Where Systems Come From

In order to understand how 3-sigma is a theory of knowledge, it helps to think about where “systems” come from.

The overwhelming evidence of modern science is that “systems” do not really exist “out there” in the “real” world. “Out there” everything is interacting in ways far to complex for our puny minds to comprehend. In fact the very idea of “things” is a problem that modern physics continues to wrestle with. If we were to become obsessed with the insubstantiality of things in “reality”, we would have a hard getting anything done.

Fortunately, the one thing that our minds are good at doing is seeing what appear to be patterns and symmetries in our environment. To the extent that these patterns seem persistent, relative to our needs, we can infer relationships between some elements making up these pattens and thus, make predictions about the future. Our definitions of the behavior of these patterned events are the “systems” we create.

In other words, a “system” is a “theory” and a “theory” is an apparent “pattern” that enables us to make predictions. The “truth” of our theories lies in their predictive value with respect to our aims. A theory cannot be proven because of the possibility that the patterns we infer might not hold for tomorrow and tomorrow, though past confirmations do increase our degree of belief.

The following quotations will seem clearer when viewed from this standpoint.

“The human mind has first to construct forms, independently, before we can find them in things.” Albert Einstein

“The truth of a theory is in your mind, not in your eyes”, Albert Einstein

“What we see is not reality in itself, but reality exposed to our method of questioning”, Werner Heisenberg

“We are not stuff that abides, we are patterns that perpetuate themselves”, Norbert Weiner

“We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, …. because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way.” Benjamin Lee Whorf

“There is no true value…defined in terms of measurement or observation”, W. E. Deming

“We should be guided by theory, not by numbers”, W. E. Deming

“…knowledge…is a method of approximating a practical ideal of a minimum number of false predictions.”, Walter Shewhart

“The assignment of any concept to the momentarily given…is essentially predictive and only partially verified. There is no knowledge merely by direct awareness.” C. I. Lewis

As with all systems, our theory of knowledge is also self-created. That theory of knowledge becomes “Profound Knowledge” when it takes into account the notion that it too, is self-created in precisely the manner described in this post. 

A few broad examples of systems of knowledge in which the theory of world differs for the very same observations:

• Overreaching religious fundamentalism, in which some supernatural force is seen as bounding all human action in mysterious ways.

• Overreaching free-market fundamentalism, in which all human behavior is determined by competitive instincts derived from perversion of Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection (e.g. survival of the fittest).

• Overreaching scientific empiricism, in which it is believed that the “true” nature of the world can be determined by reducing the world to elemental parts. (e.g. Newtonian theory).