Future Studies

The following several products of this Lifework can be also categorized as projections into the future. The study of ‘systemness’ is often consistent with studies of the future. Some would say that, in fact, systems science will only be realized in the future. While some of this work is science-based, it is also somewhat less rigorous or a product of the scientific method than of philosophical thinking. That is why I have placed these under the pull-down button here, Arts and Humanities. But these are redundant placements since they are also placed under other appropriate pull-downs. For each, I mention here ((in double parentheses)) where they are also placed in this compendium of Lifework so that readers can avoid them if they have already retrieved them in those other categories.

The first on THE EMERGENCE OF META-HUMANS does not have “future” in its title but since it is about the future evolution of the human species, it belongs here. It was requested by the historians and philosophers that were Fellows of this author’s Institute for Advanced Systems Studies (IAS) at California State Polytechnic University and was published by them in this publication:

Campus Forum citation here

((But it is also included in this Lifework compendium under the Isomorphy Emergence in the Systems Research Pulldown because it is on the topic of “emergence” while also being an imaginative projection of our species into the future)).

Another future study, the FUTURE OF SYSTEMS SCIENCE, was produced at the request of the organizers of the ISSS (International Society for the System Sciences) as an invited plenary as part of its Annual Conference in 2000. The following was published after that conference as a Chapter in a book of products from that conference with this citation:

Wilby, J. and xx (editors)

((Because it is about then-recent developments in natural systems science, it is also placed in this Lifework under the pull-down button Systems As A Discipline.))

Another entry that belongs under Future Studies is THE FUTURE OF GENERAL SYSTEMS SCIENCE: OBSTACLES, POTENTIALS, CASE STUDIES [41 pp] is actually one of my most cited works. It was produced while on sabbatical for a year in Vienna, Austria as a Visiting Professor at the University of Austria and a Research Associate at IIASA (the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis) in Laxenburg, Austria. Some photo’s of the beautiful venue are listed in the photo album after the paper.

Paper

The Future of General Systems Research: Obstacles, Potentials, Case Studies (1985a, Troncale)

The Future of the Natural Systems Sciences (Troncale, 2001)

Revisited: The Future of General Systems Research: Update on Obstacles, Potentials, Case Studies (2009, Troncale)

 

Photo Album from Austria

Three other short entries are more like short reports or editorials from the General Systems Bulletin. The first is 9 pages, the second is three pages

  • Some Personal Views on Systems Leadership: Past, Present, Future
  • Seven Critical Needs and Future Direction
  • Editorial