Category: RSF-7 Engineering Sustainable Systems
We are building our future every moment, both mentally and physically. Innovation is not a prediction that can be made holding everything else constant. It occurs from envisioning whole systems. It is a fact that science fiction and art have better prediction records than any science of the future has ever achieved. The reason is that they envision complete systems, not just the logical projection of trends within a present system. The conclusion is inescapable: The best way to predict the future is to create it. Systems Engineers are in the business of doing just that. But we need to understand systems principles that lead to sustainable creations within the social, economic, ethical, and political contexts they will inhabit.