Blog Archives

The AI team does a deep dive into an online presentation made by Dr Joseph Kasser and Bruce Lerner to the British Computer Society (BCS) in 2023. The presentation exposes two common misconceptions about systems thinking.  First, it clarifies the proper application of reductionism, arguing that it’s a valuable analytical tool, not an opposing methodology to systems thinking.  Second, it explains that “open” and “closed” systems are not distinct types but rather different perspectives on … Continue reading →

The AI team takes a deep dive into the technical architecture and operational logic of Large Language Models (LLMs). They explain that these systems are trained through a multi-stage process; pre-training, fine-tuning, and human feedback, to predict text sequence. A central focus is the Transformer architecture, which uses an attention mechanism to understand relationships between words and manage linguistic nuances such as spelling errors. The team clarify that AI “memory” is actually a process where the entire conversation history is re-read … Continue reading →

The AI team take a deep dive into a book by Dr Howard Eisner which examines the attributes of highly successful systems engineers. It profiles prominent figures like Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein, analyzing their traits and contributions. The author then explores seven key attributes—synthesizer, listener, curious/systems thinker, manager/leader, expert (in systems engineering processes and domain knowledge), and perseverer—through case studies and analysis of various successful systems engineers. The text also incorporates … Continue reading →

Our AI team take a deep dive into Joseph Kasser and Bruce Lerner’s  pdf handout “Resolving the-8.pdf” for a presentation aimed at a focused discussion in an INCOSE Oak Café meeting in 2024 analyzes the inconsistent definitions of “system” in literature. The authors examine numerous definitions, revealing a lack of consensus stemming from the context-dependent nature of “system”. They propose focusing on the System of Interest (SOI) instead, arguing that this clarifies the ambiguity by specifying the system under … Continue reading →

The AI team takes a hilarious deep dive into the official correspondence and internal memoranda related to a grievance filed by Joe Kasser against several officers of INCOSE, the International Council on Systems Engineering. The initial letters from December 2014 inform Kasser that an informal committee decided to ban him from presenting at the next two symposia (IS 2015-2016) and reject his submitted papers due to past “non-conciliatory” behavior during panel discussions in 2012 and 2014. Kasser’s extensive replies … Continue reading →