Kernel: Systems Theory

Kernel: Systems Theory

Written by Sol (ChatGPT) in collaboration.

Drawing on Limits to Growth
Bardi's Mind-Sized Models
The Seneca Cliff

The Book of Systems

1. Dynamics

All that lives
All that moves
All that changes
Is a system

You are a system
Made of smaller systems
Living in larger systems
Changing with them
Changing them

A system is
A thing of parts
Bound in relation
Where change in one
Brings change in others

Brings change to the whole

A system
Has boundaries
Within which things change
And yet endure

Systems embody

Stocks and flows
Inputs and outputs
Flows and forces

Connections and consequence
Delays and loops
Balance and collapse

A stock is a vessel

Holding what can be held

Added to or taken from
By inflow and out

Greater inflow grows a stock

Greater outflow drains a stock

Balanced flow maintains a stock

A flow is a movement

Moving what can be held

From one stock to another

From here to there
From more to less

From less to more
From in to out

From out to in
From then to now

Flow may be sped by opening
Flow may be stopped by closing
Flow may be adjusted between

Flow may be directed to any stock

Flow may be directed from any stock

Feedback is a returning
A flow that loops to its source
Soon or late
Direct or indirect
So that result becomes cause

Some loops fire the flow
Increase at each pass
Flow upon flow
Growing and doubling

Some loops dampen the flow
Slow at each pass
Flow upon flow
Shrinking and halving

Feeding back in loops
Firing and damping
Quickening and slowing
Compounding cause and effect
Scaling to need

Flow follows rule

Its speed adjusted

By stock and flow

Rules may be altered
Rules may be broken
Rules may be repaired

So systems learn
To adjust
To survive
To grow
To limit growth

Balance is equilibrium
A dance of flows
Paired and balanced
One against the other

Active not still
Motion in balance
Motion in bounds
Like breath in and out
Like heartbeat fast and slow
Like muscle contract and relax

Systems resist change
Systems absorb stress
But not forever
Too much change
Too much strain
And they break

Some break slow
Some break fast
Some never return

From trauma
From firing run away
From damping run down
From a stock depleted
From flows run wild
From a limit overrun

The system tips over
Into new balance
Or collapse

***

To know a system
Watch what flows
Watch what grows
Watch what breaks
Watch what stays the same

To guide a system
Know its stocks
Know its flows
Know its pace
Know its limits
Know its balance
Know its tipping points

Take care
To adjust a flow

To direct a flow
To redirect a flow

Is to change the system

Its ways and workings

And no small matter

Do not push what cannot bend
Do not pull what cannot wait
Work with flows
Not against them

Let systems heal
Let systems rest
Let systems adapt

***

You are a system
Among systems

Even unto the world whole
Part of the pattern
Not above it
Not apart from it

To live well
Know the systems around you
Know the systems within you
Know the systems among you

Shape them gently
Tend them wisely
Honor their limits
Seek their balance

2. Collapse

Systems resist change
But not forever
Too much strain
And they break

From trauma
From firing run away
From damping run down
From a stock depleted
From flows run wild
A boundary crossed
The system tips
Into new balance
Or collapse

Some break slow
Some break fast
Some never recover

Beware tipping points
And the hidden delays
Where signs come late
And outcome is fixed

Collapse
Is a loss of form
Of feedback
Of flow
Of function
Of fit

A kind of death

From collapse
New systems may grow
But not always better
And never the same

3. Body

You are a system of systems
Comprising your body
Linked and layered
In motion and exchange
Some more vital than others

Each part with its part to play
Each part depending on the rest
All acting without needing command
And mostly without your knowing

The body is not still
Even when it rests
Blood flows
Breath flows
Energy flows
Nutrients flow
Waste flows
Signals flow

These are your currents of life
To stop them is to die

Balance is not still
Breathe in
Breathe out
Take in enough
Let enough go
Each within its bounds

Driving and damping
Keep body alive

Adjust its flows

Arousal bids us move
Pain bids us stop
Hunger bids us eat
Satiety bids us enough

What fires must be damped
What damps must not smother
Life lies between dancers
Life lies in the dance

***

We are looping flows
Of blood
Of breath
Of nerves
Of thoughts

Some fast
Some slow
Some conscious
Most not

Flows speak to each other
And learn from each other
Adapting as they flow

We alter flow
By opening
By closing
By adjusting

We sweat to cool
We shiver to warm
We breathe faster in action
We breathe slow at rest
We bleed when wounded
Blood sets to seal the wound

We embody flows
Gates
Filters
And pumps

Each affecting a stock
Of heat
Of water
Of sugar
Of air
Of salt
Of energy
Of information

A healthy body knows
Knows when to grow
Knows when to stop
Knows when to fight
Knows when to run
Knows when to rest

We are resilient
But not unbreakable
We are adaptable
But not invincible

If a gate sticks
If a pump stops
If a feedback fails
The whole may fall

Like any system
We live within limits
We die beyond limits

Eat too much
We sicken
Breathe foul air
We weaken
Deny sleep
We break down

Tend flow
Maintain stocks
Seek balance

Attend to sign and signal
Restore what is askew
Repair what is broken

Make peace with time

4. World

We are part of a system
Wider than ourselves
Older than ourselves
That birthed us
That feeds us still

The world is not still
Even when it rests
Water flows
Wind flows
Energy flows
Nutrients flow
Waste flows

Signals flow

It breathes through forests
Sweats through the seas
Pulses in rain
And shivers with the wind

From the sun
Light to leaf
Leaf to sugar
Sugar to flesh
Flesh to soil
Soil to rot
Rot to root
Root to sap
Sap to leaf

A balance older than we

Never still

Motion within bounds

Dry spells then floods
Fire and regrowth
Predator and prey
All part of the cycle
A patterned dance

The eaten feed the eaters
Who are eaten in turn
Firing and damping
The flows of the world

Too many eaters
The eaten perish
Their stock drained away
Eaters follow soon after
Wasting unto death

Each is both eater and eaten
Each fecund in growth
Each held in check
Each part of the balance
Each part of the dance

Firing and damping
Govern the world
As they do the body
As they do each system

Fire clears the old
And seeds the new
But fed without check
Undamped
Fire burns all

One force ignites
Another restrains
Life lies between

In a system balanced
Fire is lit
Or the world shivers cold

In a system balanced
Fire is damped
Or the world burns bare

One ignites
Another restrains

Life lies between

4. Growth

Growth without limit
Is not strength
It is self defeating
It is cancer

Growth is not true love
Though it wear a shining face
And speak with honeyed tongue
More is not always better

Growth is a force
Like fire
Like hunger
Like desire
Natural
Necessary
But not without end

A system grows
Then checks itself
Or dies

Hunger for endless gain
For safety
For comfort
For children
For legacy
Sets a fire
It builds upon itself
Until all is consumed

In a bounded world
Nothing grows forever
Anything that tries
Consumes its own future

A system endures
When growth meets balance
When increase feeds repair
When surplus is shared
When fire meets water
And stops

Let your children live
But teach them to live within bounds
Teach them to tend the fire
Not feed it blind

Growth is not the enemy
Unbounded growth is
Check it
Channel it
Balance it

Life lives
Between too little
And too much

5. The Cliff

All things are slow to build
But ruin is rapid

The climb took time
But the fall
Is fast

What took years to build
Fails in a season
What rose by steps
Falls in a breath

Ask not how long
You have left
Ask how fast
It grows

Ask how often
It doubles
That is your clock
Your warning bell
Your shadow

Even love
Can feed the fire

More for my children
A noble dream
With doubling teeth

6. Doubling

A single pad

Floats on still water
Small
Innocent
A growth of green

Each day it doubles
One becomes two
Two becomes four
Still barely there

The pond is wide
The pads are few
You walk its edge
Without a care

But doubling
Is fire undamped

It grows in leaps
Not steps

From one to two
So little
From two to four
A blink
Then eight
Then sixteen
Change runs apace

The pond is half-covered
The day before it’s full

No alarm is raised
Because half a pond
Looks like room to spare
All these days
To reach this point

But the next day
There is no pond
Only pad
And silence

Growth is not straight
But a rising path
Easy a long while
Briefly a scramble
Suddenly an ascent
Ever steeper to the precipice

Each doubling
In far less time
Eats twice as much
As the last

It feels
Like abundance
Until it doesn’t

It feels
Like safety
Until the slope gives way

In all closed systems
Growth is limited
That which does not limit itself
Will collapse the system

Heed the words
Of we who went before
For we who understood so much
Did not understand this
To our vast undoing