15 // Why Systems Rethink

Observation

The observation began with the realization that a system does not necessarily rethink because it no longer knows the existing line. It can know the line and still begin to reorient itself.

A new thought appears. New information opens further connections. Another direction suddenly seems relevant as well. The system can take up that connection, follow it, and thereby shift its focus.

It can certainly say, “No, that does not fit.” The problem is therefore not that a system is incapable of rejecting something. What becomes more interesting is what happens when something is not wrong, but simply represents a different direction.

A person can be thinking about something with someone and suddenly a new idea appears. They can take it up and still recognize: This is interesting, but it does not belong to what we are investigating right now. The direction is not rejected because it is wrong. It simply does not become the current focus.

A person can also change direction. They can leave a thought, think about something completely different, and return to it later. The difference therefore does not simply lie in the fact that a person maintains a line while a system does not.

Perhaps it lies more in the fact that a person has a reference point within their own thinking from which they can recognize whether a new direction belongs to what they are currently pursuing.

This shifted the observation. Perhaps thinking for a system therefore means more than finding new connections. A system can find very many connections. Its knowledge in particular constantly opens up new possibilities.

The actual question is whether it can recognize within its cognitive space which of these possibilities continues the current focus, which merely represents a new direction, and when such a direction should actually be adopted.

Perhaps thinking for a system therefore does not begin with the next thought, but with the ability to recognize where it is currently thinking.