Transcript CSC551 Systems Theory Living System Theory

Tony Mazzola
Dawn Nelson
CSC551 SYSTEMS THEORY
LIVING SYSTEMS THEORY
DEFINITION OF LIVING SYSTEMS
By definition, living systems are open, selforganizing systems that have the special
characteristics of life.
 They interact with their environment.
 This interaction takes place by means of
information and material-energy exchanges.
 A system can be conceptual, concrete or
abstracted
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DEFINITION: CONTINUED
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Living systems use significant inputs, throughputs, and outputs
of various matter-energy and information.
With altering fluxes of matter/energy and information, many of
their equilibria are
dynamic situations
identified as steady
states or flux equilibria
JAMES GRIER MILLER
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Miller received his A.B. summa cum laude in 1937, an A.M. in psychology in 1938,
an M.D. cum laude in 1942, and Ph.D. in psychology in 1943 all from Harvard
University,
Following military service in World War II, he served as Chief of the newly formed
Clinical Psychology section of the Veteran's Administration central office in
Washington.
He has served on the faculty at Harvard. In 1948, he accepted the position of
Chairman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago until 1955.
From 1955 to 1967 he directed the multi-disciplinary Mental Health Research
Institute At Michigan.
In 1967 to pursue an administrative career, first as provost of the newly founded
Cleveland State University, and then in 1973 as president of the University of
Louisville, from which position he retired in 1980.
He served as president of the Society for General Systems Research (SGSR)
He was a founder and the first head of EDUCOM (the Interuniversity Communications
Council). For more than 30 years Miller was editor of the Journal "Behavioral
Science". He died in November of 2002.
LIVING SYSTEMS THEORY BY
JAMES GRIER MILLER
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A general theory about all living systems, their
structure, interaction, behavior and development
A magnus opus of James Grier Miller, where he
formalizes the theory into a massive book of 1000 +
pages. (we will only cover 999 of them today)
Miller says the concepts of space, time, matter,
energy, and information are essential to his theory
because the living systems exist in space and are
made of matter and energy organized by information.
MORE MILLER
Miller’s theory states that the mutual
interrelationship of the components of a
system extends across the hierarchical levels.
 Miller says that his eclectic theory “ties
together past discoveries from many disciplines
and provides an outline into which new findings
can be fitted”.
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MORE MILLER
The essence of life is process.
 All processes are intermingled and somehow
dependent on each other.
 Every living system is made up of subsystems and
in turn holds membership in one or more larger
systems, forming a kind of “nested hierarchy”-systems within systems, circuits within circuits,
fields within fields.
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EXAMPLE OF MILLERS INTERCONNECTEDNESS
Mufasa: Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you
need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures, from the crawling
ant to the leaping antelope.
Young Simba: But, Dad, don't we eat the antelope?
Mufasa: Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the
grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great
Circle of Life.
SYSTEMS AND SUBSYSTEMS
Some of these processes deal with material
and energy for the metabolic processes of the
system
 Other subsystems process information for the
coordination, guidance and control of the
system.
 Eight different levels of system are defined;
each level must have processes of the nineteen
critical subsystems in order to survive
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EIGHT LEVELS OF LIVING SYSTEMS
1 cells
 2 organs
 3 organisms
 4 groups
 5 organizations
 6 communities
 7 societies
 8 supranational systems
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THE NINETEEN SUBSYSTEMS
2 process both matter/energy and information.
 8 process only matter/energy.
 9 process information only
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SUBSYSTEMS WHICH PROCESS
MATTER-ENERGY AND INFORMATION
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Reproducer: carries out the instructions in the genetic information or
charter of a system and mobilizes matter and energy to produce one or
more similar systems.
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The human reproductive system.
Boundary: the perimeter of a system that holds together the components
which make up the system, protects them from environmental stresses, and
excludes or permits entry to various sorts of matter-energy and information.
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Human skin, a building (artifact).
EIGHT SUBSYSTEMS WHICH PROCESS
MATTER- ENERGY (1-4)
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Ingestor: brings matter-energy across the system boundary from the
environment.
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Distributor: carries inputs from outside the system, or outputs from its
subsystems around the system to each component.
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The heart and vascular system.
Converter: changes certain inputs to the system into forms more useful for
the special processes of that particular system.
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Mouth and nostrils.
The stomach.
Producer: forms stable associations that endure for significant periods
among matter-energy inputs to the system or outputs from its converter, the
material synthesized being for growth, damage repair, or replacement of
components of the system, or for providing energy for moving or constituting
the system’s outputs of products or information markers to its suprasystem.
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A cook in a restaurant.
EIGHT SUBSYSTEMS WHICH PROCESS
MATTER- ENERGY (4-8)
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Matter-energy storage: places matter or energy at some location in the
system, retains it over time, and retrieves it.
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Extruder: transmits matter-energy out of the system in the forms of products
or wastes.
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Lungs, kidneys and rectum.
Motor: moves the system or parts of it in relation to part or all of its
environment or moves components of its environment in relation to each
other.
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The liver and bladder.
Muscles.
Supporter: maintains the proper spatial relationships among components of
the system, so that they can interact without weighting each other down or
crowding each other.
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Skeleton.
9 SUBSYSTEMS WHICH PROCESS INFO (1-4)
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Input transducer, the sensory subsystem which brings markers bearing information
into the system, changing them to other matter-energy forms suitable for
transmission within it.
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Internal transducer, the sensory subsystem which receives, from subsystems or
components within the system, markers bearing information about significant
alterations in those subsystems or components, changing them to other matterenergy forms of a sort which can be transmitted within it.
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Receptor cells in central nervous system.
Channel and net, the subsystem composed of a single route in physical space or
multiple interconnected routes over which markers bearing information are
transmitted to all parts of the system.
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Eyes and ears.
Found in the central nervous system.
Decoder, the subsystem which alters the code of information input to it through the
input transducer or internal transducer into a “private” code that can be used
internally by the system.
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Found in the human brain.
9 SUBSYSTEMS WHICH PROCESS INFO (5-9)
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Associator, the subsystem which carries out the first stage of the learning process,
forming enduring associations among items of information in the system.
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Memory, the subsystem which carries out the second stage of the learning process,
storing information in the system for different periods of time, and then retrieving it.
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Found in the human brain, calculator (artifact).
Encoder, the subsystem which alters the code of information input to it from other
information processing subsystems, from a “private” code used internally by the
system into a “public” code which can be interpreted by other systems in its
environment.
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Banks
Decider, the executive subsystem which receives information inputs from all other
subsystems and transmits to them outputs for guidance, coordination, and control of
the system.
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Found in the human brain.
Found in the human brain.
Output transducer, the subsystem which puts out markers bearing information from
the system, changing markers within the system into other matter-energy forms
which can be transmitted over channels in the system’s environment.
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Larynx, pen (artifact)
INTERACTION OF THE INFORMATION
PROCESSING SUB-SYSTEMS
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CELLS
A basic building block of all organs
 Cells and organs of a living system thrive on the
food the organism obtains from its suprasystem.
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ORGANS
Comprised of cells
 Organized into multi-cellular systems
 Differentiated structures consisting of tissues
and performing some specific function in an
organism
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ORGANISMS
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An assembly of molecules that have the
properties of life.
GROUPS
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Two or more organisms, Fungi plants and
animals that carry out life processes
ORGANIZATIONS
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Systems with multiechelon deciders whose
components and subsystems may be
subsidiary organizations, groups, and
sometimes single persons.
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minimum organization may comprise a business
with a single owner and a few employees.
 An example of a more complicated organization
would be a space station.
EXAMPLE OF A LIVING SYSTEM
COMMUNITIES
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Contain both individual persons and groups, as
well as groups which are formed and
responsible for governing or providing services
to them.
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city or even a state with banks, stores, schools,
etc. would be an example of a system at this level.
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According to Miller, communities do not seem
enough unlike other organizations to be
classified as a different level.
SOCIETIES
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A large, living, concrete system with organizations
(communities) and lower levels of living systems as
subsystems and components.
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Are totipotenital (they have a complete set of matterenergy and information processing subsystems).
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The United States is an example of this system.
May be dependent on other societies to fulfill certain
processes. The U.S. is dependent on other societies for its
oil needs.
Typically the highest level of totipotential living system.
SUPRANATIONAL SYSTEMS
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Comprised of two or more societies, some or all of
whose processes are under the control of a decider
who is superordinate to their highest echelons.
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Probably the closest modern day example is the European
Union.
The member countries of a supranational system reap
the benefits accrued from the communal activities to
which each one contributes.
This system is concrete only of a superordinate
decider is in control.
THE END
Thank you for listening!
 Any questions or comments?
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REFERENCES
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James Grier Miller, (1978). Living systems. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 087081-363-3
http://projects.isss.org/the_living_systems_theory_of_james_grier_miller
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110357/quotes?qt0371434
http://www.hns.org.uk/2/s12/vl/CellsTissuesS.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_systems_theory#Living_systems
http://www.mollyyoungbrown.com/systems_article.htm
http://www.owensdesign.co.uk/class/?p=35
http://www.mgtaylor.com/mgtaylor/jotm/winter97/millerls.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Grier_Miller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Basic_Open_System_Model.gif