General Theory of Systems and Solutions: The Role of Randomness and Consciousness in Design

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In reflecting on teams, I have come to believe that people who have accumulated skills through real-world experiences as engineers, artists, and leaders play crucial roles. One insight I gained is that both engineers and artists are experts in design. This may suggest that leaders, too, are involved in designing the team, strategies, and vision.

While contemplating what design means, I also noticed the keyword “solution.” Typically, engineers have several standard solutions to design problems, which they utilize in their design work. When I began to view everything from the origin of life to human intellectual work and team activities through the lens of “solution,” I started to see things from a new perspective.

In this article, I will share the results of system modeling based on these insights, focusing on the keywords “solution” and “design.”

Definition of System

1. Energy

• The ability to drive a process.
• It can be supplied from outside the container or dissipated outside the container.
• In some systems, it can be accumulated in entities or released from entities.

2. Entity

• A static existence in the space-time of the system.
• It can act as a catalyst for processes, become a resource, or become a product.

3. Process

• Dynamic activity in the space-time of the system.
• It is driven by energy and can catalyze entities, consume (destroy) resources as resources, or generate (create) products as products.

4. Container

• A space in which many entities are aggregated.
• Entities interact with each other within containers.

Definition of Solution

1. Solution:

• A structure for creating new entities based on existing combinations of entities and processes.
• Entities created by solutions may contribute to the reproduction of the solution itself. In particular, such self-reinforcing solutions contribute to the evolution of entities.

2. Development: Action on solutions

2.1. Reappearance

• Reproduction: Repeating the same solution on the time axis. Temporal reappearance.
• Copy: Increasing the same solution spatially. There are copies within containers and copies between containers.

2.2 Operation

• Mutation: Partial change of solution during reproduction or copying.
• Synthesis: Combining multiple solutions. There is a possibility that a new solution will be generated.

2.3 Thinking

• Abstraction: The process of extracting the essence of a solution, detached from the context of its specific field of application.
• Concretization: Applying the abstracted essence of the solution to the context of a specific field.

3. Driving pattern of operation

3.1 Random: Random. It occurs not only in intelligence but also in nature.

• Random mutation and random synthesis

3.2 Intention: Purpose-oriented. Intelligence is required. Application and design are privileges of intelligence.

• Adjustment: Intentional mutation.
• Mixing: Intentional synthesis.
• Application: Intentional thinking. Abstracting solutions and concretizing them in other contexts.
• Design: An intellectual work that creates solutions by utilizing adjustment, mixing, and application.

4. Pattern of development policy

4.1 External development:

• Acting on the outside of oneself.
• External reproduction, external replication, external adjustment, external mixing, external design

4.2 Internal development (self-development):

• Development for oneself. By enhancing oneself well, it is more likely to continue to exist. Moreover, by changing direction according to changes in the environment, it is possible to further enhance existence.
• Self-reproduction, self-replication, self-adjustment, self-mixing, self-design

4.3 Environmental development:

• Development that feeds back to the outside and oneself regardless of internal or external factors. If environmental enhancement can be done well, both one’s own existence and the existence of generated solutions can be strengthened.
• Environmental reproduction, environmental replication, environmental adjustment, environmental mixing, environmental design

Application of system and solution models

Solutions refer to structures that generate new entities and processes from existing entities and processes. Let’s take a look at the spectrum of solution evolution below.

1. Physical evolution:

• Entity: Waves, quantum, atoms, molecules
• Process: Quantum mechanics, Newtonian mechanics
• Container: Space
• Explanation: At this stage, everything is driven by randomness and fluctuations, and new physical shapes and structures are generated by solutions.

2. Chemical evolution:

• Entity: Organic matter
• Process: Chemical reactions
• Container: Puddles and membranes
• Explanation: At this stage, organic matter acquires the ability to regenerate the environment. This refers to the stage where new organic substances are formed by chemical reactions, and they may create solutions that further enhance their generation, utilizing the self-enhancement of themselves and their products through environmental regeneration.

3. Biological evolution:

• Entity: Genes and organisms
• Process: Reproductive activity and life activity
• Container: Biome
• Explanation: Here, living organisms acquire even higher self-regeneration capabilities through self-replication and cognition. Cognition is the ability of organisms to create solutions that recognize and adapt to their environment in order to maintain their own survival and prosperity. In addition, self-replication and mutation of genes make it possible to generate solutions one after another through random processes.

4. Knowledge evolution:

• Entity: Knowledge
• Process: Learning and assembling knowledge
• Container: Brain
• Explanation: At this stage, living organisms (especially humans) acquire advanced replication and regeneration capabilities through memory, adjustment, and blending of consciousness. This refers to the ability to create solutions by generating or assembling knowledge gained from experience through learning and memory.

5. Idea evolution:

• Entity: Ideas and theories
• Process: Imagination, creation, science and research
• Container: Brain
• Explanation: Here, humans acquire the ability to design applications and conduct research through application. This refers to the ability to create solutions by designing new ideas or theories by applying existing knowledge or skills to new contexts.

6. Consciousness evolution:

• Entity: Personality, thought, personality
• Process: Contemplation, growth
• Container: Brain
• Explanation: At this stage, humans acquire the ability to self-design through willpower. This refers to the ability to create solutions that intentionally change one’s personality, thoughts, or personality for self-reform or self-growth.

7. Environmental evolution:

• Entity: Team, society, environment
• Process: Team building, social activities
• Container: Team
• Explanation: At this stage, teams can increase the quantity and quality of the container itself as it forms a team that grows and expands while being self-designed. In addition, teams with quantity and quality can create solutions that approach society and the environment and further strengthen themselves.

Considerations

The design that adjusts, blends, abstracts and concretizes the solution is one of the essential elements of human intelligence that can be seen in this framework.

I believe that the design ability of engineers, artists and leaders can become a trump card for solving problems in modern society by combining not only academic knowledge but also skills accumulated through experience in the real world.

I imagine them forming a core team and expanding the team by involving diverse people while working on problems and demonstrating their skills. The team also imagines requesting interdisciplinary research for knowledge evolution when knowledge is lacking. I also think that the ability of scholars and researchers to induce and deduce is also a design ability when I think about it this way.

In addition, I think that by having many such teams, it will be possible to care for problems from large to small and for teams to harmonize well with each other. This will make it possible to create a society in which anyone can participate and no one is left behind.

On the other hand, this framework has clarified the positioning of solutions. In addition, it has been clarified that solutions can be abstracted and concretized in different fields. Furthermore, it has been confirmed that this framework can be applied in various ways.

In this article, we have made specific applications to entities, processes and tools at each application stage, but have you noticed that solutions have not been applied to anything specific?

This is a manifestation of the fact that individual solutions are common to each application. In other words, it means that various solutions in each application can also work for other applications.

When you think about it this way, by investigating and classifying solutions found in various fields and applying them to other fields, you can gain new perspectives. Engineers, artists and leaders can think about new designs by learning from various solutions in these various fields. Thus, this theoretical model becomes a thoughtful framework for breaking through modern stagnation and opening up the future based on solutions.