I…realized…that there was a…profound aspect of system breakdown, arising from the basic nature of the modeling process itself, and from the character of the system interactions required in the very act of imposing controls.
—Robert Rosen, Anticipatory Systems: Philosophical, Mathematical, and Methodological Foundations
#modeling #systems
I meant it [side-effects] to connote unplanned and unforeseeable consequences on system behavior arising from the implementation of controls designed to accomplish other purposes…
—Robert Rosen, Anticipatory Systems: Philosophical, Mathematical, and Methodological Foundations
#systems #controls #sideeffects
…are such side-effects a necessary consequence of control? Or is there room for hope that, with sufficient cleverness, the ideal of the magic bullet, the miraculous cure which specifically restores health with no other effect, can actually be attained?
—Robert Rosen, Anticipatory Systems: Philosophical, Mathematical, and Methodological Foundations
#control #systems #magicbullets
Norbert Wiener [1894–1964] warned darkly of the possibility of…disastrous side-effects in connection with the perils of relying on computers to implement policy.
—Robert Rosen, Anticipatory Systems: Philosophical, Mathematical, and Methodological Foundations
#computers #sideeffects #policy #norbertwiener
…side effects…will generally arise, even if the model system is perfect and the effectors perfectly designed and programmed, because of inherent system-theoretic properties.
—Robert Rosen, Anticipatory Systems: Philosophical, Mathematical, and Methodological Foundations
#sideeffects #modeling #systems
Nothing is perfect. The #system (and consequently the #model built upon it) is always a selected subset of all the #variables available for the #control of the #machine.
#WR_Ashby in "Design for a Brain" (chapter 2/5) explains in more detail the meaning of the word "system":
>Because any real 'machine' has an infinity of variables, from which different observers (with different aims) may reasonably make an infinity of different selections, there must first be given an observer (or experimenter); a system is then defined as any set of variables that he selects from those available on the real ‘machine’. It is thus a list, nominated by the observer, and is quite different in nature from the real ‘machine’. Throughout the book, ‘the system’ will always refer to this abstraction, not to the real material ‘machine’.
As you can never control **all** the variables of any given "machine", there is always the possibility that the variables that you don't control will generate some unforeseen consequences.
