Ador Y.

Franco

MIT-ASDI-2ndSem-SY2017-2018

Quiz 2: Summary, Technical Terms and Case Citation

1. Create a summary of each lecture (minimum of 500 words per lecture)

Building complex systems for the 21st century

The design of complex "engineered" systems in the 21st century poses a set of common challenges, to name a
few, the complexity and computational cost of system analysis, the heterogeneity of information at different
levels of abstraction, the various sources of uncertainties, the multidisciplinary organization with conflicting
goals, and the difficulty in understanding the socio-technical interfaces.

Classical systems engineering approaches which focus on processes for cascading engineering requirements
from higher to lower system levels is no longer suited to dealing with the global and socio-technical aspects of
the 21st century complex systems. This presentation will first explore the research challenges and opportunities
in designing complex "engineered" systems, and then focus on two specific topics in this area, i.e., (1) design of
multiscale systems and (2) integrating heterogeneous consumer preference into enterprise-driven product
design.

The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age) is a period in human
history characterized by the shift from traditional industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through
industrialization, to an economy based on information computerization. The onset of the Information Age is
associated with the Digital Revolution, just as the Industrial Revolution marked the onset of the Industrial Age.
The definition of what digital means (or what information means) continues to change over time as new
technologies, user devices, methods of interaction with other humans and devices enter the domain of research,
development and market launch.

During the Information Age, the phenomenon is that the digital industry creates a knowledge-based society
surrounded by a high-tech global economy that spans over its influence on how the manufacturing throughput
and the service sector operate in an efficient and convenient way. In a commercialized society, the information
industry is able to allow individuals to explore their personalized needs, therefore simplifying the procedure of
making decisions for transactions and significantly lowering costs for both the producers and buyers. This is
accepted overwhelmingly by participants throughout the entire economic activities for efficacy purposes, and
new economic incentives would then be indigenously encouraged, such as the knowledge economy.

The Information Age formed by capitalizing on computer microminiaturization advances. This evolution of
technology in daily life and social organization has led to the fact that the modernization of information and
communication processes has become the driving force of social evolution.

The Information Age has affected the workforce in several ways. It has created a situation in which workers who
perform easily automated tasks are forced to find work that is not easily automated. Workers are also being
forced to compete in a global job market. Lastly, workers are being replaced by computers that can do their jobs
faster and more effectively. This poses problems for workers in industrial societies, which are still to be solved.
However, solutions that involve lowering the working time are usually highly resisted.
Jobs traditionally associated with the middle class (assembly line workers, data processors, foremen and
supervisors) are beginning to disappear, either through outsourcing or automation. Individuals who lose their
jobs must either move up, joining a group of "mind workers" (engineers, doctors, attorneys, teachers, scientists,
professors, executives, journalists, consultants), or settle for low-skill, low-wage service jobs.

The "mind workers" are able to compete successfully in the world market and receive high wages. Conversely,
production workers and service workers in industrialized nations are unable to compete with workers in
developing countries and either lose their jobs through outsourcing or are forced to accept wage cuts. In
addition, the internet makes it possible for workers in developing countries to provide in-person services and
compete directly with their counterparts in other nations.

This has had several major consequences, including increased opportunity in developing countries and the
globalization of the workforce.

Workers in developing countries have a competitive advantage that translates into increased opportunities and
higher wages. The full impact on the workforce in developing countries is complex and has downsides. (see
discussion in section on Globalization).

In the past, the economic fate of workers was tied to the fate of national economies. For example, workers in
the United States were once well paid in comparison to the workers in other countries. With the advent of the
Information Age and improvements in communication, this is no longer the case. Because workers are forced to
compete in a global job market, wages are less dependent on the success or failure of individual economies.

The Information Age has affected the workforce in that automation and computerization have resulted in higher
productivity coupled with net job loss. In the United States for example, from January 1972 to August 2010, the
number of people employed in manufacturing jobs fell from 17,500,000 to 11,500,000 while manufacturing
value rose 270%.

Although it initially appeared that job loss in the industrial sector might be partially offset by the rapid growth of
jobs in the IT sector, the recession of March 2001 foreshadowed a sharp drop in the number of jobs in the IT
sector. This pattern of decrease in jobs continued until 2003.

Complexity theory explained

Complexity theory is a set of theoretical frameworks used for modeling and analyzing complex systems within a
variety of domains. Complexity has proven to be a fundamental feature to our world that is not amenable to our
traditional methods of modern science, and thus as researchers have encountered it within many different areas
from computer science to ecology to engineering they have had to develop new sets of models and methods for
approaching it. Out of these different frameworks has emerged a core set of commonalities that over the past
few decades has come to be recognized as a generic framework for studying complex systems in the abstract.
Complexity theory encompasses a very broad and very diverse set of models and methods, as yet there is no
proper formulation to structure and give definition to this framework, thus we will present it as a composite of
four main areas that encompasses the different major perspective on complex systems and how to best
interpret them.
Firstly systems theory; Systems theory is in many ways the mother of complexity theory, before there was
complexity theory, systems theory was dealing with the ideas of complexity, self-organization, adaptation and so
on, almost all interpretations to complexity depend upon the concept of a system. In the same way that modern
science can be formalized within the formal language of mathematics, all of complex systems science can be
formalized within the language of systems theory but, systems theory is a very abstract and powerful formal
language and it is typically too abstract for most people and thus is understood and used relatively little.
Cybernetics is another closely related area of systems theory, it was also part in forming the foundation to
complexity theory, cybernetics during the mid to late 20th century studied control systems and provided a lot of
the theoretical background to modern computing, and thus we can see how the interplay between computing
and complexity science goes all the way back to its origins as the two have developed hand-in-hand. A lot of
systems theory is associated with and has come out of the whole area of computation. The areas of computer
science and its counterpart information theory have continued to be one of the few major contributors to
complexity theory in many different ways, though systems theory is about much more than just computers it is a
fully fledged formal language.

Next nonlinear systems and chaos theory; Nonlinearity is an inherent feature and major theme that crosses all
areas of complex systems. A lot of nonlinear systems theory has its origins in quite dense and obscure
mathematics and physics. Out of the study of certain types of equations, weather patterns, fluid dynamics and
particular chemical reactions has emerged some very counter intuitive phenomena in the form of the butterfly
effect and chaos. Chaos theory, which is the study of nonlinear dynamical systems, was one of the first major
challenges to the Newtonian paradigm that was except into the mainstream body of scientific knowledge. Our
modern scientific framework is based upon linear systems theory and this places significant constrains upon it,
linear systems theory is dependent upon the concept of a system having an equilibrium, although linear systems
theory often works as an approximation, the fact is that many of the phenomena we are interested in describing
are nonlinear and process of change such as regime shifts within ecosystems and society, happen far-from-
equilibrium they are governed by the dynamics of feedback loops and not linear equations. Trying to model
complex systems by using traditional linear systems theory is like trying to put a screw into a piece of wood with
a hammer, we are simply using the wrong tool because it is the only one we have. Thus the areas of nonlinear
systems and their dynamics is another major part to the framework of complexity theory that has come largely
from physics, mathematics and the study of far-from-equilibrium processes in chemistry.

Complex Systems Design an overview

Before we talk about the design of complex systems let’s start by thinking a bit about design itself and our
traditional approach to it. Design and engineering are very broad and fundamental human activities and there
are a lot of different definition for them, but at the heart of many of these definition is design as a process.

That is a process where we conceive of an original or improved solution to achieving some desired, optimal end
state; we then identifying the set of factors and constrains within the given environment and lastly developing a
model for the arrangement of a set of elements to achieving this desired end state, that is the design.

Thus whether we are engineering a bicycle, new production process for our factory or designing some health
care service, we can say design is about the arrangement of elements within a system in order to achieve some
optimal global functionality. Within engineering this optimal functionally is typically talked about and quantified
in terms of the systems efficiency.

A design paradigm them is an overarching approach that consist of a set of basic assumptions and theories
about how the world we want to engineer works, coupled with a complementary set of principle and methods
with which to approach this design process.

Like many other areas our modern engineering paradigm inherits its theoretical foundation from modern
science and in particular classical physics. A key method employed by both is that of reductionism.

Reductionism holds that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can be
reduced to accounts of its individual constituents. The reductionist approach results in a vision of the world that
is made up of isolated components that interact in a predetermined linear fashion, what is sometimes called the
clock work universe, as when we put our reductions goggles on everything starts to look like little deterministic
cog in a vast machine.

Thus the reductionist approach applied to engineering results in the decomposing or breaking down of whole
systems into discrete components that can be isolated and modelled using linear equations. The overall
functionality of the system is then achieved by defining an

overarching top down plan as to how all these component fit back together.

In order to achieve this overall functionality of the system it is important that the elements can be constrained,
that is to say they are relatively static and their behaviour can be predetermined and thus controlled.

The reductionist approach has worked well in the engineering of bridges, airplanes and skyscrapers, these
systems are designed to be and we want them to be, stable, predicable and reliable. Reductionism works well
when we are dealing with systems with a low level of inter-connectivity and inter-dependencies, where the
components are static, controllable and the environment relatively unchanging.

But what happens when this is not the case? When we have to design information systems where the
components are highly interconnected and interdependent, when we have to build sustainable cities with
multiple stakeholders that all have their own agendas, or infrastructure systems that will have to operate in a
changing uncertain future environment created by climate change.

In this case our basic assumption or design paradigm has to shift to one that is more focused upon the
connections that integrate diverse components into systems as opposed to our traditional component based
paradigm and this is where complex systems design comes in. So let’s talk about the key features to this new
design paradigm, all of which will be major themes throughout the rest of the course.

Firstly complex systems are open systems; in traditional design and engineering we are dealing with things like
chairs, bridges and buildings they have well defined boundaries, we can fully control all the elements within
these boundaries and fully design the system, this makes them orderly and predictable.

With the design of complex systems what we are dealing with instead are open systems, think of electrical
power grids, cities or the internet itself, a massively modular, distributed system, it has no defined boundaries,
people and devices couple and decouple from the system, it is not random, but this world of complex systems in
not so orderly it is to uses the catchy phrase “edge of chaos”, no one is in control and no one fully understands
or can fully design these open systems.
Service Systems

The industrial model to design and engineering was or is very much focused on the production of things, thus we
live in a world of isolated things, what we call products; cars, watches, tables and washing machines, they are
conceived of, designed, developed and operated in relative isolation from each other.

But over the past few decades there has been a quiet but fundamental revolution in services as they have come
to dominated post-industrial economies. Services are not just another sector to the economy they represent a
whole new paradigm in how we think about the systems we design, one that shifts the focus from isolated
technologies to integrated systems.

Within the services paradigm the post-industrial world is saturated with products and people no longer want
more things they just want the functionality of these things that is their service. So I don’t want four credit
cards, three debit cards, two bank accounts and a little pile of bank statements sent to me every month, I want a
financial service that is there when I need to pay for something and not when I don’t. I don’t want a piece of
software that I have to download, install, update, and maintain I want a software service that is there when I
need it and not when I don’t. This is the world of services and it is focused upon pure functionality.

So how do we get these magical things called services, well we get them by connecting things that is integrating
products into systems of services, what we call product service systems or more simply service systems.

Service systems can be characterized by the value that results from the interaction between their components.
A car sharing service might be a good example of this, by connecting people, technology and information we are
able to deliver the end user with close to nothing but the pure functionality or services of personal mobility.

Another good example of a real world product service system is Royals Royce that produces jet engines, but
they do not sell these to their end user, they provide them as a service through what they call their “power by
the hours” program. The airline gets the functionality of the engine as a service but ownership and maintenance
remains in the hands of the producer.

The highly successful website Airbnb is another example of a product service system, they provide a common
interface and platform for integrating many different providers of accommodation to deliver a unified service to
the end user.

This concept of a service will be very important to us in the design of complex systems as it will help us shift our
focus to what we should be really interested in, that is the relations between components, the whole system
and most importantly the functionality of the system, because at the end of the day we don't really want things,
components or even systems, what we really want is functionality, pure functionality and that is what we call a
service.

By focusing on this end service we can work backwards to ask what is the basics we need to deliver this or what
do we need to connect to deliver this functionality, because most of these thing are already out there, we just
need to design new configurations, new frameworks for integrate them, our example of Airbnb is a good one,
the components to their system, that is the people

Who actually provide the accommodation, well they were already there, Airbnb just create a new platform and
interface for connecting these things to delivering an integrated service.
This new paradigm of service systems bring with it a new logic that is very different to our traditional product
centric one, so let’s take a look at some of the key characteristics to service systems.

Firstly services are Intangible, they cannot be touched, gripped, looked at, or smelled. Tangibility is an important
factor of industrial goods upon which much of our economics is predicated, they can be easily quantified, priced,
bought, sold and owned. Many services only have value-in-use meaning the value of the service is often only
released when the product is used, thus the enforces shifts from ownership to access. A consequence of this is
that defining and measuring the value delivered becomes more complex with the designing of new more
sophisticated business models moving to the forefront.

This immaterial nature to services also means the shift towards services represents a powerful way of doing
more with less, dematerialising our economies and is often presented as an important method to achieving
sustainability.

Abstraction

In complex systems there is always two fundamentally different levels to the system, the micro and the macro
or what we might call the local and the global. This is in contrast to simple linear systems where it is possible to
reduce the whole system to one level. So let’s first unpack this statement a bit to see why this is so.

Firstly complex systems are composed of many parts we may be talking, millions as in the number of
inhabitance of a city or billions as in the number of devices connected to the internet. For those of you who
aren’t mathematicians a number like a million is a highly abstract things.

Trying to relate a number like a billion to our everyday physical experience where we are really dealing with
numbers like 5, 10 or possibly 100, should give you an idea of the vast gap or difference in scale difference
between any individual node on the local level and the system as an entirety.

Secondly, because the components have some degree of autonomy they are adapting to their local
environment, these components are often very simple and they do not respond to information on the global
level, thus one pattern of order can and often dose develop on the micro level and a second pattern emerges or
is imposed on the macro scale as a result of try to design the system to have some form of global coordination.

An example of this might be the official use of two different languages in many parts of the world, where we
have the local level that has emerged organically and English that has been placed on top of this so as to make
the system more interoperable on the global level.

Lastly because of the high degree of connectivity within the system we have many interactions, these
interactions inevitably lead to elements synchronising which gives rise to macro scale patters, this is what is
called emergence. Traffic jams are a good example of emergence as are bank runs.

The net result of all this is that we have two qualitatively different levels within complex systems, meaning they
cannot be reduced to a single level, this makes designing and managing these systems much more difficult. We
need to be firstly aware of this multidimensional nature to complex systems and aware that if we try to reduce
them to simple mono-dimensional systems there will be unintended and unfortunate consequences, thus we
need to learn to design for this multi-dimensional nature to complex systems.
In order to do this we have to be able to structure and model the system we are designing according to its
different levels of abstraction, but what is abstraction?

Abstraction is a powerful tool used in all areas of math, science and engineering, maybe the easiest way to
understand it is as the process of removing successive layers of detail from our representation of the system in
order to capture its essential features, what we might call its global features, they are common to all the
components and are thus on the systems level.

This is like zooming in on a satellite map of a city each level will have a certain degree of detail, creating a certain
type of structure that will feed into defining the patters on the level below.

Thus we see how complex engineered systems are what we call systems of systems but unlike mechanistic
systems where each level is just a scaled up versions of the components bellow it, what mathematicians call
scale invariance, the levels to complex systems can be understood to be scale invariant but they also have their
own internal variation and dynamics that cannot be fully abstracted away.

So you may or may not have heard of things call fractals, they are geometric structures that have this scale
invariant property, examples being the arteries in the human body, the structure to snowflakes, the formation
of rigid mountains, and sea coastlines. If we make one of these, such as the coastline and zoom in on it the
overall structure on each level will be the same but it will not be exactly the same there will be variation and
unique differences on each level.

To make this more relevant to us as designers and engineers let’s take an example of what this means in
practical terms for the systems we are developing.

Synergies

According to our friend Wikipedia; a synergy is the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations,
substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. It is the
creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts.

Complex engineered systems are composed of many diverse components, and when we say diverse we may be
talking about components that were never deigned to interoperate, think of the internet, it is called the network
of networks, many of those original local area networks that were built for hospitals, businesses or factories
were designed with their own internal logic. When they were built no one thought about how one day we might
be connecting them all together, thus today we have the huge challenge of opening all these information system
up and exposing their data and functionality through common interfaces.

Designing these heterogeneous composite systems is a bit like being a D.J. taking a song by the Beatles and
mixing it with Nirvana and Fatboy slim, we have to somehow make them work together seamlessly for the end
user, somehow overcome all this diversity, difference and general messiness and we do this by designing the
relations between the component.

Relations can be fundamentally of two different types, synergistic that is constructive or destructive what we
might call relations of interference, so let’s take an example of both.
Destructive relations represent the interference of two or more components within the system an example of
this might be a cross road intersection, for traffic on each road the other road is essentially an interference,
slowing it down and stopping it on its way.

This is what we call a zero-sum game, when the traffic on one road gets what it wants then the traffic on the
other loses and vice versa. There are many examples of zero sum games in the systems we engineer, from noise
pollution to over populated cities, we are always trying to avoid the development of these zero sum games and
the relations of interference that lead to them.

In contrary, constructive relations are synergistic, that is when two or more components interact and the net
result is beneficiary to both parties, resulting in what we might call a positive sum game, each gets out of the
interaction more than they put in. Examples of this are social networks the more that join the more valuable the
network is for any individual user, many forms of economic trade are also positive sum. What we are trying to
do then in designing these networks is to make positive sum games the attractor state that is the state towards
which elements within the systems will naturally gravitate. Of cause this easier said than done.

It requires a significant investment in the systems infrastructure, that is the relations through which the
elements interact, to illustrate this lets think back to our example of the road crossing, how could we avoid a
zero sum game here, well engineers have already figured this one out by creating a flyover with ramps
connecting the two roads, we now have a positive sum game but it took intelligent design and significant
investment of resources, this was not the default position.

Alternative technologies might be another example, where as many of our traditional technologies create a zero
sum game between human needs and ecological needs, well designed alternative technologies try to change this
by harnessing synergistic relations.

Another factor these examples might illustrate is the importance of nonlinear or parallel systems in creating
synergistic relations. In simple linear systems everything requires the same input and produces the same output,
the result is a linear process of inputing resources from the environment and outputting waste back to the
environment, of because we are all familiar with this model as it represent the fundamentals of industrial
economies.

Networked System Design

Complex systems are by many definitions highly interconnect, examples being social networks, financial
networks and transportation networks. In these highly interconnected systems, it is increasingly the connections
that define the system as opposed to the properties of their constituent components. This is quite an abstract
concept so some examples might help us to grasp it.

Think of the expression “it is not what you know but who you know”. It would be more accurate to say, in an
isolation system it is what you know that matters, but in an interconnected system it is increasingly who you
know that matters, that is the connections that you have.

Another more concrete example might help to illustrate this important concept better, think of an expensive
sports car, out on the highway it is king doing 0-60 in under three seconds and up to 250 kilometers an hour,
these properties of the car are admittedly pretty cool, but put this car in urban traffic and it will be gridlocked
like any other car no matter how great the properties of the car it will only be going as fast as the transportation
network allows it.

This should demonstrates that in these complex systems it is the structure and dynamics of the network that
really matter, it is not about being bigger, faster or stronger it is about access and access is defined by where
you lie in the network and the structure of that network.

Think of the air transportation system, it is not so much the static properties of your location in space and how
far away your destination is, but more importantly where you are located in the network, if you are beside a
major hub it can be quicker and easier to travel to another major hub on the other side of the planet as it would
be to travel from one disconnect hub to another that is a fraction of a the distance away.

So hopefully these examples illustrate to you the importance of seeing these complex engineered systems from
the perspective of connectivity and networks as opposed to seeing them as things, irrespective of whether we
explicitly call them networks or just systems, networks are the true geometry behind complex systems and thus
it is very important to think about designing them from this perspective of access, connectivity and network
structure.

In order to do this we first need to understand a bit about the nature of networks, and network theory is the
area of math and science that provides us with the models for analyzing networks, so let’s take a look at some of
the key features to networks and how they will affect the system as a whole.

Probably the most important feature to a network is its degree of connectivity, that is how connected is the
whole system? Designing for a densely populated urban environment like Hong Kong will be very different to
designing for a city like Los Angela which is dispersed. In highly interconnect systems the dense interconnections
can require much greater layering, the components can be much more specialized and there may be a much
higher level of dependencies.

As a result of this failures can quickly propagate, a small security scare in one airport for example can result in
delays across large areas of the air transportation system within a nation.

In these large, highly interconnected system we don’t always know the dependencies, no one has complete
knowledge of all the interlinkages that regulate complex systems like large urban Centre’s or our global supply
chain.

Thus our aim should not be to design these systems to be perfect, 100% fault tolerant, this is not realistic,
instead they need to be engineered so as to be robust to failure, the internet again is a good example of this, it is
what is called a “best effort network” this means it tries its best, but if something goes wrong, then it is no big
problem it just drops your packet and tries again, it

Happens all the time but the internet still works, the occurrence of failure should be designed into these systems
and not out of them in order to achieve robustness.

Another key consideration in the design of these networked systems is their degree of centralization verse
decentralization, as this is a defining factor in the structure and makeup to networks. In centralized networks we
have a node or small set of nodes that have a strong influence on the system and the network will be largely
defined by the properties of these primary nodes.
Adaptive systems

Adaptation is the capacity of a system to alter its state in response to some event within its environment, this
capacity of adaptation is something we more often associate with biological systems as opposed to the
technologies we design. The industrial world we have engineered is in many ways a relatively static one, we
produce things like electrical power grids, buildings and chairs and then they sit there, specifically designed not
to change.

Every day we walk by the same advertisement on the street, it will present the same information to thousands
of people that day but it will only be of any relevance to a very small percentage of them and because it is static
they will only take note of it the first time before tuning it out to become simply background noise.

Now imagine if that advertisement changed every day, that is to say it was dynamic, instead of a poster we put
in a screen that could be updated, it would be of more relevance, more functional. Now let’s go even a step
further, imagine if this screen could receive information about the profiles and preference of the users that were
in its vicinity and dynamically deliver content relevant to their interests. This is the world of complex adaptive
engineered systems and as information technology provides us with the tools for building smarter technologies
it is increasingly the world we have to design for.

To understand this transition from static to adaptive systems let’s take the history of the web as a good
example. Web 1.0 was a very static systems where web developers hard coded web pages, when you visited a
site the server just give you the same page that had been written possibly two or three years earlier with no
changes. Web 2.0 that we all know and love leveraged new server side scripting technologies to get information
in and out of databases and thus dynamically updating webpages making them interactive and change overtime.
The emerging web 3.0 uses semantic technologies and social networking to adapt content relevant to your
specific profile and interests, thus making it not just dynamic but also responsive to the context.

Outside of the web the massive cost reduction in integrated circuits is leading to sensors and actuators being
placed in many devices and objects, as packages within supply changes, cars in traffic and electrical power grids
are becoming smarter, they can respond to events within their local environment through real-time mesh
networks.

But they can also feed data into large centralized systems for analysis, allowing for greater optimization through
dynamic load balancing, as things like washing machines and street lights begin to have the capacity to adapt
their power demands to the current load on the system.

There are essentially two levels to these complex adaptive engineered systems that we need to consider, the
micro and the macro.

On the micro level we need elements with some form of control system, a control system is a mechanism for
taking in information, processing it according to some set of instructions and generation a response that alters
the state of the component.

Of cause all living creatures have this, from the simplest single celled organisms to the most complex, the human
brain. But increasingly we are using what we call cyber-physical systems to enable all kinds of technology to
have this adaptive functionality as they become part of networks of technologies that can communicate and
respond to the changes in state of other technologies in real time. As is the case in automated production lines,
aircrafts and mass transit systems.
On the macro scale, when we are designing these adaptive systems we can no longer rigidly control the system
and determine its functionality in the way we can when say designing a bridge, as the end result is going to be
more organic, like an ecosystem of products, devices and people interacting and adapting within networks
rather than the ridged mechanical systems we are used to.

Self-organization

If a system, such as a plant, a building or a car, shows organization we tend to assume that someone or
something must have design in that particular order. Self-organization is the idea that this type of global
coordination can instead be the product of local interactions.

The theory of self-organization has grown out of many different areas from computer science to ecology and
economics. Out of these areas have emerged a core set of concepts that are designed to be applicable to all self-
organizing systems from galaxies to living cells. But let’s start by talking a bit about Organization itself.

Organization is a highly abstract concept but we can loosely equate it to the idea of order with its opposite being
what is called entropy or disorder. Order and entropy are typically measured by scientist in terms of
information, that is the more information it takes to describe something the more disordered the systems is said
to be.

An example of this might be a piece of metallic substance consisting of tiny magnets called spins, each spin has
an particular magnetic orientation and in general they are randomly directed and thus cancel each other out,
This disordered configuration is due to its heat energy causing the random movements of the molecules in the
material.

When we cool the material down the spins will spontaneously align them self so that they all point in the same
direction. To describe the state of the spins in this order system would involve far less information relative to its
original state that requiring unique values for each randomly directed spin.

This process of magnetization is often cited as an example of self-organization that is the spontaneous
appearance of order or global coordination out of local level interactions. But let’s take a closer look at how this
happens.

As we cooled the material down there was some area that had by chance some spins pointing in the same
direction, their alignment generated an increased magnetic force that was exerted upon its neighbours, creating
what is called an attractor state, attracting other spins to this configuration.

Each time another spin aligned itself with this particular attractor state it augmented the force it exerted upon
other spins through what is called a positive feedback loop that would cascade through the system until all
elements were aligned within this new regime.

Another example of self-organization through positive feedback is what is called the network effect, where the
more people that use a product or service the greater its value becomes, the telephone and Facebook are such
examples becoming more useful as more users join, in this way local connections between individuals can
rapidly form into global patterns.

The network effect illustrate the positive relations or synergies between elements that can be created when
they coordinate, it is due to the presence of these synergistic relations that the system as an entirety can
become more than the sum of its parts, in a process called emergence.

Ant colonies are a classical example given of emergence, ants governed by very simple rules and only local
interactions can through their combined activities generate colonies that exhibit complex structures and
behaviour that far exceed the intelligence or capability of any individual ant and thus is said to have emergent
properties.

Ant colonies also illustrate the decentralized structure to self-organizing system, the queen does not tell the ants
what to do, and instead each ant reacts to stimuli in the form of chemical scent exchanged with other ants, in
this way organization is distributed over the whole of the system. All parts contribute evenly to the resulting
arrangement.

As opposed to centralized structure such as most social organization that are often dependent upon a single
coordinator, this decentralized structure that is inherent to self-organized systems gives them resiliency and
robustness, as any element that is damaged can be simple replace by any other given them hug redundancy....

Evolution Life-Cycle

Earth systems science is the interdisciplinary study of earth as a complex system, composed of multiple physical
and biological process that interact within cycles or spheres to give rise to the overall state of the earth as an
entire systems.

Of cause people have been studying earth for a long time, geologies study the formation of rocks, metrologies
are interested in the atmosphere and so on,

With all of these different domains supported by the deep understanding of our physical environment that
physics has built up over the past few centuries.

But it is only more recently that satellites have started to allow us to see earth as an entirety and human activity
has begun to have a significant enough effect to alter earth systems making it increasingly important for us to be
able to model and manage them.

From space we can view the net results of earth’s complex interactions and with high-tech sensors on land and
in the ocean, we are getting a clear idea of its overall make up, from this researchers in different domains are
discovering how their pieces of the puzzle are related to each other.

Earth systems science then tries to develop models that gives an integrated picture of how all these parts fit
together, the first of these models is of earth as a systems in space with inputs and outputs of energy or
radiation from the sun, with this energy being the primary factor in driving the dynamics process within the
system.

As opposed to focusing on the static properties of earths individual components

Earth systems science instead takes a more dynamic view of the world, studying the ways energy and materials
cycle through the different subsystems or what are called "-spheres"

Earths different sphere are largely defined by the different phases of mater they are composed of thus the
atmosphere is composed of gasses, the hydrosphere of liquid water and the lithosphere solid minerals added to
this is the biosphere

The sum of all biological material and processes.

Within each sphere a process called a cycles take place, for example in the lithosphere we have the rock cycle
driven by the thermal energy within earth's interior that releases minerals through ocean ridges and volcanoes
that are weathered as they cycle through earth’s crust and are eventual subducted returning to their origin

The hydro cycle driven by the thermal energy of the sun, cycle’s water between the earth’s surface and
atmosphere through the process of evaporation, condensation and precipitation, this process helps to distribute
moisture to support ecosystems at a variety of locations

The atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet that is held in place by gravity, it is the primary vehicle
of temperature and climate regulation through the Cycle of carbon in and out of the atmosphere where it
functions, through the greenhouse effect to trap the suns heart.

The biosphere is the relatively thin layer of Earth's surface that supports all biological activity on earth. The
biosphere is a system also characterized by the continuous cycling of matter and energy in the form of the flow
of solar energy and nutrient mineral cycles.

Solar energy flows through the biosphere along a unidirectional path, as the suns energy is inputted through
plant photosynthesis and process up through what are called trophic levels form primary producers to
herbivores and on to predators and apex predators.

Alongside the flow of energy through food webs it the cycling of mineral nutrients the core substances required
for the construction of biological materials and processes, carbon, water, oxygen, nitrogen have been
continuously cycled through the biosphere from one generation to the next for billions of years

These different spheres interact to create a unique state or ecosystem, an ecosystems is the combination of a
community of biological organism and a particular physical environment with which they interact...

2. Define all technical terms used in each video lectures using other online resources. List the online
resources that you will use as reference for the definition of each technical term.

Dichotomy - a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely
different. Google Dictionary

Service Systems - A service system (or customer service system, CSS) is a configuration of technology and
organizational networks designed to deliver services that satisfy the needs, wants, or aspirations of customers.
Wikipedia
Synergy - the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a
combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. Google Dictionary

Self-organization - also called spontaneous order (in the social sciences), is a process where some form of overall
order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. The process is spontaneous,
not needing control by any external agent. Wikipedia

Linear System - A linear system is a mathematical model of a system based on the use of
a linear operator. Linear systems typically exhibit features and properties that are much simpler than the
nonlinear case. Wikipedia

Abstraction - is a technique for arranging complexity of computer systems. It works by establishing a level of
complexity on which a person interacts with the system, suppressing the more complex details below the
current level. Wikipedia

Holism - the theory that parts of a whole are in intimate interconnection, such that they cannot exist
independently of the whole, or cannot be understood without reference to the whole, which is thus regarded as
greater than the sum of its parts. Holism is often applied to mental states, language, and ecology. Google
Dictionary

nonlinear systems - is a set of simultaneous equations in which the unknowns (or the unknown functions in the
case of differential equations) appear as variables of a polynomial of degree higher than one or in the argument.
Wikipedia

Complex Systems - A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each
other. In many cases it is useful to represent such a system as a network where the nodes represent the
components and the links their interactions. Wikipedia

Reductionism - is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena
which can be described in terms of other simpler or more fundamental phenomena. Wikipedia

Deterministic - relating to the philosophical doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately
determined by causes regarded as external to the will. Google Dictionary

Cog - a wheel or bar with a series of projections on its edge that transfers motion by engaging with projections
on another wheel or bar. Google Dictionary

End‐User System Design - Frequently, complex products require the involvement of other-than-end users such
as installers, administrators, and system operators. The term end user thus distinguishes the user for which the
product is designed from other users who are making the product possible for the end user. Often, the term
user would suffice.

Co-Creation Platform - Co-creation is a management initiative, or form of economic strategy, that brings
different parties together (for instance, a company and a group of customers), in order to jointly produce a
mutually valued outcome. Co-creation brings the unique blend of ideas from direct customers or viewers (who
are not the direct users of the product) which in turn gives a plethora of new ideas to the organization.

Adaptation Evolution - According to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, organisms that
possess heritable traits that enable them to better adapt to their environment compared with other members of
their species will be more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass more of their genes on to the next generation.
Emergence - the process of coming into view or becoming exposed after being concealed.

Systems of System - System of systems is a collection of task-oriented or dedicated systems that pool their
resources and capabilities together to create a new, more complex system which offers more functionality and
performance than simply the sum of the constituent systems.

Fractal - a fractal is an abstract object used to describe and simulate naturally occurring objects. Artificially
created fractals commonly exhibit similar patterns at increasingly small scales. Wikipedia

Phase transition - is the transformation of a thermodynamic system from one phase or state of matter to
another one by heat transfer. During a phase transition of a given medium certain properties of the medium
change, often discontinuously, as a result of the change of some external condition, such as temperature,
pressure, or others • For example, a liquid may become gas upon heating to the boiling point, resulting in an
abrupt change in volume. The term is most commonly used to describe transitions between solid, liquid and
gaseous states of matter, and, in rare cases, plasma.

Propagation - the action of widely spreading and promoting an idea, theory, etc.

Robustness - is the ability of a computer system to cope with errors during execution and cope with erroneous
input. Robustness can encompass many areas of computer science, such as robust programming, robust
machine learning, and Robust Security Network.

Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) - are integrations of computation, networking, and physical processes. Embedded
computers and networks monitor and control the physical processes, with feedback loops where physical
processes affect computations and vice versa.

Spectrum - used to classify something, or suggest that it can be classified, in terms of its position on a scale
between two extreme or opposite points.

Linear Model Design - Linear models describe a continuous response variable as a function of one or more
predictor variables. They can help you understand and predict the behavior of complex systems or analyze
experimental, financial, and biological data. Linear regression is a statistical method used to create a linear
model.

Localization System Design - The system which provides the position information to the nodes - A node is a point
of intersection/connection within a network. In an environment where all devices are accessible through the
network, these devices are all considered nodes.

Attractor State - a state or behavior toward which a dynamic system tends to evolve, represented as a point or
orbit in the system's phase space. Origin of attractor.

Peer Networks - a peer-to-peer (P2P) network is created when two or more PCs are connected and share
resources without going through a separate server computer. A P2P network can be an ad hoc connection—a
couple of computers connected via a Universal Serial Bus to transfer files.

Operational parameters are parameters that are defined in terms of the data that are being modelled. This
paper shows under what conditions they can be used in place of the usual formal parameters and discusses the
advantages of doing this.
In computer terminology, dynamic usually means capable of action and/or change, while static means
stationary or fixed.

Adaptive System - An adaptive system is a set of interacting or interdependent entities, real or abstract, forming
an integrated whole that together are able to respond to environmental changes or changes in the interacting
parts, in a way analogous to either continuous physiological homeostasis or evolutionary adaptation in biology.

Nonlinear system - is an inherent feature and major theme that crosses all areas of complex systems.

3. Cite existing technologies applied in an organization/businesses using the concept learned from the 3
video lectures

The digital transformation is well on its way; companies have started to launch major programs to modernize
and even transform their existing IT systems to better support their digital agendas, to stay competitive and to
become even more efficient. But this change doesn’t happen overnight. For the digital agenda, applications
remain highly relevant and they are accompanied by technologies such as IoT, big data analytics, artificial
intelligence and cloud computing. The global trends of IoT, analytics and cloud are entering into the world of
business applications and will evolve over the next year.

Top Three Technology Trends with the Biggest

Impact on Companies
Today, we are in the midst of a business revolution. Driving the
transformation of business are three core technology trends, which have
become top buzzwords in the business world: mobility, cloud computing
and big data. SAP conducted a LinkedIn survey to find out what
business people think about these three top trends. I will discuss the
results below.

Mobility

The proliferation of mobile devices, apps and operating systems, has got almost every company considering
how to they can take advantage of expanding mobile technology. The growing consumerization of
IT and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend is bringing mobile devices and consumer apps into the
enterprise, increasing workers’ productivity and enabling them to respond quickly to market changes
and opportunities as they arise.

Mobility also lessens equipment costs and provides employees with a sense of employment and freedom
with their increased access to information. As a result, workers are performing more tasks outside the office
than ever before. According to the survey, 33 percent of business people spend 11 to 20 percent of their
time working outside of the office, while 28 percent spend over 51 percent of their time.
However, while businesses are enjoying the benefits of workers’ increased mobility, there
are challengesassociated with it. One major concern for IT departments is the security of company
information. This concern can be resolved by developing and enforcing policies and standards for device
management.

The second challenge is the impact that mobility has on employees, who often struggle to maintain a work-
life balance. BYOD has extended the work day, such that we are no longer witnessing the standard 9:00 to
5:00 work hours. For example, one participant stated, “I work at home…so it is easy to work all the
time.” Another claimed, “I clicked over 51% cause I need to sleep at some point and I usually do that at
home.”

Big Data

The volume of data available to enterprises today is overwhelmingly large and growing dramatically every
year. The frequency that data changes and the dissipate sources of the data, like mobile devices and social
media, is creating an overflow of unstructured data. Behind this massive amount of data is essential insight
about customers, operational costs and other key aspects of business.

Businesses who exploit this data by analyzing it quickly and comprehensively are able to make more
informed decisions faster and build competitive advantages. How do you process the hundreds of billions of
rows of data? In-memory computing helps businesses manage, process and analyze the vast incoming,
very complex, data.

By harnessing big data through analytics, businesses experience several benefits that are key to
businesses’ success. The biggest benefit, according to 26 percent, is better information and greater
operational efficiency. The second most valued benefit of big data is remaining competitive (24%). As one
respondent puts it, “Information is knowledge, knowledge is power.”
Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is helping businesses across industries and of all sizes compete at a higher level. With
cloud computing, traditional, lofty on-premise software and systems that require huge investments are no
longer necessary.

The cloud enables companies to share, store and consume resources easier, at a lower cost and with
greater flexibility. It also allows for high-performance infrastructures to be available on mobile
devices, earning widespread adoption.

Cloud computing has also allowed for more efficient and effective business processes. For example, current
in-memory computing technology has driven down transaction times from something that might have taken
45 minutes to six seconds.

Many businesses are already taking advantage of cloud computing and are reaping the benefits. According
to SAP’s survey, 28 percent of business people find elasticity and scale to be the greatest advantage of
cloud computing. Additionally, 22 percent say ROI or cost efficiencies and increased access to information
are the top benefit.
The tremendous benefits offered are inspiring more and more companies to adopt cloud solutions and
propelling the growth of the cloud computing. According to a Gartner forecast, the cloud market is expected
to grow 25% year over year.

Which of the three trends is having the greatest impact?

Forty-one present cite cloud computing as the trend that is having the biggest on impact on businesses,
followed by mobile (25%) and big data (18%).

With these three building blocks, businesses are running better than ever before, experiencing increased
agility, productivity and efficiency while cutting costs. Many companies have begun to leverage these
technologies to drive innovation.

One great example of this is SAP. SAP has not only uses cloud computing, big data and mobility to drive its
own innovation, but is helping other companies become best-run businesses through the technologies. What
impact do you think these trends are having on business today? How is your business using them to
innovate?

About Lindsey (LaManna) Makela

Lindsey Makela is a Content Marketing Manager at SAP. Her specialties include digital
marketing, marketing strategy, and communications.

https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/what-is-cloud-computing

https://hbr.org/1985/11/implementing-new-technology
https://www.sas.com/en_us/offers/17/iia-internet-of-
things.html?gclid=CjwKCAiA47DTBRAUEiwA4luU2d76qCvlOjuJFwlm8_qQ7INGVxfzKXoQmr17Ta42_ZtO55YaZHz
OpxoCwF0QAvD_BwE#form

http://www.digitalistmag.com/innovation/2012/09/26/top-three-technology-trends-with-the-biggest-impact-
on-companies-017435