The Magic Ring: Systems Thinking Approach to Control Systems

This book develops the theory, language, and rules behind the functioning of Control Systems operating in different environments. The idea of developing a Discipline of Control that stands on its own with regard to Systems Thinking is based on the hypothesis – whose validity I have tried to demonstrate throughout the book – that among all types of systems Control Systems occupy an absolutely preeminent position. Even if we are not accustomed to “seeing them”, “recognizing them” or “designing them”, they are everywhere inside and around us. Only their ubiquitous presence makes possible our world, life, society and existence, constructing an ordered and livable world, erecting barriers against disorder, and directing the irregular dynamics of the world toward states of homeostatic equilibrium in all its vital and social environments. It is for this reason I have tried to make clear the need to gradually accustom ourselves to thinking not only in terms of systems but above all in terms of Control Systems: “from Systems Thinking to Control Thinking”; this is my epistemological proposal.