Communications and open systems

Abstract

The ultimate purpose of communications is understanding each other. Natural languages play the central role of communications, but other means such as gestures, facial expression, and gaze in the situations are equally important. Physical and social common sense is indispensable, and the historical backgrounds of nations, regions, families, and individuals of speakers and listeners are never negligible. All of these means, modes, and aspects are mutually dependent and change as time progresses. The method of modern science established in the 17th century contributed enormously to scientific advances and technological progress. In the method, we first define the domain of a problem, then reduce the problem in a way that exposes its true nature, and finally discover the underlying principles of the problem domain. When the domain of a problem is too unwieldy and too large for easily reducing the problem, it is broken up into smaller elements that are subjected to the same process. Hence it is called reductionism. Nonetheless, there are still plenty of stubborn issues that are not easily resolved. These unsolved issues are complicated ones that could not be addressed simply by reductionism alone. Earth sustainability is an example of such an issue. It involves energy, climate, population, food, biodiversity, safety assurance, etc., which are mutually dependent, and cannot be solved independently from the others. Another example is life and health. Many properties of the human body have been discovered through molecular biology, but real life also seems to be stochastic, contingent, and historical. Yet another example is the safety of gigantic infrastructures connected through networks. These infrastructures grow and change while they continue to function even in the event of various incidents without having any significant effect on the everyday lives of people. All these issues are related to the problems of integrated systems consisting of numerous interrelated subsystems. The solutions of individual problems cannot solve the overall problem and may even cause another problem or worsen the overall problem. Communications issues are such problems and may not be solved independently from the others. To solve such problems of integrated complex systems, a new approach called open systems science is proposed. The comparison of closed systems and open systems is presented first, and then the definition of open systems science is given. Some applications of this method to actual important problems are exemplified, and the issues on communications are discussed in depth.