Tempo 2.0 - Chapter 3.2 Properties of Systems
This is a draft version of a section in Tempo 2.0. Please do comment. Even simple systems can be difficult to understand. It is not because systems are inherently difficult to wrap your head around. The problem is our brains are trained the wrong way. Fortunately, it is not all that difficult to re-learn. When we do that, many problems that have looked utterly incomprehensible before, are suddenly fairly easy to understand. Doing something about them may still be difficult, but at least we have got a start. For starters, we will define what a system is: A system is a set of connected parts, real or abstract, that form an integrated whole. Systems have some interesting properties. For example: Systems consists of parts, that are also systems. Systems always belong to larger systems. Systems have properties that do not exist when you examine the parts separately. You cannot understand a system just by studying the parts. When you do something with a part of a system, other parts will nea...