More Humor By Bloch 37

Witty Sayings from the book by Bloch

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THE FUNDAMENTAL THEOREM:

New systems generate new problems. Corollary:

Systems should not be unnecessarily multiplied.

THE GENERALIZED UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE:

Systems tend to grow, and as they grow, they encroach.

Alternative Formulations:

1. Complicated systems produce unexpected outcomes.

2. The total behavior oflarge systems cannot be predicted.

Corollary: The Non-Additivity Theorem of Systems-Behaviour.

A large system, produced by expanding the dimensions of a smaller system, does not behave like the smaller system.

THE FUNCTIONARY’S FALSITY:

People in systems do not do what the system says they are doing.

THE OPERATIONAL FALLACY:

The system itself does not do what it says it is doing.

FIFTEENTH LAW OF SYSTEMANTICS: A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works.

SIXTEENTH LAW OF SYSTEMANTICS: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.

THE FUNDAMENTAL POSTULATES OF ADVANCED SYSTEMS THEORY:

1. Everything is a system.

2. Everything is part of a larger system.

3. The universe is infinitely systematized, both upward (larger systems) and downward (smaller systems).

4. All systems are infinitely complex. (The illusion of simplicity comes from focussing attention on one or a few variables.)

LE CHATELIER’S PRINCIPLE:

Complex systems tend to oppose their own proper function.