skip to main content
article

The Grand Theory of Everything: what man-made systems are, and why they fail

Published: 01 July 2007 Publication History

Abstract

The Grand Theory of Everything (tGToE) is a powerful, elegant and unique Model which may be used towards the Understanding and Development of Man-Made Systems. This Model may be used to Identify, Explore, and Predict Faults of Systems-Making, and Faults in Systems and Faults in Systems-Use. Although the tGToE Model provides an Understanding of Systems and Choices, it may not necessarily identify Best Choices or Practical Solutions as that requires Judgment. As all Models are Abstractions, the Possibility of oversimplification that applies to Models applies equally to tGToE. Refinement of this Model has led the Author to several Curious Observations on Paradoxes in Systems and Observations on the Use of Power in Organizations. Depending on the Ethics of the Reader, the application of tGToE may be used to solve Great Problems or to cause Great Mischief and Harm.

References

[1]
Altemeyer, Robert, The Authoritarians, Harvard University Press, 1996 URL: http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
[2]
Andrews, C. J., "From Professional Ethics to Technological Citizenship", Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment, 8--11 May 2006
[3]
Arnstein, Sherry R., "A Ladder of Citizen Participation," JAIP, Vol. 35, No. 4, July 1969, pp. 216--224 URL; http://lithgow-schmidt.dk/sherry-arnstein/ladder-of-citizen-participation.html
[4]
Baskerville, Richard L., A. Trevor Wood-Harper, "A Critical Perspective on Action Research as a Method for Information Systems Research", Journal of Information Technology, Vol. 11, No. 3, 1996, pp.235--246
[5]
Baskerville, Richard L., "Socially Self-Destructing Systems", in B. Dahlbom, F. Ljungberg, U. Nulden, K. Simon, C. Sorensen, and J. Stage, (Eds.) Proceedings of the 19th Information Systems Research Seminar in Scandinavia, IRIS 19: The Future, Lokeberg, Sweden, August 1996, Gothenburg Studies in Informatics, Report 8, June 1996, pp. 887--904 URL: http://www.cis.gsu.edu/~rbaskerv/library/social_destruc.htm
[6]
ben Asher, Moshe, "Conflict & Cooperation In Macro Theory & Practice", 2001, Papers series for COMM-ORG: The On-line Conference on Community Organizing and Development URL: http://comm-org.wisc.edu/papers2002/benasher/benashertheory.htm
[7]
Berger, Brian, "Task Force Urges ITAR Exemptions for NASA", Space News, International ed. Vol. 18, No. 9, March 5, 2007, p 9.
[8]
Besnard, Denis, and Gordon Baxter, "Human compensations for Undependable systems", Technical Report Series, CS-TR-877, School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, November 2003 URL: http://www.dirc.org.uk/publications/techreports/papers/12.pdf
[9]
Boehm, Barry W., "A Spiral Model of Software Development and Enhancement", Computer, IEEE, Vol. 21, No. 5, May 1988, pp. 61--72
[10]
Chomsky, Noam, Failed States, Holt, NY, 2006
[11]
Cialdini, Robert B., Influence: Science and Practice, Scott, Foresman, 1985
[12]
Conway, Melvin E., "How Do Committees Invent", Datamation, 1968 URL: http://www.melconway.com/research/committees.html
[13]
Gall, John, The Systems Bible, General Systemantics Press, 2002 URL: http://www.generalsystemantics.com
[14]
Garvin, David, "What Does Product Quality Really Mean", Sloan Management Review, fall 1984
[15]
Goodman, John L., "Lessons Learned From Flights of 'Off the Shelf' Aviation Navigation Units on the Space Shuttle", Joint Navigation Conference, Orlando, Florida, May 6--9, 2002 URL: www.klabs.org/DEI/Processor/shuttle/shuttle_gps_lessons_learned_may_02.pdf
[16]
Goodman, John L., "A Software Perspective on GNSS Receiver Integration and Operation", Satellite Navigation Systems: Policy, Commercial and Technical Interaction, International Space University, Strasbourg France, May 26--28, 2003 URL:www.klabs.org/DEI/Processor/shuttle/sw_perspective_on_gnss_rcvr_int_op.pdf
[17]
Greenblatt, Stephen, "Shakespeare and the Uses of Power", The New York Review of Books, Volume 54, Number 6, April 12, 2007 URL: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20073
[18]
Heidlebaugh, Nola, Judgment, Rhetoric, and the Problems of Incommensurability, University of South Carolina Press, 2001
[19]
Herbsleb, James D., Rebecca E. Grinter, "Splitting the Organization and Integrating the Code: Conway's Law Revisited", Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Software Engineering, Los Angeles, California, 1999, pp. 85--95
[20]
Heylighen, F., C. Joslyn, (Aug 31, 2001): "The Law of Requisite Variety", in: F. Heylighen, C. Joslyn and V. Turchin (editors): Principia Cybernetica Web (Principia Cybernetica, Brussels) URL: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/REQVAR.html
[21]
Hvatum, Lise, Alan Kelly, "What do I think about Conway's Law now", Conclusions of a EuroPLoP Focus Group, EuroPloP 2005, 2005 URL: http://allankelly.net/patterns/ConwaysLawFocusGroup.pdf
[22]
Kaasboll, Jens, "Failing to learn and learning to fail", 2006 URL: http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~jensj/INF3270/LearningFailures.pdf
[23]
Landau, M., R. Stout jr. "To Manage is Not to Control: or the Folly of Type II Errors", Public Administration Review, March/April 1979, pp. 148--156
[24]
Ladkin, Peter, "Re: NASA's DART spacecraft smashes into satellite (RISKS-24.29, 30) Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator, Volume 24: Issue 30, Thursday 1 June 2006 URL: http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/24.30.html
[25]
Levenson, Michael, Raja Mishra, "Turner Broadcasting accepts blame, promises restitution", The Boston Globe, February 2, 2007, p1.
[26]
Malhotra, Y., "Organizational Controls as Enablers and Constraints in Successful Knowledge Management Systems Implementation", Knowledge Management and Business Model Innovation, Y. Malhotra (Ed.), Hershey, PA, Idea Group Publishing, 326--336, 2001 URL: http://www.brint.org/KMOutOfControl.pdf
[27]
Meadows, Donella H., "Places to Intervene in a System", Whole Earth Review, winter 1997 URL: http://www.wholeearthmag.com/ArticleBin/109.html
[28]
Mintzberg, Henry, "A Note on that Dirty Word "Efficiency", Mintzberg on Management, Simon and Shuster, 1989 URL: http://www.vrconline.ca/english/resources/print/10A-1-8.pdf
[29]
Moyers, Bill, Mayers on America, The New Press, 2004
[30]
Nissenbaum, Helen, "Where Computer Security Meets National Security", Ethics and Information Technology, Volume 7, Issue 2, June 2005, pp 61--73, Kluwer, MA
[31]
Pirsig, Robert M., Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Bantam Books, New York, 1974
[32]
Powers, Thomas M., "Prospects for a Kantian Machine", Intelligent Systems, IEEE, Volume 21, Issue 4, July 2006, pp 46--51 URL: http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MIS.2006.77
[33]
Ramirez, Fransisco O., "Who Cares Whether Johnny Knows Science", Spectrum Online Edition, IEEE, April 2007 URL: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/print/4990
[34]
Sarason, S. B., "Community psychology and the anarchist insight" S. B. Sarason, Psychology and social action: Selected papers (pp. 135--149). New York: Praeger, 1982, (Reprinted from American Journal of Community Psychology, 1976, 4, 243--261)
[35]
Schaefer, Robert, "Deeper Questions: The Metaproblem of Large Organizations Developing Complex Systems and the Limits of Process", SEN, ACM, Vol.30, No.4, July 2005
[36]
Schaefer, Robert, "The Risks of Large Organizations In Developing Complex Systems", SEN, ACM, Vol.30, No.5, September 2005
[37]
Schaefer, Robert, "A Rational Theory of System-Making Systems", SEN, ACM, Vol.31, No.2, March 2006
[38]
Schaefer, Robert, "A Critical Programmer Searches for Professionalism", SEN, ACM, Vol.31, No.4, July 2006
[39]
Scott, James C., Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, Yale University Press, 1999
[40]
Smith, Barry, "Ontology", Preprint chapter, Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information, L. Floridi (ed.), Oxford: Blackwell, 2003, 155--166. URL: http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/articles/ontology_pic.pdf
[41]
Smith, Brian Cantwell, "The Limits of Correctness", SIGCAS Computers and Society, ACM Vol. 14, 15, Issue 1, 2, 3, 4, Jan 1985 URL: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=379512
[42]
Spolsky, Joel, "The Law of Leaky Abstractions", November 11, 2002 URL: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/LeakyAbstractions.html
[43]
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander, "A World Split Apart", Text of Address given at Harvard Class Day Afternoon Exercises, Thursday, June 8, 1978 URL: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/solzhenitsyn/harvard1978.html
[44]
Standler, Ronald B., "History of At-Will Employment Law in the USA", 2000 URL: http://www.rbs2.com/atwill.htm
[45]
Standler, Ronald B., "Professional Ethics & Wrongful Discharge", 2000 URL: http://www.rbs2.com/ethics.htm
[46]
Standler, Ronald B., "Freedom of Speech in the USA for Employees of Private Companies", 2000 URL: http://www.rbs2.com/freeshch.htm
[47]
Surowiecki, James, "The Financial Page: India's Skills Famine", The New Yorker, April 16, 2007
[48]
Tavani, Herman T., Ethics and Technology 2nd Ed., Wiley, 2007
[49]
Tompkins, Philip, "Organizational Communication as Technical Management: Werner von Braun's Principles and Practices at the Marshall Space Flight Center", 2005 MAPLD International Conference, Washington DC, September 9, 2005 URL: http://www.klabs.org/mapld05/abstracts/124_tompkins_a.html
[50]
Turner, Ron, Linda Turner, "W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points and Seven Deadly Diseases of Management" URL: http://www.endsoftheearth.com/Deming14Pts.htm
[51]
Wertheimer, Linda, "Testing Harvard", Boston Sunday Globe, Sunday, April 22, 2007, p E1.
[52]
Wikipedia Contributors, "William Ross Ashby", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 17 January 2007 URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ross_Ashby
[53]
Wikipedia Contributors, "Jean Baudrillard", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 March 2007 URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baudrillard
[54]
Wikipedia Contributors, "Crony capitalism", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 7 March 2007 URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism
[55]
Wikipedia Contributors, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 19 March 2007 URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy
[56]
Wikipedia Contributors, Mu (negative)", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 16 February 2007 URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_%28negative%29
[57]
Wikipedia Contributors, "Philosophy of mind", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 March 2007 URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind-body_problem#The_mind-body_problem
[58]
Wikipedia Contributors, "Pilot-induced oscillation", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 23 January 2007 URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot-induced_oscillation
[59]
Wikipedia Contributors, "Scientific Method", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 12 February 2007 URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Method
[60]
Wikipedia Contributors, "Sierpinski triangle", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 16 March 2007 URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski_triangle
[61]
Wikipedia Contributors, "Sturgeon's Revelation", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 7 February 2007 URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_Revelation

Cited By

View all

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes
ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes  Volume 32, Issue 4
July 2007
133 pages
ISSN:0163-5948
DOI:10.1145/1281421
Issue’s Table of Contents

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 July 2007
Published in SIGSOFT Volume 32, Issue 4

Check for updates

Qualifiers

  • Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)2
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0
Reflects downloads up to 11 Feb 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all

View Options

Login options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media