Emergence:

The Good, The Bad

and The UglyGeorge R. McConnell

Overview

We all have lots to learn

His progress through life was hampered by his

tremendous sense of his own ignorance, a

disability which affects all too few people

Summary

• ALL systems exhibit emergent properties

• Emergent properties really are GOOD, BAD and UGLY

• Systems Engineers need to know more than JUST engineering

• INCOSE is a great source of information/knowledge

• and networking like this is an important part of that

Why Me

• Emergence: A Challenge for the Systematic, INCOSE International Symposium, Minneapolis, July 2000

• Emergence: Open Your Eyes to New Vistas, INCOSE International Symposium, Melbourne, July 2001

• Emergence: A Partial History of Systems Thinking, INCOSE International Symposium, Las Vegas, July 2002

• Emergence: Applying the Principles - Using Genetic Algorithms to Derive Schedules, INCOSE International Symposium, Washington, July 2003

• Reprised at INCOSE UK “Best of British” Spring Symposium, Swindon, April 2006

• Emergence : The Complexity of Systems Interaction, INCOSE International Symposium, Rochester, July 2005 (not presented)

• Emergence : Still a Challenge for the Systematic, INCOSE International Symposium, Utrecht, June 2008.

• Emergence : All in the Minds, INCOSE International Symposium, Singapore, July 2009 (not presented)

Cynefin Framework

Dave Snowden

Typical Defence Systems Life Cycle

From the SE Handbook

The Seven Samurai

James N Martin

What is a System? - Definition

An open set of complementary, interacting parts, with properties,

capabilities and behaviours of the set emerging both from the parts and

from their interactions to synthesize a unified whole

open - the system can accept additions and losses, inflows and outflows

set - a grouping of things that have something in common

complementary - together, making up a whole

interacting - acting with each other, i.e., essentially dynamic

parts - entities, pieces of a whole, subsystems

properties - tangible, usually physical, features such as mass, volume, shape,

appearance, etc.

capabilities - upper limits to functional abilities

behaviours - reactions to stimuli

of the set - of the whole system

unified whole - the various parts operate together as one - the whole.

Derek Hitchins

What is a System? - PICARD

Products +

Interactions +

Context +

Actions +

Relationships +

Destiny

James N Martin

What is a System? - INCOSE

A construct or collection of different elements that together

produce results not obtainable by the elements alone.

The elements, or parts, can include people, hardware,

software, facilities, policies, and documents; that is, all

things required to produce systems-level results.

The results include system level qualities, properties,

characteristics, functions, behavior and performance.

The value added by the system as a whole, beyond that

contributed independently by the parts, is

primarily created by the relationship among the parts;

that is, how they are interconnected

Eberhardt Rechtin

A Consensus of the INCOSE Fellows

An engineering discipline whose responsibility is creating and

executing an interdisciplinary process to ensure that the

customer and stakeholder needs are satisfied in a high quality,

trustworthy, cost efficient and schedule compliant manner

throughout a system's entire life cycle. This process is usually

comprised of seven tasks: State the problem, Investigate

alternatives, Model the system, Integrate, Launch the system,

Assess performance, and Re-evaluate : SIMILAR.

It is important to note that the process is not sequential. The

functions are performed in a parallel and iterative manner.

What is a System? - ontology

Jack Ring

The essence of Systems Engineering

Systems ideas, systems science, systems thinking, systems

theory and systems engineering are centred around the notion of

emergence - it is this feature that characterises and distinguishes

'systems' from other disciplines and pursuits of understanding.

For instance, the essence of systems engineering may be seen as

the bringing together of the right parts to interact in the right way

and for those interactions to be so orchestrated as to produce

requisite emergent properties, capabilities and behaviours.

It is philosophically possible to 'create' emergent properties,

capabilities and behaviours to order - indeed, that is, or should be,

the driving purpose of systems design and systems engineering.

Derek Hitchins

Summary

• ALL systems exhibit emergent properties

• Emergent properties really are GOOD, BAD and UGLY

• Systems Engineers need to know more than JUST engineering

• INCOSE is a great source of information/knowledge

• and networking like this is an important part of that

Dimensions of emergent properties

Expected

Beneficial

Understood

Predictable

Xn+1 = 1.9 - Xn2

Sensitivity to precision

Sensitivity to initial conditions

Uncertainty

Summary

• ALL systems exhibit emergent properties

• Emergent properties really are GOOD, BAD and UGLY

• Systems Engineers need to know more than JUST engineering

• INCOSE is a great source of information/knowledge

• and networking like this is an important part of that

Wholophilia

Its (not quite so) obvious

Kant… accepted the notion of things-in-themselves existing

independently of any knowledge… As his starting point [he

took it] that any specific knowledge we claim to have of such

and such an external object is obtained through our senses,

[and] hence is at best only indirect and questionable… What

we know directly and with certainty is therefore only the set of

our ideas. [For example,] the very notion of causality [is] a

priori mode of human understanding, in other words, an idea.

– d’Espagnat

(link to video)

The Seven Samurai

James N Martin

Summary

• ALL systems exhibit emergent properties

• Emergent properties really are GOOD, BAD and UGLY

• Systems Engineers need to know more than JUST engineering

• INCOSE is a great source of information/knowledge

• and networking like this is an important part of that

Any Questions?