The Future of Systems Engineering is to become EcoSocial Meta-system focused Synergistic Engineering
Fellow Systems Engineers–
I think now is a good time for Systems Engineers who are interested in Systems Science to think about what I said in this article about the Future of Systems Engineering.
Now is the time to start taking Meta-systems (environs) seriously which I develop in my tutorial on Schemas Theory. See http://schematheory.net
Now is the time to fully integrate the Social Sciences into Systems Engineering thinking.
The coronavirus and its effect on our country and the world calls for Systems Engineers to think differently as Systems Scientists so they can help mitigate problems like this in the future.
I think we need discussions on how we can change the paradigm of Systems Engineering to try to prepare to be responsive to the needs of the country in these times in which it is clear that no-systemic thinking was done prior to the crisis and because of that the crisis was exacerbated. Systems Thinking can only go so far. What we need to integrate with that is meta-systems thinking that takes the environmental milieu seriously within the context of all the Schemas and taking into account Social Sciences in order to be better prepared in the future.
See Palmer, K.D. (2000), 9.6 Meta‐systems Engineering. INCOSE International Symposium, 10: 889-904. doi:10.1002/j.2334-5837.2000. tb00470.x http://www.archonic. net/MSE04.PDF
I hope all of you are staying safe. But now we have time to think more deeply about our discipline and perhaps move to a new paradigm in our own thinking about these problems we all face together. We need a paradigm change in Systems Engineering. This is one suggestion of what that might be. We need to work together to find the right paradigm change to transform out discipline to meet the challenges that are not just on the horizon but here now.
Kent Palmer
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