; how larger scale behavior emanates from detailed behavior, structure, and relationships at a finer level. For instance, the emergent property is well depicted by cells that develop the muscle. Cells work together in a unique way to produce the overall movement and structure of muscles. A molecule of water also depicts emergent properties developed by the combined properties of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. A combination of these water molecules in turn develops river flows and consequently ocean waves.
Among the methods available for measuring a system include the development of a computer algorithm or program that concisely predicts or describes the functionality of the system while subjected to different conditions. Experts have proven that, the more complex the system, the longer the algorithm representing the system. This metric is referred to by specialists as "algothrimic complexity." Despite experts having developed a wide variety of complexity metrics, the most vital aspect is the fact that going by most of the metrics, the globe is undoubtedly increasing in complexity (Zamojski 14). The world is becoming increasingly linked, energy is increasingly flowing into the modern socio-ecological systems, the level of non-linearity has significantly increased, and there are many emergent surprises being exhibited.
The modern society has certain characteristics that have resulted in an increase in amount of system components: the quick transfer of power. Great technological power increases have basically altered political power distribution within our societies. The modern-day standard laptop computer bears approximately the same computation power equaling the system being used by the whole 1960s American defense department, and yet in those days, the space that could have been occupied by such a system would have been equivalent to a large building. Nowadays, this enormous power is compressed in a tiny box, which is also conveniently less costly and available to millions of people globally. As a result of this technological advancement, the users of these gadgets attain a high level of analytical, computational, communication, and information-gathering capabilities (Dekker 24). The cascading effects of these capabilities is increased political power- a flattening of the political and social hierarchy- caused by the societal diffusion of individual and group capacities to forcefully express and inflict upon others their economic and political interests. Somehow, this power diffusion has resulted to a large number of agents coming up; this is tantamount to an exponential rise in the number of societal components, and consequently a fast augmentation in societal complexity.
Sources of Complexity
Growth in Co-Evolutionary Diversity
This process is applicable in equal proportions to economies, societies, technological, and ecological systems. Each ecological system has a number of ecological roles or niches that have a possibility of being filled up by different species. Vacant niches separate niches that can be filled by one or more species (De, Weck, Roos, & Magee 11). Various forms of resources are provided by these vacant niches, be it food, energy, or material and consequently there occurs an evolution of new species to fill the empty niches. The moment a new species fills up a niche, more niche is created and thus developing more opportunities for more species to evolve. In this regard, complexity begets complexity over time. This same process is functional within the social circles. For instance, it is applicable to technological evolution such as computer system; it starts with basic computers and related components; followed by emerging technologies for example software packages, backup systems, scanners, and printers hardware that are manufacture...