“We are questioning more than the philosophy behind our dependence upon limited and limiting systems. We question the power structures that have grown up around such systems.”

—  Frank Herbert

Without Me, You're Nothing: The Essential Guide to Home Computers (1981), co-written with Max Barnard
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Frank Herbert 158
American writer 1920–1986

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“In spite of the insurmountable computational limits, we continue to pursue the many problems that possess the characteristics of organized complexity. These problems are too important for our well being to give up on them. The main challenge in pursuing these problems narrows down fundamentally to one question: how to deal with systems and associated problems whose complexities are beyond our information processing limits? That is, how can we deal with these problems if no computational power alone is sufficient?”

George Klir (1932–2016) American computer scientist

Source: Fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic (1995), p. 2-3.

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“What we have to do…is to humanise the system of limited liability.”

Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

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“I’m basically interested in intervention. The key question for me is: how can you intervene more systemically? Systems approaches make the assumption that things are interconnected. That’s the fundamental starting point. However, we don’t have the privilege of a God’s eye view of that interconnectedness, so there are inevitable limits to understanding, and it is those limits that we call boundaries. So systemic intervention, for me, at a fundamental level, is how to explore those boundaries, and how to take account of the inevitable lack of comprehensiveness and begin to deal with that.”

Gerald Midgley (1960) New Zealand acaedmic

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“Philosophy is an everlasting fire, sometimes damped down by setting itself limits, then flaring into new life as it consumes them. Every field of inquiry is limited, but philosophy has an essential relation to the question of limits, to its own limits.”

David Wood (1946) British philosopher, born 1946

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Philosophy At The Limit (1990)

“There is no such concept as one limit for the entice system: rather different parts of the system face different limits at different times with the traumatic experiences for the entire system depending on the interrelationship of the constituent parts - the collapse, if it occurs, would he regional rather than global, even though the entire global system would be affected.”

Mihajlo D. Mesarovic (1928) Serbian academic

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“The view from complexity claims that we cannot know complex things completely… modest positions are inescapable… We can increase the knowledge we have of a certain [complex] system, but this knowledge is limited… The fact that our knowledge is limited is not a disaster, it is a condition for knowledge. Limits enable knowledge.”

Paul Cilliers (1956–2011) South African philosopher

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“If we define Futurism as an exploration beyond accepted limits, then the nature of limiting systems becomes the first object of exploration.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

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General sources

“But how does it come about, step by step, that some complex Systems actually function? This question, to which we as students of General Systemantics attach the highest importance, has not yet yielded to intensive modern methods of investigation and analysis. As of this writing, only a limited and partial breakthrough can be reported, as follows: A COMPLEX SYSTEM THAT WORKS IS INVARIABLY FOUND TO HAVE EVOLVED FROM A SIMPLE SYSTEM THAT WORKED”

John Gall (1925–2014) American physician

Source: Systemantics: the underground text of systems lore, 1986, p. 65 cited in "Quotes from Systemantics – Funny, But Scary Too" Posted on agileadvice.com March 3, 2006 by Mishkin Berteig. This quote was mentioned in General systemantics (1975, p. 71)

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“Law is an order of human behavior. An “order” is a system of rules. Law is not, as it is sometimes said, a rule. It is a set of rules having the kind of unity we understand by a system. It is impossible to grasp the nature of law if we limit our attention to the single isolated rule.”

Hans Kelsen (1881–1973) Austrian lawyer

General Theory of Law and State (1949), I. The Concept of Law, A. Law and Justice, a. Human Behavior as the Objects of Rules

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“I am acutely aware that, as a judge in our system, I have limited power, and I am trying in every case to stay in my lane.”

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Jackson responding during Q&A on Day 2 of the hearings, or March 22nd https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/03/14/2022/the-nomination-of-ketanji-brown-jackson-to-be-an-associate-justice-of-the-supreme-court-of-the-united-states-day-2, as quoted in "Ketanji Brown Jackson vows to ‘stay in lane’ on Supreme Court: As lawmakers questioned the nominee, Jackson asserted her commitment to neutrality on the bench and defended her history as a judge and public defender." https://www.courthousenews.com/ketanji-brown-jackson-vows-to-stay-in-lane-on-supreme-court/ Courthouse News Service. (March 22, 2022)
Senate confirmation hearings (March 2022)

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