Luis Saffie

My notes and principles

If a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standfing, then the rationality will simple produce another factory
A system is a set of things, people, molecules or whatever interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behaviour over time
The informatioon delivered by a feedback loop can only affect fugture behavior. It can’t deliver a signal fast enoug to correct behavior that drove the current feedback
when a subsystem’s goals dominate at the expense of the total system’s goals
eveerything we think we konw about the world is a model.
Models fall far short of representing the real world
if a goal is defined badly, if it doesn’t measure what it’s supposed to measure, if it doesnt’ reflect the real welfare of the system, the the system can’t possibly produce a desirable result
if the desired system state is national security, and measured as the amount of money spent on military, the suystem will produce military spending - not national security
Education measured by performance on standardized tests, the system will produce performance on standardized tests
social systems are the external manifestations of cultural thinking patterns and of profound human needs, emotions, strenghts and weaknesses