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Systems are counterintuitive

The human mind is not adapted to interpreting how social systems behave. Social systems belong to the class called multi-loop nonlinear feedback systems. In the long history of evolution it has not been necessary until very recent historical times for people to understand complex feedback systems. Evolutionary processes have not given us the mental ability to interpret properly the dynamic behavior of those complex systems in which we are now embedded. (Jay Forrester, 1971. “Counterintuitive behavior of social systems”)

Related: Club of Rome, Jay Forrester.

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