Is there a Unified Theory for the Human Experience?
In thinking about Donella Meadows’ Thinking in Systems, we asked, “Is systems design to mechanistic to model the messiness of the real world?” If one argues that it is not, then one must be arguing for a unified theory of the human experience, manly the intangibles. With this in mind I am reminded of String Theory (Or Superstring Theory) which is an attempt to create a unified theory for the physical world. Very bassically, string theory tries to reconcile Einstein’s general theory of relativity with quantum field theory. As of yet, it has failed, although it has revealed many other possibilities about our physical world. The most interesting to me being that there are possibly many more dimensions that we can not perceive.
Which makes me wonder… Is it possible there is a unified theory for the intangible world? Is there a way of linking all the systems models ever created, pulling out all the insights to all the problems, developing all the criteria, all the features and farming all the solutions? I’m being hyperbolic, but there may be a point. If we link all systems and reduce them as much as possible could we find new “grand insights.” I think we can and we can start solving problems on a more mass scale.
Can we look at problems as the building blocks of our experience, that is to say, that we are defined by having to navigate the day to day issues we face. If we think of the interaction between molecules, atoms, quasars… like the interaction between personal, family, social, wicked… problems than there may be a possibility of figuring out one. If we look at the basic problem of waking up and wondering what to eat for breakfast, or simply being hungry as a basic unit of problem? Can it be broken down to the issue of waking up? Down to internal problems?
This reminds me of another discussion we had asking are all problems wicked problems. And it seems that the answers is yes, if you allow each problem to be compounded by outside forces or dimensions turning them into larger and more complicated problems. Again, using the example I am hungry, if you add time, age, local infrastructure, family, politics… you may find the simple problem of being hungry turns into a wicked problem involving an impoverished, child living on the streets in a war torn country. Problems have compounded upon themselves scaling up globally much like atoms to a planetary level.
Can we find connections between the forces which cause these problems to scale up? As there are possible curled up dimensions hidden in the fabric of space, there appears to be curled up dimensions in the intricacies of or social issues. In many ways this seems obvious, but I do think it would make a radical change in how we approach these issues. Much like scientist acknowledge that there are things at work that they can not perceive or in some cases even measure, designers must acknowledge that there are always other deeper things at work in solving wicked problems. We need to act as if those deeper dimensions certainly exist even if we cannot yet name them. Our actions as designers are to reveal those issues, layer by layer, in an attempt to reconcile these wicked problems more systematically. Maybe we can’t, but we should act with the same steadfast intention that science attempts to understand our physical world. If we don’t than we are trying to save a sinking ship by figuring out how to bail the water fastest instead of learning to plug the holes.