System science for a better future

In 2023, the Pew Research Center surveyed citizens in many countries to determine how many would prefer authoritarian rulers to multiparty democracies. The numbers that elect dictators will disturb democrats. In the Global South, these are India (85%), Indonesia (77%), South Africa (66%) and Brazil (57%). In the West, the UK (37%) and the US (32%) are also significant figures. China and Russia were not included in the survey.

People in democracies are losing trust in their government’s economic policies. Average incomes may be rising, but the super-rich are getting richer faster. Big corporations and financial institutions force governments to set rules that favor them by cutting taxes, gutting labor institutions, and exploiting the natural environment for profit.

Moreover, the growth of the global economy and population is putting humanity at risk. Scientists predict that the excessive use of fossil energy to fuel modern consumptive lifestyles will make life on Earth impossible after this century. Water, the basis of life, is also running out. India is one of the most water-stressed countries in the world.

India has 17.5% of the world’s population living on just 2.4% of the world’s land. In 2014, India was ranked 155th out of 178 countries in the Global Environmental Performance Index, but in 2022, India fell to the bottom at 180th out of 180 countries. India, which is also the world’s most populous country, has additional problems. To increase national income faster. While economists chase GDP targets, inequality is rising and we are undermining the planet that supports our economy and supports our lives.

science of systems

A good advice is to keep the forest in your sights and avoid getting lost among the trees. Understanding how the world works requires knowing many things and mapping their interrelationships. All sciences are fragmented into narrow silos: social sciences, medical sciences, natural sciences. Scientists from different fields trapped in echo chambers never learn from each other. As science advances, experts know more and less. No one sees the whole thing. Politics and economics are integral parts of complex social systems. It is debatable whether weakening democratic institutions empowers big capitalist institutions, or whether capitalist institutions corrupt democracies. What has broken down is the understanding of a complex system with diverse forces and the human ego within it.

Economics emerged as a science independent of philosophy and the humanities in the early 20th century. Modern economists do not understand how society works. By the end of the century, free market fundamentalism had become an ideology. Economists say we should leave it to the “invisible hand” of the market because it knows best. Behind the invisible hand is the power of capital. The rights of capital, and the freedom to cross borders and roam the world to make more profits, take precedence over the rights of humans to move across borders in search of a safer life.

System knowledge is devalued by specialization. Heart specialists have amazing techniques to keep your heart alive. Brain experts take a deeper look into the biology of the brain. They lose sight of the whole human being. Climate scientists are researching ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere, but the impact of those solutions on people’s lives is outside the scope of science. His high-tech solutions have the potential to improve parts of complex systems while reducing overall health and well-being.

No intelligence within a system can understand the system that produced it. As Francis Bacon proclaimed at the advent of the European Enlightenment, modern science gave humanity the arrogance of being able to conquer “the unruly nature.” The arrogant scientist thought he could change the system that created him. His scientific modification of the world and scientific improvement of his own genes threatens the existence of humanity.

In times of uncertainty, people seek certainty. They follow godmen, dictators, and wealthy engineers because these people claim to know the truth and have the power to apply it. When economists and scientists with an incomplete understanding of the world assume leadership and steer social and economic policy, the losers are the common people and the natural environment that supports everyone’s lives. Recalling the idea of ​​the ancient Greek poet Archilochus, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog he knows one great thing,” the philosopher Isaiah said that Berlin defined thinkers as “foxes” and “hedgehogs.” ” According to Berlin, great writers like Leo Tolstoy, who combined many perspectives in history, were both hedgehogs and foxes. They understood the fundamental nature of existence and the limits of a rational scientific approach to it.

Rather than a specialized science focused on parts, we need a higher-level science, a science of the whole, self-adaptive system, including the human ego. A complex self-adaptive system has three components: system existence, system thinking, and system behavior. The system requires humility. Systems thinking requires “hedgehog fox” thinking to see patterns in details.

Cooperating companies

Systems that work to improve the world for everyone need to be driven by organizations that aim to cooperate, not those driven by competition. While the purpose of a corporation or military is to make more profits and acquire more power, the purpose of a family is to improve the well-being of its members. There are natural differences in ability between genders and generations in families. However, they cooperate with each other for the well-being of all people.

Women’s contributions to the well-being of their families and societies are undervalued and not counted in GDP. Economists say that although few women are in the labor force in India, for centuries women have worked harder than men and created social and economic value for their families and communities. ing.

The world needs more compassion and less competition. Women are natural family builders and promoters of the system, whereas men are raised to be competitive. Instead of men teaching women to think like men and compete with men within the hierarchy of the formal workforce, we must learn women’s caring ways to make the world better for everyone. It won’t.

Arun Maira is the author of Shaping the Future: A Guide for Systems Leaders.