Once Upon a System

“My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation.” – Arthur Conan Doyle

The study of systems and analysis always has one foot in opinion and the other in ignorance. That is what I have learned in class and within the reading. I have observed that the need to dissect, quantify and qualify, illustrate and diagram, identify and label all seek to satisfy an intellectual craving to understand the complexities and mysteries surrounding and involving and consuming us. Everything must have a name, both common and Latin. Every life-form must have a kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. The human body has a nervous system, a respiratory system, an endocrine system, a digestive system, a skeletal system, a reproductive system, a muscular system, an integumentary system, a lymphatic system, a urinary system, and a cardiovascular system.  The chemical elements identified to date number 118.  Our wealth, or lack thereof, is kept in a banking system, people are educated in an educational system, and the roads traveled on is a system of the county, farm-to-market, state highways, thoroughfares, and interstates. Systems, upon and within systems, within systems, on top of systems, ad infinitum.

 System thinking is a psychological adaptation to address the subconscious fear of the unknown manifested in the belief and illusion that one is in control over one’s environment. To attempt to identify the infinite number of interrelated and extraneous combinations of possibilities inherent in the fractal chaos of systems thinking by categorization, dissection, and component labeling could be considered the beginning of insanity, for the infinity of the scope can become consuming of the self, the mind, and the soul. The quotation at the beginning by Arthur Conan Doyle gives a glimpse into an intelligence consumed, an addiction attended, and a craving unsatisfied; Thus, he wrote and wrote and wrote.  

When one goes down the trail to analyze anything, let a caution be made of the dangers that lie ahead. When the mysteries of the Universe, the Solar system, the planets, the Earth, flora and fauna, and the human-animal are examined down to the last atom, electron, and quark, one will say that they are wise and know everything. But their discovery will be empty, their knowledge still wanting, their longing endless, futile, and maddening. It is far better to enjoy the wonderous smell of a rose than to know it as 2-phenylethanol, ß-ionone, ß-damascone, ß-damascenone, citronellol, rose oxide, geraniol and nerol.