Hey, I’ve become interested in this field too recently. I’ve been listening to the Jim Rutt show which is pretty interesting, but I haven’t dived into it in any real depth. I agree that it is something that we should be looking more into.
I won’t pretend to be an expert on this topic, but my understanding of the differences is as follow:
Systems theory tends to involve attempts to understand the overall system, while complex systems are much more likely to have emergent novel behaviour, so any models used need to be held more lightly/it’s more likely that we have macro level trends that are there and we just don’t know why
Cybernetics is mostly about control systems (classic example is the thermostat). Feedback loops are an important part of systems theory, but they are just one particular tool.
Regarding the breadth of applications, we can model dynamics in formal mathematical situations, then try to claim that similar dynamics occur in actual physical systems
Hey, I’ve become interested in this field too recently. I’ve been listening to the Jim Rutt show which is pretty interesting, but I haven’t dived into it in any real depth. I agree that it is something that we should be looking more into.
I won’t pretend to be an expert on this topic, but my understanding of the differences is as follow:
Systems theory tends to involve attempts to understand the overall system, while complex systems are much more likely to have emergent novel behaviour, so any models used need to be held more lightly/it’s more likely that we have macro level trends that are there and we just don’t know why
Cybernetics is mostly about control systems (classic example is the thermostat). Feedback loops are an important part of systems theory, but they are just one particular tool.
Regarding the breadth of applications, we can model dynamics in formal mathematical situations, then try to claim that similar dynamics occur in actual physical systems