2009 10 Systems

Systems

To make life easier, we use systems. One such system is a Calendar. Another is a computer. Some systems can be improved to make an easy life easier. Some systems are so complex that they actually make our lives harder. This musing is about various systems that impact my life.

At the moment you read this, you’re participating in one of the most amazing systems ever invented—written language. I surmise that written language was derived from ciphers. Keeping track of a balance of trade would have been an important method of exchange in early societies. Perhaps a stick with notches was used to accompany food, weapons or other commodities and verify that goods leaving one site actually arrived at the next. A logical extension of that would have been a simple greeting, “To Joe from Frank” with Frank’s special mark. Then, the inevitable, “You owe me a pig for the sixteen chickens I delivered last week”.

A system of symbols ranging from the aforementioned notches to the very elaborate encryption codes used in modern computers allows us to communicate. But for these systems to work both the sender and receiver must have either a common understanding or a conversion mechanism. In language, the translator provides that commonality. With a properly trained translator, a Korean, Chinese or English speaker can make himself understood to a Spaniard.

Languages are ingenious system too. It is amazing that we can explore the universe and understand our position in that universe only by communicating with each other using language. It is not enough to just point and say, “star”. We have to be able to describe Doppler shift across the spectrum and other complex concepts which can only be explained using a system of language. Now several decades ago we sent a rocket into space hoping to communicate with another society perhaps light years away. How to convey who we are became a famous challenge for Carl Sagan. It was solved by placing a plate on the Pioneer 10 and 11 satellites showing symbols and line drawings. If you found this would you be able to interpret it? Would you be able to locate Earth? Would you be smart enough to know that there is no uniform scale in the drawing from the representation of the tiny hydrogen atom to the vast solar system? Would you be able to decipher the center of our galaxy by understanding the radiant lines depicting pulsars and their periods?


Spelling is a system helping us to be consistent with our use of language. In an earlier musing I explored the idea of phonetic spelling. See http://dowps.blogspot.com/2008/01/2007-10-words-and-books.html

Music notation is a complex system of portraying frequencies over time with indications of volume and timbre. As with many systems, it has become more and more complex as the simple initial system of neumes did not adequately address the need for consistent meter and other problems of dynamics, articulation, tempo and phrasing.

Many of us have come to rely on computer systems to manage our everyday lives. To some, this activity is so addictive that hours and hours are spent trying to sort through life at a keyboard. Advertisements tout how such systems will make your life simpler. The truth is that many times life is actually simpler without these systems. Nevertheless, a lot of creativity has been enabled by computer systems. One simple example is my non-musician friend who has written a musical score at his computer.

Even the best of systems sometimes break down. The more complex the system, the more likely a breakdown will occur. That is why simple systems are often the best for a given problem. Three by five inch cards provided an adequate way for my parents to keep track of their friends. Whenever they made contact, mother or dad would notate the date and event. Those cards didn’t need to be replaced for years or transferred to new files the way we seem to have to do with computer address books. On the other hand, having a single device such as an iPhone or Blackberry where all your pertinent information is always at hand can outweigh the need to carry a box full of three by five inch cards. But the cost is that the batteries can wear out, the device could be dropped, stolen or the electronics could simply fail. We have all heard of the problem of a computer no longer functioning. Is the data lost?

Backup systems are important. In my work, we have systems in place to deal with emergencies should the electricity fail for extended periods of time. After one Florida disaster when the phone lines were down and the mail service not working, a customer sent his insurance agent flowers with a note indicating “need help”—signed x. Now that’s a backup system!

What are the attributes of good and bad systems? In general, good systems are easy to use no matter how complex the support required. It is the end user who determines whether a system is useful or not. A system which is developed but which is not used has no value. A system that saves time is generally considered good. A system that requires enormous training is generally not as useful as a system that intuitively works. A system that requires little maintenance is more useful than a system requiring frequent upgrades.

Meanwhile, my system of writing a musing once per month by the first has just broken down! It’s now the 17th and I only have a few more days to think about the November Musing!

©Frank Bliss All rights reserved
October, 2009