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IFSR International Series in Systems Science and Systems
Engineering

Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest

General
Systems
Theory
Foundation, Intuition and Applications
in Business Decision Making
IFSR International Series in Systems Science
and Systems Engineering

Volume 32

Editor-in-chief
George E. Mobus, Institute of Technology, University of Washington Tacoma,
Tacoma, WA, USA
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/6104
Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest

General Systems Theory

Foundation, Intuition and Applications
in Business Decision Making

123
Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest
School of Business
Slippery Rock University
Slippery Rock, PA, USA

ISSN 1574-0463
IFSR International Series in Systems Science and Systems Engineering
ISBN 978-3-030-04557-9 ISBN 978-3-030-04558-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04558-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018961727

Mathematics Subject Classification (2010): 93

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018

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Preface of the Current Edition

Since the first edition, entitled “General Systems Theory: A Mathematical

Approach,” was initially published in 1999, many magnificent and important
developments have been made at various fronts of systems science. So, at this very
special moment of inaugurating the new leadership for the IFSR International Series
on Systems Science and Engineering, it is definitely a good time for me to update
the previous edition by enriching it with some of the most important works pub-
lished since the start of this new century.
Because of my background and training in mathematics and my strong curiosity
on a wide range of topics, as soon as I had my hands on the idea of and work on
systems science by some of the best minds of our modern time in the early 1980s, I
immediately became and have ever since been a faithful follower of the systems
movement. I have been firmly convinced that systems research will provide a new
dimension to the existing spectrum of science. Such belief was later argued com-
prehensively and spelled out clearly by George Klir in the early 1990s. However,
with nearly one hundred years of development, systems science still needs to
enhance itself in many different aspects in order to fully meet the challenges posed
by several scholars, including David Berlinski (in his book On Systems Analysis,
MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1976). In particular, other than addressing a
set of new problems that were not possible to be considered in the past within the
scope of the traditional science, systems science has to be able to provide solutions
to problems, be them age old or modern, considered in various disciplines of the
traditional science with its unique intuition, logic of thinking, and technical
approach. Only with such a scientific capability, systems science will be affec-
tionately embraced by the entire world of learning.
That means, in other words, that systems science needs to develop its own
intuition and playground, like the one in modern science, known as Cartesian
coordinate system, on which most important conclusions and results, be them
systems science specific or not, can be visually seen by all educated eyes. For
example, in modern science basic methods of analytical reasoning are all estab-
lished on the Cartesian coordinate system of various dimensions; all statistical tools
are developed on the top of various combinations, again Cartesian coordinate

v
vi Preface of the Current Edition

system based, of algebra and geometry. With such a playground and tool for
intuitive reasoning in place, systemic logic of thinking can be systematically
developed so that particular technical methods of reasoning will be established
accordingly. In other words, to realize the great promise of systems science, there is
a need to make this new science possess a glorious and long-lasting life. That means
this new science needs to satisfy the following four conditions (Lin, Y. (2009),
Systemic Yoyo: Some Impacts of the Second Dimension, CRC Press, New York):
1. It must be readable by as many people as possible.
2. It must coincide with people’s intuition.
3. It must possess a certain kind of beauty, which can be easily felt.
4. It must be capable of producing meaningful results and insights that excite the
population.
In the traditional science, calculus satisfies these conditions with its beauty
manifested and intuition played out on the Cartesian coordinate system. Euclidean
geometry is also a long living theory, because it is intuitive, possesses a logical and
visual beauty, and can be employed in people’s daily lives. In comparison, systems
science did not have its unique playground and intuition, before at least of the start
of this new century, through which the beauty of the science can be easily felt, and
on which meaningful results and insights can be established.
To improve the general systems theory, as presented in the first edition published
in 1999, this volume will introduce the systemic yoyo model as the desired play-
ground and intuition for systemic reasoning and thinking. Other than presenting the
elementary properties of this model and how general systems would follow the laws
on state of motion, we will look at the theoretical reasons why such a model for a
general system would hold true, followed by several empirical supports.
To satisfy Condition 4 listed above, this book will consider several issues of
business decision making and see how meaningful results and insights that excite
the population can be produced by using the systemic yoyo model and related
systems reasoning. In particular, we will closely look at the following topics:
1. Why sustainable competitive advantages are becoming transient, while markets
change faster and customers are less patient than ever before?
2. How nonlinearity appears in demand/supply interactions;
3. When new market competitions appear;
4. Some mysteries of the family;
5. Why no fixed value system will ever be perfect;
6. How to potentially achieve management efficiency;
7. Why organizational inefficiency always exists;
8. How to deal with customers’ indecisiveness through pricing strategies;
9. How to heighten the competitive spirits of sales’ associates; etc.
The reason why I choose various scenarios of business decision making as the
showcase of successful and exciting applications is because such words as “be-
lieve,” “should,” and “would” are widely used in the literature of economics and
Preface of the Current Edition vii

business. To me, what that reality means is that the theoretical reasoning that led to
the conclusions in the first place is not reliable, and the author knows about it. On
the contrary, these words are not generally used in natural sciences and mathe-
matics. For example, scientists generally do not use these words when they speak of
scientific facts. For instance, no one in science would speak as follows: When a
cubic solid piece of iron is dropped in the water in a container, I believe that the
metal block would sink to the bottom of the container. Instead, people simple state
the fact as follows: The metal block will sink to the bottom of the container (without
using the words believe and would)!!! What happens in the research of economics
and business when compared to that of natural sciences and mathematics is that
1. When a rigorous tool of reasoning is used, the author does not know for sure
whether or not he/she has considered all related factors.
2. A lot of conclusions are drawn based on one or a few anecdotes without any
follow-up rigorous analysis.
3. A lot of so-called theories are really established on data mining.
One of the reasons for Situation 1 to occur is that there is no readily available
playground or intuition for large-scale or global economic reasoning. So, when a
rigorous or analytical tool is employed, it tends to only model a regional, local
phenomenon so that conclusions of a larger scale can only be conjectured. When
Situation 2 is the case, the conclusions are really derived inductively instead of
deductively. To this end, there are many counterexamples in mathematics that show
the fact that observations based on anecdotes generally do not lead to reliable
theories. For example, from the anecdote 02 ¼ 0 can one conclude that n2 ¼ n, for
any natural number n? Of course not. Situation 3 above is similar to the case that we
look at the clouds in the sky and ask each other: Do you see a person in the clouds
who is smiling at us right now? Even when all people agree with you on the
observation, one still cannot conclude that there is indeed a person in the sky who is
smiling at people on earth. As a matter of fact, whatever methods used in Situations
2 and 3 above are only employed to reveal potential facts. These potential facts still
need to be shown scientifically. For details about this end, see Lin Y. and
OuYang S. C. (2010), Irregularities and Prediction of Major Disasters, New York:
CRC Press.
If we identify the current state of research affairs in economics and business with
that in the history of natural sciences right around the time when Isaac Newton
developed his laws of physics, one can see such a possibility of great likelihood to
happen: All the facts and nonfacts discovered in the literature of economics and
business are similar to those uncovered by various scholars in natural sciences a few
hundred years ago, and the present opportunity created by the development of
systems thinking and the systemic intuition in the last century is quite parallel to
that used by Newton to develop his laws of physics, because of the matrimony of
Euclidean geometry and algebra, as a natural consequence of the introduction of the
Cartesian coordinate system. So, considering the massive amount of facts and
nonfacts discovered currently, one can expect a major breakthrough in areas of
viii Preface of the Current Edition

economics and business is coming soon. And, because of the fact of how systems
science and the yoyo model can provide effective means for large-scale analysis and
intuitive thinking, I expect that when such a breakthrough appears, it will be sys-
tems science based.
Summarizing what is discussed above, this volume is a follow-up edition of my
previous book, entitled “General Systems Theory: A Mathematical Approach,”
initially published in 1999. And more than two thirds of the contents in this current
book are based on recent developments in the relevant areas of research. In par-
ticular, this new edition consists of three parts, entitled The Foundation, The
Systemic Intuition, and Applications in Business Decision Making, respectively.
Other than some slight changes and additions, the first part is on the foundation of
general systems theory and is mainly based on the earlier edition. The second part
introduces the systemic yoyo model to satisfy the desperate need for a practically
useful intuition for reasoning in systems science specific contents, as mentioned
previously. The role to be played by this model is expected to be similar to that
played by the Cartesian coordinate system in the classical science, on top of which
all statistical and analytical methods, widely and heavily employed in modern
science, are developed. The third part looks at how systemic thinking and the yoyo
model can be beautifully applied to address many important problems facing
decision makers in business by organically combining methods of the classical
science, the first dimension of the 2D spectrum of science, with those of systems
science, the second dimension, as argued by George Klir in the 1990s. As of this
writing, important decisions in business are mostly drawn based on data mining or
anecdotes. Scientifically speaking, such processes of decision making have been
time and again shown to be flawed. Because of this reason, this part of the book is
expected to open up a brand new territory of research valuable for decision-making
managers and working economics professionals.
By presenting a rigorously developed foundation, a tool for intuitive reasoning
that is supported by both theory and empirical evidence, and extremely fruitful
applications in economics and business, this book demonstrates the theoretical
value and practical significance of systems science and its thinking logic. By
making use of this science and by employing the systemic intuition, one can pro-
duce interesting, convincing, and scientifically sound results. As shown in this
book, many of the conclusions drawn on the basis of systems science can be
practically applied to produce tangible economic benefits.
To comprehend the following chapters in this book, here are the necessary
mathematical knowledge. Since Part 1 of this book is mostly from the first edition,
entitled “General Systems Theory: A Mathematical Approach,” published by
Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1999, as mentioned before in that edition, the
mathematical background needed here is a beginner’s basic understanding of the
naïve and axiomatic set theories. On the other hand, if the reader likes to make
contributions along the lines given in this part of the proposed book, then he/she
will need a better comprehension of these set theories in order to derive insightful
conclusions. To satisfy this in-depth need, the reader is advised to consult with the
previous editor of this book, where more than sufficient depth of these set theories is
Preface of the Current Edition ix

provided in a single place. And for the rest of this book, calculus and some basic
knowledge of game theory will be sufficient for the reader to understand what is
presented.
By studying this book and by referencing back to it regularly, you, the reader,
will master a brand new tool to resolve your problems and an intuition from which
important insights can be acquired intuitively and useful decisions can be made
relatively quickly without wasting unnecessarily your valuable time and a lot of the
limited financial resources.
I hope you will enjoy reading and referencing this book in your scientific
exploration, academic pursuit, and real-life practice. If you have any comments or
suggestions, please let me hear from you by joining several thousands of other
colleagues who have communicated with either me or other members of my research
groups. I can be reached at jeffrey.forrest@sru.edu or jeffrey.forrest@yahoo.com.

Slippery Rock, USA Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest

Preface of the First Edition

As suggested by the title of this book, I will present a collection of coherently

related applications and a theoretical development of a general systems theory.
Hopefully, this book will invite all readers to sample an exciting and challenging
(even fun!) piece of interdisciplinary research, that has characterized the scientific
and technological achievements of the twentieth century. And, I hope that many
of them will be motivated to do additional reading and to contribute to topics along
the lines described in the following pages.
Since the applications in this volume range through many scientific disciplines,
from sociology to atomic physics, from Einstein’s relativity theory to Dirac’s
quantum mechanics, from optimization theory to unreasonable effectiveness of
mathematics to foundations of mathematical modeling, from general systems theory
to Schwartz’s distributions, special care has been given to write each application in
a language appropriate to that field. That is, mathematical symbols and abstractions
are used at different levels so that readers in various fields will find it possible to
read. Also, because of the wide range of applications, each chapter has been written
so that, in general, there is no need to reference a different chapter in order to
understand a specific application. At the same time, if a reader has the desire to go
through the entire book without skipping any chapter, it is strongly suggested to
refer back to Chapters 2 and 3 as often as possible.
The motivation to write this book came from the strong influence of historical
works by L. von Bertalanffy, George Klir, and M. D. Mesarovic, and the book On
Systems Analysis, by David Berlinski (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
1976). Berlinski’s book and challenges from several scholars really made me decide
to write such a book with strong applications in different scientific fields in order to
justify the very meaning of existence for a general systems theory. At the same
time, one of the important lessons we have learned from the several decade-old
global systems movement, started and supported by many of the most powerful
minds of our modern time, is that senseless transfer of statements (more specifi-
cally, theoretical conclusions or results) from one discipline to another makes
people feel that general systems theory is a doubtful subject. To keep such
unnecessary situations from occurring, we develop each application with rigorous

xi
xii Preface of the First Edition

logical reasoning. Whenever a bold conclusion is deduced, some relevant gaps in

the reasoning process will be pointed out right on the spot or in the final chapter
(“Some Unsolved Problems in General Systems Theory”). On the other hand,
doubtful people will be as doubtful as they can no matter what facts or evidence are
out there to show them their doubt is unfounded. For example, more than 100 years
ago, when naive set theory was first introduced and studied, many first-class
mathematicians did not treat it as a serious theory at all. Furthermore, Cantor, the
founder, was personally attacked by these scholars. As a consequence, he was
hospitalized and eventually died in a psychiatric hospital. Today, set theory has
succeeded in a great many areas of modern science, including the entire spectrum of
mathematics, when the central idea of infinity is employed in systems science, we
can still hear doubters saying things like: Infinity? One can be sure that in an
infinitely long period of time, a monkey will produce the great Beethoven’s music!
(A note: according to results in set theory, this statement is not true!)
The structure of my theoretical development in this book is the “top-down”—
formalization—approach, launched in 1960 by Mesarovic. This approach is char-
acterized by the following: (1) All concepts are introduced with minimal mathe-
matical structures. (2) Additional mathematical conditions are added when
necessary to display the richness of systems properties. At the same time, appli-
cability is always used to test the mathematical conditions added.
Calculus is all that is needed to comprehend this book, since all other mathe-
matical techniques are presented at appropriate levels.
Finally, I would to express my sincere appreciation to many individuals, too
many to list. My thanks go to President Robert Aebersold and Vice President and
Provost Charles Foust, Deans Charles Zuzak and Jay Harper of Slippery Rock
University, Pennsylvania, whose academic support for the past several years was
essential to finishing this book. I thank Dr. Ben Fitzpatrick, my Ph.D. supervisor,
for his years’ teaching and academic influence, Prof. Lotfi Zadeh, the father of fuzzy
mathematics, for his keen encouragement, Prof. Xavier J. R. Avula, President of the
International Association for Mathematical and Computer Modeling, for his per-
sonal influence and education on professional perfection for the past several years.
I hope you enjoy reading and referencing this book, and your comments and
suggestions are welcome! Please let me hear from you—my e-mail address is
jeffrey.forrest@sru.edu.

Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest

Acknowledgements

This book contains many research results previously published in various sources,
and I am grateful to the copyright owners for permitting me to use the material.
They include the International Association for Cybernetics (Namur, Belgium),
Gordon and Breach Science Publishers (Yverdon, Switzerland, and New York),
Hemisphere (New York), International Federation for Systems Research (Vienna,
Austria), International Institute for General Systems Studies, Inc. (Slippery Rock,
Pennsylvania), Kluwer Academic and Plenum Publishers (Dordrecht, The
Netherlands, and New York), MCB University Press (Bradford, UK), Pergamon
Journals, Ltd. (Oxford), Springer Nature, Taylor and Francis, Ltd., World Scientific
Press, Wroclaw Technical University Press (Poland), and Emerald Publishing, UK.
I express my sincere appreciation to many individuals who have helped to shape
my life, career, and profession. Because there are so many of these wonderful
people from all over the world, I will just mention a few. Even though Dr. Ben
Fitzpatrick, my Ph.D. degree supervisor, had left this material world, he will forever
live in my works. His teaching and academic influence will continue to guide me
for the rest of my professional life. My heartfelt thanks go to Shutang Wang, my
M.S. degree supervisor. Because of him, I always feel obligated to push myself
further and work harder to climb high up the mountain of knowledge and to swim
far into the ocean of learning. To George Klir—from him I acquired my initial sense
of academic inspiration and found the direction in my career. To Mihajlo
D. Mesarovic and Yasuhiko Takaraha—from them I affirmed their chosen endeavor
in my academic career. To Lotfi A. Zadeh—with personal encouragements and
appraisal words from which I was further inspired to achieve high scholastically. To
Shoucheng OuYang and colleagues in our research group, named Blown-Up
Studies, based on our joint works, Yong Wu and I came up with the systemic yoyo
model, which eventually led to the completion of the earlier book Systemic Yoyos:
Some Impacts of the Second Dimension (published by CRC Press as an Auerbach

xiii
xiv Acknowledgements

book, an imprint of Taylor and Francis in 2008) and this book. To Zhenqiu Ren—
with him I established the law of conservation of informational infrastructure. To
Gary Becker, a Nobel laureate in economics, his rotten kid theorem has brought me
deeply into economics, finance, and corporate governance, from which some of
contents of this book are created jointly by Dillon Forrest and me.
Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Historical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Whole Evolutions—Blown-Ups and Revolving Currents . . . . . . 6
1.3 Systems Philosophy and Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4 The Reason for Looking at Applications in Economics
and Business Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 12
1.5 Organization of Contents in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 16
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 19

Part I The Foundation

2 The Concept of General Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1 Various Attempts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1.1 The Concept of Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.1.2 The Set-Theoretical Definition of General Systems . . . . 30
2.1.3 Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.1.4 L-Fuzzy Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.1.5 G-Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.2 Internalities of Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.3 The Edifice of Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3 Mappings and Constructions of Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.1 Mappings from Systems into Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.2 Free Sums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.3 Products and Cartesian Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.4 One-Level Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

xv
xvi Contents

4 Connectedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.1 Connected Systems . . . . . . . . ......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2 Connectedness of Constructed Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5 Hierarchies—Construction of Large-Scale Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.1 Existence of Linkages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.2 Mappings from Hierarchies into Hierarchies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.3 Time Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
6 Controllabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6.1 Controllabilities of Input–Output Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6.2 General Controllabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.3 Controllability of Time Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
7 Limit Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7.1 Existence of Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7.2 Induced Mappings Between Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
7.3 Centralizability of Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
8 Systems of Single Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
8.1 Chaos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
8.2 Attractors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
9 The Feedback Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
9.1 Linear Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
9.2 Feedback Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
10 Properties Invariant Under Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
10.1 Linearity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
10.2 Mesarovic–Takahara Time Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
10.3 Time-Invariable Realization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
11 Decoupling of Single-Relation Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
11.1 The Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
11.2 Transferrable Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
11.3 Decoupling Through Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
11.4 An Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Contents xvii

12 Decomposability Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

12.1 Global and Complex System Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
12.2 Isomorphisms and Monomorphisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
12.3 Input–Output System Covering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
12.4 Surjective Complex System Representation of Order n . . . . . . . 156
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Part II The Systemic Intuition

13 How Systems Could Be Intuitively Seen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
13.1 The Systemic Yoyo Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
13.2 Properties of Systemic Yoyo Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
13.3 Interactions of Systemic Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
13.4 Laws on State of Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
13.5 Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
13.5.1 How Calculus, a Pinnacle Achievement
of Science, Was Made Possible? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
13.5.2 Usefulness of Intuition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
13.5.3 Validity of Figurative Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
14 Whole Evolutions, Where Systemic Yoyos Come from . . . . . . . . . . 193
14.1 Blown-Ups: Moments of Transition in Evolutions . . . . . . . . . . 193
14.2 Properties of Blown-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
14.2.1 Blown-Ups of Quadratic Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
14.2.2 Blown-Up Properties of nth Degree Polynomial
Models, n  3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
14.2.3 Blown-up of Nonlinear Time–Space Evolution
Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
14.3 Issues Facing Quantitative Infinity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
14.3.1 An Implicit Transformation Between Euclidean
Spaces and Curvature Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
14.3.2 Motions Represented by General Dynamic System . . . . 207
14.3.3 Wave Motions Versus Eddy Motions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
14.4 Equal Quantitative Movements and Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
14.5 Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
15 Some Empirical Justifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
15.1 Eddy Effects Caused by Changes in Density of Media
of Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
15.2 Conservation of Informational Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
xviii Contents

15.2.1 Physical Essence of Dirac’s Large Number

Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
15.2.2 The Angular Momentum Mystery of the Solar
System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
15.2.3 Movements of the Atmosphere on Earth . . . . . . . . . . . 232
15.2.4 Conjecture of a Law of Conservation of Informational
Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
15.2.5 Impacts of the New Law of Conservation . . . . . . . . . . 235
15.3 Bodily Communications that Can Be Felt Undoubtedly . . . . . . . 237
15.3.1 Visual Stares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
15.3.2 Reciprocal Impressions of People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
15.4 Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Part III Applications in Business Decision Making

16 Economic Events and Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
16.1 How Market Demand and Supply Interact with Each Other . . . . 244
16.2 Model Economic Cycles by Using Systemic Yoyos . . . . . . . . . 247
16.3 Emergence of Market Competitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
16.4 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
17 Issues of Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
17.1 Some Background Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
17.2 The Market Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
17.3 Coordinated Monopoly and Stagnation in Expected Profits . . . . 264
17.4 Markets Change Faster and Customers Less Patient . . . . . . . . . 268
17.5 Once Sustainable Competitive Advantages Become
Transient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
17.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
18 Some Issues of the Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
18.1 How Could Selfish People Behave Unselfishly . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
18.2 Two Mysterious Phenomena of the Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
18.3 Why Is Any Established Value System Imperfect? . . . . . . . . . . 290
18.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
19 Some Remarks on Organizational Efficiencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
19.1 The Question that Is to Be Addressed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
19.2 Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
19.3 Individuals’ Underlying Philosophical and Value Systems . . . . . 302
19.4 Forever Existence of Inefficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Contents xix

19.5 One Possible Way to Achieve Managerial Efficiency . . . . . . . . 312

19.6 Principle of Organizational Inefficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
19.7 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
20 Dealing with Indecisive Customers Through Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
20.1 One Strategic Firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
20.2 All Firms Are Strategic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
20.3 Which Price Strategy Leads to Higher Expected Profits? . . . . . . 331
20.4 Some Final Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
21 An Idea on How to Heighten the Competitive Spirits of Sales
Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
21.1 Sales Associates’ Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
21.2 Associates’ Sales at Cournot Equilibrium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
21.3 Associates’ Payoffs at Cournot Equilibrium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
21.4 Private Cost Information and Expected Incomes . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
21.5 Associates’ Incentive Weights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
21.6 Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
22 Reducing the Adverse Effects of Speculative Capital . . . . . . . . . . . 351
22.1 Categorizing Purchasing Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
22.2 Economic Sectors Defined Through Feedback Mechanism . . . . 354
22.3 The Main Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
22.4 A Strategy for National Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
22.5 A Few Final Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
About the Author

Dr. Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest also known as Yi Lin,

holds all his educational degrees in pure mathematics
and had one-year postdoctoral experience in statistics at
Carnegie Mellon University. He had been a guest
professor of economics, finance, and systems science at
several major universities in China, including Nanjing
University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. And
currently, he is a professor of mathematics at Slippery
Rock University, Pennsylvania, and the president of the
International Institute for General Systems Studies,
Inc., Pennsylvania. He serves either currently or in the
past on the editorial boards of eleven professional
journals, including Kybernetes: The International
Journal of Systems, Cybernetics and Management
Science, Journal of Systems Science and Complexity,
International Journal of General Systems, etc. Some of
his research was funded by United Nations, State of
Pennsylvania, National Science Foundation of China,
and German National Research Center for Information
Architecture and Software Technology. As of the end
of 2016, he has published well over 300 research papers
and nearly 50 monographs and special topic volumes.
Some of these monographs and volumes were pub-
lished by such prestigious publishers as Springer,
World Scientific, Kluwer Academic, Academic Press,
etc. Over the years, his scientific achievements have
been recognized by various professional organizations
and academic publishers. In 2001, he was inducted into
the Honorary Fellowship of the World Organization of

xxi
xxii About the Author

Systems and Cybernetics. His research interests are

wide-ranging, covering areas like economics, finance,
management, marketing, data analysis, predictions,
mathematics, systems research and applications, phi-
losophy of science, etc.
Synopsis

This book is a follow-up edition of my previous book, entitled “General Systems

Theory: A Mathematical Approach,” initially published in 1999. More than two
thirds of the contents in this current volume are based on recent developments in the
relevant area of research.
In particular, this new edition consists of three parts, entitled The Foundation,
The Systemic Intuition, and Applications in Business Decision Making, respectively.
Other than some slight changes and additions, the first part is mainly based on the
original edition. The second part introduces the systemic yoyo model to satisfy the
desperate need for a practically useful intuition for reasoning in systems science
specific contents. The role to be played by this model is expected to be similar to
that played by Cartesian coordinate system in the classical science, on top of which
all statistical and analytical methods, widely and heavily employed in modern
science, are developed. The third part looks at how systemic thinking and the yoyo
model can be beautifully applied to address many important problems facing
decision makers in business by organically combining methods of the classical
science, the first dimension of the two-dimensional science, with those of systems
science, the second dimension, as argued by George Klir in the 1990s. As of this
writing, important decisions in business are mostly drawn based on data mining or
anecdotes. Scientifically speaking, such processes of decision making have been
time and again shown to be flawed. Because of this reason, this part of the book is
expected to open up a brand new territory of research valuable for working man-
agers and economics professionals.
By presenting a rigorously developed foundation, a tool for intuitive reasoning
that is supported by both theory and empirical evidence, and extremely fruitful
applications this book demonstrates the theoretical value and practical significance
of systems science and its thinking logic. By making use of this science and by
employing the systemic intuition, one can produce interesting, convincing, and
scientifically sound results. As shown in this book, many of the conclusions drawn
on the basis of systems science can be practically applied to produce tangible
economic benefits.

xxiii
xxiv Synopsis

By studying this book and by referencing back to it regularly, the reader, who
would be either a graduate student, a researcher, or a practitioner in the areas of
mathematics, either theoretical or applied, systems science or engineering, eco-
nomics, and decision science, will master a brand new tool to resolve his/her
problems and an intuition from which useful decisions can be made relatively
quickly without wasting unnecessarily the valuable time and a lot of the limited
financial resources.
Chapter 1
Introduction

In our modern times, science develops quickly, technology renews itself in front of
our very eyes, and management theories evolve in different directions. The most
important and most obvious characteristic of the quickly developing science is that
the forest of specialized and interdisciplinary disciplines can be easily seen, yet
the boundaries of disciplines become blurred. In terms of the speedy renewing of
technology, the most important and most obvious characteristic is that generations of
newer gadgets with better functionalities appear with shortening time intervals, while
unexpected products are designed and introduced into the marketplace in abundance.
Regarding modern management techniques, an increasing number of new theories
are developed with forever different insights provided.
That is, the overall trend of modern science is to synthesize all areas of knowledge
into a few major blocks, as evidenced by the survey of an American national commit-
tee on scientific research in 1985 (Mathematical Sciences 1985), and that of modern
technology is to make everything imaginable “smart” through using computer-related
technologies and the knowledge of artificial intelligence. On the contrary, the theo-
ries of management seem to be more diverse than ever before without any sign of
immediate convergence.
Because of the rapid progress of science, technology, and management theories,
researchers and practitioners of scientific research and decision-making managers
have been faced with unprecedented problems: How can they equip themselves with
the newest knowledge? How can they handle the geometrically growing amount
of new knowledge? And how can they cope with the faster-changing market envi-
ronment and much less patient customers? If traditional methods of exploration
and learning are employed without modification, then today’s unpublished scientific
results could become outdated tomorrow, and today’s hot products could be out of
fashion tomorrow. Facing these challenges, researchers, practitioners, and decision-
making managers evidently need to acquire new skills and knowledge regarding how
the concepts of wholes and parts and their relationships can be employed to investi-
gate similar problems in different scenarios so that the points of view of interconnec-
tion and interdependence can be employed to observe the world in which we live.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018 1
J. Y.-L. Forrest, General Systems Theory, IFSR International Series in Systems Science
and Systems Engineering 32, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04558-6_1
2 1 Introduction

In the second decade of the twentieth century, von Bertalanffy (1924) wrote:
Since the fundamental character of living things is its organization, the customary investi-
gation of the single parts and processes cannot provide a complete explanation of the vital
phenomena. This investigation gives us no information about the coordination of parts and
processes. Thus the chief task of biology must be to discover the laws of biological sys-
tems (at all levels of organization). We believe that the attempts to find a foundation for the
theoretical point are a fundamental change in the world picture. This view, considered as a
method of investigation, we call “organismic biology” and, as an attempt at an explanation,
“the system theory of the organism.”

(Note: Similarly, in the study of economics, Rostow (1960) wrote:

The classical theory of production is formulated under essentially static assumptions which
freeze – or permit only once-over change – in the variables most relevant to the process of
economic growth. As modern economists have sought to merge classical production theory
with Keynesian income analysis they have introduced the dynamic variables: population,
technology, entrepreneurship, etc. But they have tended to do so in forms so rigid and
general that their models cannot grip the essential phenomena of growth, as they appear to
an economic historian. We require a dynamic theory of production which isolates not only
the distribution of income between consumption, savings, and investment (and the balance
of production between consumers and capital goods) but which focuses directly and in some
detail on the composition of investment and on developments within particular sectors of
the economy.)

From von Bertalanffy’s statement, it can be seen that parallel to the challenge of
modern science, technology, and management, formally proposed was a new concept
of systems, which can be potentially used by researchers, practitioners, and decision-
making managers to face their respective challenges. Tested in the past ninety some
years, this concept of systems has been widely accepted by the entire spectrum of
science and technology and by working economists and business professionals; for
details, see Lin (1999) and Klir (1985).
This chapter consists of five sections. Section 1.1 analyzes the historical back-
ground for how systems science has appeared and why it has been widely accepted.
Section 1.2 looks at how the evolution of systems should be seen holistically.
Section 1.3 explains what systems philosophy and methodology entail. Section 1.4
addresses the reason why we closely look at applications in business areas in this
book, and Section 1.5 presents how this book is organized.

1.1 Historical Background

Since the time when the concept of systems was formally introduced in the second
decade of the twentieth century in biology (von Bertalanffy 1924), the concept has
been widely applied either implicitly or explicitly in the entire spectrum of science,
be it natural or social, and technology. Although it seems to be a quite recent phe-
nomenon, as all new concepts studied in the world of learning, the ideas and thinking
logic of systems have a long history. For example, Chinese traditional medicine, treat-
ing each human body as a whole, can be traced to the time of Yellow Emperor about
1.1 Historical Background 3

5,000 years ago, and Aristotle’s statement that “the whole is greater than the sum
of its parts” has been a fundamental problem in systems theory. In other words,
throughout the history, mankind has been studying and exploring nature by using the
thinking logic of systems. It is only in modern times that have some new contents
been added to the ancient systems thinking. The methodology of studying systems
as wholes adequately agrees with the development trend of modern exploration of
nature and man itself, namely divide the object, event, and process of consideration
into parts as small as possible while studying each and every of them carefully, seek
interactions and connections between phenomena, and to observe and comprehend
more and bigger pictures of nature than ever before.
In the recorded history, although the word “system” was never emphasized, we can
still find many explanatory terms concerning the concept of systems. For example,
Nicholas of Cusa, that profound thinker of the fifteenth century, linking medieval
mysticism with the first beginning of modern science, introduced the notion of
coincidentia oppositorum, the opposition or indeed fights among the parts within
a whole which nevertheless forms a unity of higher order. Leibniz’s hierarchy of
monads looks quite like that of modern systems; his mathesis universalis presages
an expanded mathematics which is not limited to quantitative or numerical expres-
sions and is able to formulate much conceptual thought. Hegel and Marx emphasized
the dialectic structure of thought and of the universe it produces: the deep insight that
no proposition can exhaust reality but only approaches its coincidence of opposites
by the dialectic process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Gustav Fechner, known
as the author of the psychophysical law, elaborated, in the way of the natural philoso-
phers of the nineteenth century, supraindividual organizations of higher order than
the usual objects of observation, for example, life communities and the entire earth,
thus romantically anticipating the ecosystems of modern parlance. Here, only a few
names are listed. For a more comprehensive study, see von Bertalanffy (1972).
Even though Aristotelian teleology was eliminated in the development of modern
science, problems considered in it, such as the one that “the whole is greater than
the sum of its parts,” the order and goal directedness of living things, etc., are still
among the problems of today’s systems research. For example, what is a “whole”?
What does “the sum of its parts” mean? Could the sum of parts sometimes be greater
than the whole? Although decision-making managers and working professionals
know the importance of these and other related problems, none of these problems
has been actually studied and addressed in any of the classical branches of science.
These classical branches of science have been established on Descartes’ second
principle and Galileo’s method, where Descartes’ second principle says to divide
each problem of concern into as small parts as possible so that each part could
possibly be investigated, and Galileo’s method implies to simplify a complicated
process into as basic portions and processes as possible so that each portion and
process could potentially be comprehended; for details, see Kuhn (1962).
From this superficial discussion, it can be seen that the concept of systems we
are studying today is not simply a product of yesterday. As a matter of fact, it is
a reappearance of some ancient thought and a modern form of an ancient quest.
This quest has been recognized in human struggle for survival with nature and has
4 1 Introduction

been studied at various points in time by using the languages of different historical
moments.
Ackoff (1959) comments that during the past two decades, we witnessed the
appearance of the key concept “systems” in scientific research; however, with the
appearance of the concept, what changes have occurred in modern science? Under the
name “systems research,” many branches of modern science have shown the trend of
synthetic development; research methods and results in various disciplines have been
intertwined to influence the overall research progress, so one feels the tendency of
synthetic development in scientific activities. This synthetic development requires the
introduction of new concepts and new thoughts in the entire spectrum of science. In a
certain sense, all of this can be considered as the center of the concept of “systems.”
Hahn (1967, p. 185), an ex-Soviet expert, describes the progress of modern science
as follows: Refining specific methods of systems research is a widespread tendency
in the exploration of modern scientific knowledge, just as science in the nineteenth
century with forming natural theoretical systems and processes of science as its
characteristics.
von Bertalanffy (1972) described the scientific revolution in the sixteenth–sev-
enteenth centuries as follows: “(The Scientific Revolution) replaced the descriptive-
metaphysical conception of the universe epitomized in Aristotle’s doctrine by the
mathematical—positivistic or Galilean conception. That is, the vision of the world
as a teleological cosmos was replaced by the description of events in causal, mathe-
matical laws.” Based on this description, we can describe the change in today’s sci-
ence and technology as follows: At the same time of continuously using Descartes’
second principle and Galileo’s method, systems methodology is introduced to deal
with problems of order and organization.
Should we continue to use Descartes’ second principle and Galileo’s method?
The answer is yes for two reasons. First, they have been extremely effective in
scientific research and administration, where all problems and phenomena could be
decomposed into causal chains, which could be treated individually. That has been
the foundation for all basic theoretical research and modern laboratory activities. In
addition, they won victories for physics and led to several technological revolutions.
Second, modern science and technology are not Utopian projects as described by
Popper (1945), reknitting every corner for a new world, but based on the known
knowledge, they are progressing in all directions with more depth, more applicability,
and a higher level of difficulty.
On the other hand, instead of treating the world as a pile of infinitely many iso-
lated objects, on which the concept of numbers is introduced with internal structures
ignored and modern science is established, not every problem or phenomenon, espe-
cially when humans and social events are concerned with, can be simply described by
causal relations. The fundamental characteristics of this world are its organizational
structure and connections of interior and exterior relations of different matters. The
study of either isolated parts or causalities of events and organizations can hardly
explain completely or relatively globally our surrounding world. At this junction,
the research progress of the three-body problem in mechanics, where the problem
is about how three or more bodies would interact with each other, as compared to
1.1 Historical Background 5

the two-body scenario as described in Newton’s second law of motion, is an ade-

quate example that shows why systems thinking is badly needed. So, as human race
advances, studying problems with multi-causality or multi-relation will become more
and more significant than ever before.
In the history of scientific development, the exploration of nature has always
moved back and forth between specific matters or phenomena and generalities. Sci-
entific theories need foundations and stimulations rooted deeply inside real-life prac-
tice, while being used to explain natural phenomena so that human understanding can
be greatly enhanced and to provide guidelines for decision makers to take educated
actions. In the following, we discuss the technological background for the devel-
opment of systems science—that is, the need for such a science that emphasizes
on order and organization which arose in the development of technology and from
the requirement for increasingly higher levels of production and better efficiency of
management.
There have had been many advances in technology in the modern history: ener-
gies produced by various devices, such as steam engines, motors, computers, and
automatic controllers; self-controlled equipment from domestic temperature con-
trollers to self-directed missiles; and the information highway and internet of knowl-
edge and things, which have resulted in increased communication of new scientific
results and practical successes. On the other hand, increasing speed of communi-
cation furthers scientific development to a different level and helps to intensify the
market competition globally. Additionally, societal changes have brought forward
more pressing demands for new construction materials and different management
strategies. From these examples, it can be seen that the development of technology
forces mankind to consider not only a single machine or matter or phenomenon, but
also “systems” of machines and “systems” of matters and phenomena. The design of
steam engines, automobiles, cordless equipment, etc., can all be handled by specially
trained engineers. However, when dealing with the designs of missiles, aircraft, or
new construction materials, for example, a collective effort, combining many differ-
ent aspects of knowledge and know-how, has to be in place. Such joint, collective
efforts include the combination of various techniques, machines, electronic technol-
ogy, chemical reactions, people, etc. Here the relation between people and machines
becomes more obvious, and uncountable financial, economic, social, and political
problems are intertwined to form a giant, complicated system, consisting of men,
machines, and many other components. It was the great political, technical, and per-
sonnel arrangement success of the American Apollo project—landing humans on the
moon—that hinted about the fact that history has reached such a particular point that
all aspects of science and technology have been developed maturely enough so that
each rational combination of information or knowledge could result in unexpected
consumable products and that different combinations of men and personalities could
lead to various unforeseen outcomes.
A great many problems in production require locating the optimal point of the
maximum economic effect and minimum cost in an extremely complicated network.
This kind problem not only appears in industry, agriculture, military affairs, and
business, but politicians are also using similar (systems) methods to seek answers
6 1 Introduction

to problems like air and water pollution, transportation blockages, decline of inner
cities, and crimes committed by teenage gangs.
In manufacturing production, there exists a tendency that bigger or more accu-
rate products with more profits are designed and produced. In fact, under different
interpretations, all areas of learning have been faced with complexity, totality, and
“systemality.” This tendency betokens a sharp change in scientific thinking. By com-
paring Descartes’ second principle and Galileo’s method with systems methodology
and considering the development tendency, as described previously, appearing in
the world of learning and production, it is not hard to see that because of systems
concepts, another new scientific and technological revolution will soon appear. To
this end, for example, each application of systems theory points out the fact that
the relevant classical theory needs to be further enriched somehow; see Klir (1970),
Berlinski (1976); Lilienfeld (1978). However, not all scientific workers have this
kind of optimistic opinion. Some scholars believe that it is an omen that systems
science itself is facing a crisis; see Wood-Harper and Fitzgerald (1982) for details.
Of course, who is right and who is wrong only time and history will have the ability
to tell.

1.2 Whole Evolutions—Blown-Ups and Revolving Currents

When we enjoy the splendid fruits of modern science and technology, we still need
to think about the limitations of and issues existing in the science and technology we
inherited from the generations before us. From the primeval to modern civilizations,
mankind has gone through a history of development for over several millions of
years. However, a relatively well-recorded history goes back only as far as about
3,000 years. During this time frame, the development of science mirrors that of
human civilizations. And, each progress of pursuing after the ultimate truth is that
of getting rid of the stale and taking in the fresh and that of making new discoveries
and new creativities. Each time when the authority was repudiated, science is reborn
again. Each time when the “truth” was questioned, a scientific prosperity appears.
That is, each time when people praise authorities, they are in fact praising ignorance.
At the turn of the twenty-first century, Shoucheng OuYang (Wu and Lin 2002)
proposed the blown-up theory for purpose of addressing and resolving nonlinear
evolution problems based on a reversed thinking logic, factual evidence, and over
30 years of reasoning and practice. It is found that in terms of the formalism, nonlin-
ear evolution models represent the singularity problems of mathematical blown-ups
of uneven formal evolutions; and in terms of physical objectivity, nonlinear evo-
lution models describe mutual reactions of uneven internal structures of materials,
organizations, and events. They no longer stand for a problem of formal quanti-
ties. Since uneven structures and organizations symbolize eddy sources, they lead
to eddy motions, the mystery of nonlinearity, instead of waves. That mystery has
been bothering mankind for over 300 years, is resolved at once both physically and
mathematically by OuYang (Wu and Lin 2002). What is shown is that the essence of
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