General systems analysis in the liberal arts curriculum

Adams, James, Conceptual Blockbusting, W. H. Freeman & Co., 1974 A classic book on "creativity" in problem solving. Adams explains, and illustrates with examples and exercises, the many ways we limit the way we think.

Ackoff, Russell, The Art of Problem Solving, John Wiley & Sons, 1978. Some excellent descriptions of the kinds of twisted situations that systems analysts are expected to unravel in order to solve problems. This book is very pragmatic; Ackoff has written elsewhere on the subject of systems theory (see {3}).

Cougar and Knapp, Systems Analysis Techniques, John Wiley & Sons, 1974. A good collection of articles about the tools of the system analyst. Includes essays on General Systems Theory by Ackoff and von Bertalanffy. Published in 1974; so much of the practical material is of historical interest only.

Eiseley, Loren, The Star Thrower, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978.

Thomas, Lewis, The lives of a Cell, Viking Press, 1974. Once, in a dingy restaurant in the town, I had heard a woman say: "My father reads a goose bone for the weather." A modern primitive, I had thought, a diviner, using a method older than Stonehenge, as old as the arctic forests. "And where does he do that?" the woman's companion had asked amusedly. "In Costabel," she answered complacently, "in Costabel." The voice came back and buzzed faintly for a moment in the dark under the revolving eye. It did not make sense, but nothing in Costabel made sense. Perhaps that was why I had finally found myself in Costabel. Perhaps all men are destined at some time to arrive there as I did. I had come by quite conventional means. — Loren Eiseley, "The Star Thrower

Gall, John, Systemantics, Quadrangle Books, 1975. Unfortunately out of print, this is one of the best short reviews of systems ideas that I've seen. Written in the style of Parkinson's Law and The Peter Principle (both of which are good primers on systems thinking), it was probably not taken as seriously as it could have been. It provides some elegant insights, though, including my favorite systems aphorism, to wit: When a fail-safe system fails, it fails by failing to fail-safe.

Gardner, Martin, The Ambidextrous Universe, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1964 A well known science writer with a particular interest in logic, Gardner addresses some basic topics, including those of time, shape, and orientation in space.

Hofstadter, Douglas, Godel, Escher, Bach — an Eternal Golden Braid, Basic Books, 1979. It's hard to summarize this book. It's "about" thinking and logic; it's not really hard to read, but it demands concentration. As a side effect, it explains what it is that a computer program really "does".

Kuhn, Thomas, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press, 1962. The classic book on science as a human system.

Rifkin, Jeremy, Entropy — A New World View, Bantam Books, 1980. A bit of a phillipic, but a good example of integrated systems thinking.

Western Maryland College Catalog, 1983 - 1984.

Wickelgren, Wayne, How to Solve Problems, W. H. Freeman & Co., 1974. A reasonable introduction to formal problem solving of the type used in the development of "artificial intelligence" programming.

Wolf, Fred, Taking the Quantum Leap, Harper & Row, 1981. One of the best of the many books now available on Quantum Theory and Relativity. This one avoids mathematics and the "Eastern religions" route. (General Systems Theory may in fact be a subset of Quantum Theory. If so, then the success of systems analysis techniques may derive in part from their ability to give us a better picture of what is "really" going on in a problem situation.)

Zukav, Gary, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, William Morrow & Co., 1979. Another excellent (and intriguing) book on Quantum Theory. Avoids mathematics, but does look at the "Eastern religions"idea. Wolf, Zukav, and Davies {15} make for interesting comparisons.

Campbell, Jeremy,. Grammatical Man, Simon and Schuster, 1982. Subtitled "Information, Entropy, Language and Life," this very readable book ties together the ideas of Shannon, Chomsky and a number of other theorists working in the fields of psychology, biology, information theory and linguistics. It does an excellent job of describing the scope of general systems theory, especially as related to studies in complexity, organization, and growth.

Davies, Paul, Other Worlds, Simon and Schuster, 1980. Another eminently readable book about quantum theory, information, and the "nature of reality". As with Wolfe, Davies avoids religion and concentrates on current scientific interpretation of the various theories.

Weinberg, Gerald, An Introduction to General Systems Thinking,# Wiley-Interscience, 1975. Requires knowledge of algebra and elementary statistics. Topics include complexity, organization, boundaries, states, time, incompleteness, and indeterminacy. A very nice book — suitable for a sophomore/junior introductory course. The problems at the ends of the chapters are remarkably interesting.

Weinberg, Gerald, Rethinking Systems Analysis and Design, Little, Brown and Company, 1982. More restricted in scope than {16}, this book does a reasonable job of describing the limitations of current approaches to the design of large technical/industrial systems.

Goodman, Paul, Compulsory Mis-education & The Community of Scholars, Vintage Books (Random House), 1962.

Some journal articles of interest:

"Using the ACM Computer Science Curriculum Recommendations In a Liberal Arts College", ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Dec. 1978, p. 16.

"Computer Literacy: An Interdisciplinary, Hands On Approach At the Evergreen State College, Olympia Washington", ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Aug. 1978, p. 8.

"Computer Science Education and the Ideal of Liberal Arts", ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Aug. 1978, p. 13.

"A Programming Sequence For the Liberal Arts College", ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Feb. 1980, p. 161.

"Problems of Teaching Computer History In Introductory Courses", ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Feb. 1978, p. 239.

"The Small Liberal Arts College: The Challenge For Computer Science", ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Feb. 1979, p. 220.

"Computer Arts: Computer Science In a Liberal Arts Environment", ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Feb. 1979, p. 224.

"The Computers Are Coming!", Time, Feb. 1978, p. 44.

"Computer Shock", Saturday Review, June 23, 1979, p. 14.

"Personal Computing and Verbalizing or what Does It Cost To Read a Book?", |ADCIS CBI Conference Journal, March 1980, p. 34.

"Computing and Computer Science In the Liberal Arts", ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, June 1983, p. 24.

"Information Systems Curriculum Recommendations for the 80's: Undergraduate and Graduate Programs", Communications of the ACM, November 1982, p. 781.

"A Nation At Risk - Report of the National Committee On Excellence In Education", Communications of the ACM, July 1983, p. 467.