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What Makes Something A System?

A system is defined as a set of interacting units with relationships among them that achieve a particular function or purpose. A system consists of elements, interconnections between those elements, and an overall function. Living systems are open systems that maintain their state through exchanging material and energy with their environment. They are hierarchical with emergent properties at higher levels of organization and operate through seven basic functions across all levels including energetics, behavior, development, evolution, diversity, integration, and regulation.

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76 views5 pages

What Makes Something A System?

A system is defined as a set of interacting units with relationships among them that achieve a particular function or purpose. A system consists of elements, interconnections between those elements, and an overall function. Living systems are open systems that maintain their state through exchanging material and energy with their environment. They are hierarchical with emergent properties at higher levels of organization and operate through seven basic functions across all levels including energetics, behavior, development, evolution, diversity, integration, and regulation.

Uploaded by

Abi Neri
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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WHAT MAKES SOMETHING A SYSTEM?

A system isn’t just any old collection of things.

- A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a


way that achieves something.

- A system is defined as a set of interacting units with relationships among them.


The properties (or behavior) of a system as a whole emerge out of the interaction of the
components comprising the system.

What consists a system?

- elements, interconnections, and a function or purpose.

Example: Digestive system

- Elements are teeth, enzymes etc

- Interrelated through physical flow of food, regulating chemical signals

- Function is to break down food

Football team

- Elements are players, coach, etc.

- Interconnected by rules, strategy, communication, law of physics that govern the


motions of ball and players

- Purpose is to win game, or have fun

Anything that is not a system is a conglomeration

WITHOUT ANY PARTICULAR INTERCONNECTION OR FUNCTIONS.

A system’s function or purpose is not necessarily spoken, written, or expressed


explicitly, except through the OPERATION of the system. The best way to deduce the
system’s purpose is to watch for a while to see how the system behaves.
Purposes are deduced from behavior, not from rhetoric or stated goals.

living systems are open, self-organizing systems that have the special characteristics of
life and interact with their environment. This takes place by means of information and
material-energy exchanges.

Living systems can maintain their energetic state because they are open, self-
organizing systems that can take in from the environment the inputs of information and
material-energy they need.

A fundamental difference between living and non-living systems is that all living systems
have, as essential components, DNA, RNA, protein and some other complex organic
molecules that give biological systems their unique properties.

Living systems are distinguishable from non-living systems by their ability to maintain
stable, ordered states far from thermodynamic equilibrium. For the living systems to
maintain the ordered nonequilibrium states, they continuously exchange
information/entropy with their environments, grow and reproduce.

On the other hand, non-living systems, if isolated or placed in a uniform environment,


usually cease all motion very quickly such that no macroscopically observable events
occur, thereby maintaining permanent equilibrium

PROPERTIES OF LIVING SYSTEM

Biological Perspective of Living System

Living systems are organized into hierarchies with progressive specialization of


functions and complexity emerging from lower level to higher levels of organization also
known as emergent properties.

An emergent property is a characteristic an entity gains when it becomes part of a


bigger system. Emergent properties help living organisms better adapt to their
environments and increase their chances of survival. It Arise through interaction of
smaller part that alone do not exhibit such properties.
Example, of emergent properties on the population level is that organisms of the same
species are arranged into populations.

The characteristics that emerge in a population depend upon the species' genetics and
its environment. The ability to communicate and work together for the survival of the
species is an emergent property of populations. Humans work together to modify the
environment to make our survival easier.

The eleven ecological levels-of-organization of living systems

1. Atoms - being the fundamental units of all substances, living or not.


2. Molecules - Atoms joining other atoms. Living things make the “molecules of life”,
which are lipids, proteins, DNA, RNA, and complex carbohydrates organized into
organelles, which are membrane enclosed structure that perform specific
functions to form the cells.
3. Cells - Basic unit of Life
4. Tissue - Some cells live and reproduce independently while other specific types
are organized as tissues
5. Organs - Organizer array of tissues carrying out specific task. Example : heart,
lungs, skin etc.
6. Organ/Body System -set of interacting organs. Example: Nervous Sytem,
Circulatory System, Respiratory System etc. Organism - an individual that
consists of one (unicellular) or more cells (multicellular).
7. A life form. Example: Human, animals, plants
8. Population - Groups of interbreeding individuals of the same type or species
living in a given area
9. Community - All populations occupying a given area
10. Ecosystem - The community and the non-living environment function together as
an ecological system
11. Ecosphere/Biosphere - The most inclusive level encompassing all regions of
Earth’s crust, waters, and atmosphere in which organisms live
While each level in the ecological hierarchy exists in physical space and time, it is
expected to have unique emergent and collective properties with increasing complexity
brought about by internal dynamic interactions and exchanges with their environments.
Yet there are seven basic transcending processes or functions that operate at all levels
including energetics, behavior, development, evolution, diversity, integration, and
regulation.

B. Living systems are open systems with purpose and goals

The 1987 Report of the Brundtland Commission, Our Common Future, defined


sustainable development as, “meeting the needs of the present generation without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

An international network of scientists have unanimously and publically concluded that


human society is altering life-supporting natural structures and functions in three
fundamental ways. Consequently, they were able to define three basic “system
conditions” that must be met if we want to maintain the essential environmental services
that sustain human society.

While written to be clear scientifically, the specific wording of the four system conditions
can be confusing to non-scientists. However, the system conditions can be reworded as
basic sustainability principles that provide explicit guidance for any individual or any
organization interested in moving towards sustainability. In most instances, we refer to
the basic sustainability principles.

In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing …

1. … concentrations of substances from the earth’s crust (such as fossil CO2 and
heavy metals),

2. … concentrations of substances produced by society (such as antibiotics and


endocrine disruptors),

3. … degradation by physical means (such as deforestation and draining of


groundwater tables),
Further, because human action is the primary cause of the rapid change we see in
the natural environment today, they included a fourth system condition that focuses
on the social and economic considerations that drive those actions–recognizing that
human beings will always prioritize the meeting of their basic needs (just like every
other creature on the planet).

and in that society …

4. … there are no structural obstacles to people’s health, influence, competence,


impartiality and meaning.

An open system is one in which energy can be transferred between the system and its
surroundings.

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