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Tables of Contents for General Principles of Systems Design
Chapter/Section Title
Page #
Page Count
The Problem of Persistence
1
12
Weinberg's Law(s) of Twins
1
3
The Continuity Taboo
4
4
The General Systems Approach to Continuity
8
3
Questions for Further Research
11
2
Aggregates
13
12
The First Law of Aggregates
13
3
Births and Deaths---The Fundamental Aggregate Equation
16
4
Differential Equations and Chronological Graphs
20
4
Questions for Further Research
24
1
Birth-Free Aggregates
25
26
Social Versus Innate Survival
25
5
Exponential Decay
30
6
Alternative Ways of Representing Decay
36
4
Unimodal Life Tables, and Ogives
40
5
Composite Curves
45
4
Questions for Further Research
49
2
Reasoning About Aggregates
51
21
Cooperation and Competition---The Law of Collapse
51
4
The Law of Typology
55
3
From Deaths to Births
58
4
Reasoning in the Presence of Births
62
4
The Second Aggregate Law
66
3
Questions for Further Research
69
3
Modeling Differentiated Aggregates
72
26
The State Vector
73
2
Constructing a System of Equations
75
3
To Solve or Not To Solve?
78
2
Renaming Systems
80
5
The Renaming-Conservation Law
85
4
Simulation and Conservation
89
5
Tracers
94
2
Questions for Further Research
96
2
Programs for Models of Differentiated Aggregates
98
24
Varieties of Programs
99
2
Transitive Closure---The Diagram of Possible Effects
101
3
Structure Matrices
104
2
Time Scale and Continuity
106
6
Projecting Possible Effects with a Structure Matrix
112
4
Partitioning a System
116
4
Questions for Further Research
120
2
Structure and Behavior
122
19
The Structure of Structure
123
3
Projecting Behavior with a Linear Program
126
4
Qualitative Reasoning About Structure
130
4
Detecting the Presence of Structure
134
4
Questions for Further Research
138
3
The Structure-Regulation Law
141
23
The Equivalence of Structure and Input
141
5
Can a Linear System Be Stable?
146
6
Why Linear Systems Are So Popular
152
4
The Structure-Regulation Law
156
6
Questions for Further Research
162
2
The Search for Regulation
164
13
The Problem of Multidimensional Regulation
164
5
Separation of Variables
169
2
The First Law of Regulatory Compromise
171
2
The Second Law of Regulatory Compromise
173
2
Questions for Further Research
175
2
The Homeostatic Heuristics
177
11
The Internal Environment
177
4
Identifying and Essential Variables
181
3
The Homeostatic Principles
184
3
Questions for Further Research
187
1
Other Regulatory Heuristics
188
24
The Feedback Principle
188
3
Analyzing Feedback Loops
191
7
The Piddling Principle
198
6
The Parallel Principle
204
4
Questions for Further Research
208
4
Types of Regulatory Mechanisms
212
18
Conditional and Unconditional Mechanisms
212
3
Error-Control
215
6
Limitations of Error-Control
221
4
Anticipation
225
4
Questions for Further Research
229
1
Regulation and Environment
230
19
Acting on the Environment
230
3
The Environment Regulation Laws
233
5
The Regulatory Model
238
3
The Game of Regulation
241
5
Questions for Further Research
246
3
When the Model Fails
249
22
The Fundamental Regulator Paradox
249
3
Noise
252
3
Noise in Communication Systems
255
5
Noise in Models
260
2
Fudging the Model
262
3
Discarding the Worn-out Model
265
2
The Road Ahead
267
1
Questions for Further Research
268
3
Making Regulation Mysterious
271
20
The Impression of Intelligence
272
3
The Myth of Superiority
275
2
Searching for Nonexistent Set Points
277
6
Other Set Point Fallacies
283
2
The Quest for Perfection
285
4
Questions for Further Research
289
2
Overly Simple Views of Regulation
291
28
Plait Fallacies
291
8
The One-to-One Fallacies
299
4
The Kool-Aid Fallacy and the Aspirin Illusion
303
2
The False-Alarm Fallacy
305
3
Flareback
308
5
Taking Complexity by the Horns
313
3
Questions for Further Research
316
3
Blindness and Reversed Vision
319
16
Hidden Reserves
320
2
The Environment as Reference Point
322
3
The Homunculus Fallacies
325
3
Denying the Existence of Regulation
328
5
Questions for Further Research
333
2
Epilogue
335
2
Question for Further Research
336
1
Suggestions for Further Reading
336
1
Bibliography
337
10
Author Index
347
4
Subject Index
351