The more I learn about system science the more it seems just so fundamental to understand systems and be able to create models around them. Yet it's just not something that we hear about very often. What do you think that is? Is it because of the complexity of the field? Well there is a complexity involvement. Every system is organized as a kind of a hierarchy. So people began specializing in cybernetics for example especially of management science folks. People specialize in complexity and so forth. We have a tradition of being specialists of focusing in on one area and trying to develop as much as we can about that.
George Mobus is Professor Emeritus at University of Washington, Tacoma. His broad academic background saw him conduct research on artificial intelligence, cybernetics and systems science.
George joins me to discuss how systems science is failing to grasp the polycrisis—that the field has been split into silos, leaving most systems scientists without the tools to model the complexity of the emergency we face.
He also explains the neurological limits of individual human wisdom, suggesting the agricultural revolution affected our capacity for abstract thinking, before revealing how humans can work past those limits—collectively.
Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.
© Rachel Donald
Get full access to Planet: Critical at
www.planetcritical.com/subscribe