Systems science is the interdisciplinary study of concepts and principles which apply to systems across scientific domains — from physics to sociology. Through this integrated approach, it provides the theoretical foundations and experimental methodologies necessary for rigorous interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research.

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Why?

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Everything in the world can be understood as a system, from biological systems and ecosystems to economic systems and computer systems. In academia, every discipline devotes itself to the specialized study of a specific type of system like a cell, or a society.

What’s missing is a rigorous meta-scientific perspective that identifies the common aspects shared by these segregated fields that can generally describe how all systems work. The fragmentation of science into isolated sub-disciplines dominated by specialists represents a fundamental obstacle to understanding a reality that recognizes no such disciplinary boundaries.

The pioneers of systems science sought to unify the siloed individual scientific disciplines through a broader framework. They believed that overspecialization in science and difficulty communicating across domains represented a barrier to scientific progress and, more importantly, a richer understanding of how societies work.

Systems science was initially developed with the intention of providing a robust framework for training scientific generalists capable of meaningful interdisciplinary synthesis. However, it did not receive the institutional support necessary to achieve its goals.

In the age of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, blockchain technology, and bioengineering, the need for qualified systems researchers has never been more clear. We need thinkers who are capable of abstracting knowledge across domains, seeing novel connections, and thinking holistically about how to cultivate the development of complex adaptive systems while maintaining analytical rigor.

A mature science of systems offers our best path forward — not just for understanding the world we've inherited, but for navigating the one we're building. We aim to continue the work begun by the early systems pioneers by promotes transdisciplinary research through the lens of the systems sciences and training scientific generalists.

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What?

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While systems science began as an effort to unite the disparate domains of science, over the decades it has fragmented into sub-disciplines, each with their own specialized terms, methodologies, and academic circles.

Some of the most prominent and well-developed fields are:

• Information Theory which studies the quantification, storage, and communication of information
• Cybernetics which studies the feedback and control mechanisms which regulate a system’s behavior
• Complexity Science which studies how intelligent, self-organizing behavior emerges through the local interactions of individual agents
• Network Science which studies complex networks by representing distinct actors within a system as nodes and the connections between them as edges

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How?

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