Designing Complex Systems

91

Chapter 6

Properties of Systems

6.1 System States

Seen from the outside, a system is identical to a functional element; the representa-

tion of a functional element in the form of a system is just a means of reducing its

complexity by introducing an internal structure. Consequently, the external inter-

actions of a system are the same as the interactions of an element with the rest of the

world, and can therefore be subdivided into the same three types of interactions as

was done for elements in chapter 4. at is, we have functional parameters, depen-

dencies, and influences, and, most importantly, these sets of (system) variables are

subsets of ...