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Systems Laws

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The following is a set of Systems Laws [Clemson 1984] considered valid for all complex systems.

Law 1: Self-Organizing Systems Law. Complex systems organize themselves; The characteristic structural and behavioral patterns in a complex system are primarily a result of the interactions among the system parts.

Law 1A: Complex systems have basins of stability separated by thresholds of instability.

Law 2: Feedback. The output of a complex system is dominated by the feedback, and within wide variations the input is irrelevant.

All attempts to develop the system from outside are really inputs to the system, which law two indicates, are to a large extent, irrelevant

Law 2A: All outputs that are important to the system will have associated feedback loops.

Any desired result that has no systemic feedback loop will not be achieved or any system that lacks a feedback loop for a desired output is pathologically defective.
Feedback loops are one of the major elements that make self-organizing systems work the way they do.

Law 3: Law of Requisite Variety. Given a system and some regulator of that system, the amount of regulation attainable is absolutely limited by the variety of the regulator.

Law 3A: Most of the regulation of a very complex system is achieved through the interaction of the parts (i.e. one part acts to regulate some other part).

[edit] References

  • Complex Systems
  • Clemson, Barry (1984) Cybernetics: A New Management Tool. Abacus Press
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