Rereading general system theory

Although the system theory is called the old three theories and has been immersed in history, Bertalanfeld, as the discoverer of the system theory, is still far ahead of the times until today.

Two years ago, out of curiosity about modern scientific theory, I read books on system theory, information theory and cybernetics. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough knowledge and foundation at that time. As a result, I can't read all the books, but it is also an inevitable learning dilemma. Only by studying repeatedly and looking back can we have a deeper understanding.

Although I didn't read much, I can also learn from the past records that it really had a great influence on my world view at that time. It never occurred to me that science is a whole, with the same main line, that is, the description of the same kind of system, the links between disciplines are so close, and they are even different manifestations of a system, and the complexity and diversity of the system are so amazing. During that time, I continued to study the cognition of interdisciplinary and practical system theory. But because most of them are science subjects, the understanding is that mathematics is their same foundation. Through a large number of perceptual materials, they actually realized the abstraction of mathematics, which is widely used because of abstraction and determined because of abstraction.

Looking back now, I found that my previous understanding was still very superficial. However, in view of a lot of study and model summary in the past two years, the current level of understanding has been greatly improved and gained something.

What is system theory? The previous understanding was a mathematical model. For the same kind of problems, we can use the same model and construct different models for different problems. All these mathematical models are system theory. However, this understanding is very limited, and a large number of practical problems cannot be given a suitable mathematical model. Especially in engineering, the so-called empirical formula is a joke, which is not so much mathematics as mathematical law. It has little effect on improving understanding level. However, it is also a summary of knowledge.

In my opinion, system theory is more like a complete way of thinking, and its purpose is to explain the complexity of things. The complexity of a system composed of n elements can be as high as n! Now when I see this number, I think of discrete topological space. This number can be regarded as the number of subsets contained in the discrete topology, and perhaps empty sets should be considered, so the number is even more. Actually, it's about the same. Topology itself is a science that focuses on the relationship between elements. Therefore, any problem should be considered comprehensively. If the elements are intact and the connections between elements are intact, the whole state can be considered intact. The whole is divided into two parts, and the relationship between the elements is also tangible, at least much better than the description that the whole is greater than the parts. This is instructive in thinking mode.

For the application of system theory, the most intuitive embodiment is the promotion of learning. It is necessary to master abstract pattern learning and get a general model with accurate description from mathematics. Then, combined with the characteristics of different disciplines, the concepts of these disciplines correspond to the parameters of the model, and a specific discipline model is obtained, which can be applied to practice. This has been widely used in control theory. Light, heat, electricity and force can be controlled by control model. It embodies the hierarchical structure of knowledge, and some knowledge is simple and repetitive, which can be avoided in the learning stage. On the basis of this understanding, the author puts forward the idea of scientific generalist training, reforming the current educational content, focusing on learning high-level knowledge, and then cultivating the ability of concept transformation through practical links, so as to realize that learning a knowledge can be transformed into any related subject knowledge and can be learned. However, because there are still significant differences between disciplines, this measure can only accelerate learning, and specific knowledge needs special study. Another disadvantage is that learning will become more abstract. General models often refer to mathematical models. Mathematics is characterized by being abstract and difficult to understand, but its status has become more important, which is also considered as a move.

Then there is category theory. Re-abstracting the mathematical model itself is bound to become a new high-end learning method, with less space and more question marks. If you abstract again, you won't know what it is. But this is indeed the progress of cognition and the only way.

And the significance of epistemology. The completeness of the system requires us to re-examine human cognitive activities, which were previously considered as irrelevant factors and should also be explained through scientific experiments. This book mentions an interesting point. Different languages people use will lead to different views on the same thing, that is, the language people use will also become a tool to shape their own cognition. The rhythm of Chinese characters tends to pursue harmony, while the analytical nature of English tends to analyze things. This may have a great influence on the early closed cultural development. With the increasing frequency of cultural exchanges, the influence of language on scientific exchanges is gradually decreasing. But it may still have a great influence in daily life.

This is also a very interesting topic. The influence of language on people may be very significant, especially with the development of artificial intelligence. The human brain may be used with language. Obviously, such an ambiguous language system can get many logical results.

Although it is the same old theory, it is still too slow to spread and most people have never been exposed to it. Education still has a long way to go. Although the Internet has promoted the spread of knowledge, just like masterpieces, most people just look up and never open their eyes to read.