Systems Engineering the Conditions of the Possibility (Towards Systems Engineering v2.0)

ABSTRACT Traditional systems engineering's focus is on cause and effect . When we turn a wheel, pull a lever, or flip a switch we expect a certain outcome. This is a rules‐based approach where stimulus‐response is deterministic in a well‐defined, well‐bounded, finite, and predominantly static system. If anything deviates from the expected, simple systemic structures (logic gates) or simple rules (if‐then‐else) provide optional preplanned action. Human intervention provides the intelligence and action necessary for dynamic adjustment to a negative event (adversity, avoid loss) or detecting and dynamically adjusting to a positive event (opportunity, seek gain). The now and future discipline of systems engineering (systems engineering v2.0) has the tools to transcend cause‐effect and effectively embrace the nondeterministic, flexibly defined, blurred‐boundaries, highly combinatorial if not infinite, and adaptability . Systems engineers can design solutions to adapt to predictable and unpredictable change for the system to remain viable while encountering adversity (loss‐driven) and relevant when threatened by obsolescence (opportunity‐driven). In addition to cause and effect, systems engineering v2.0 is systems engineering the conditions of the possibility . This paper does not intend to provide answers, but provides a framework for discerning better questions and eliciting research in the many technical areas providing continual dynamic adaptation of complex socio‐technical systems of systems. Realizing systems engineering v2.0 will come from the hard work of many over years. We are already on the way with this being one more step toward formalizing a new discipline.