Holistic Systems

This note is yet another opportunity to consider why it is so difficult to develop systems and networks with predictable behavior — and especially those that must satisfy stringent requirements for trustworthiness. We contrast these difficulties with somewhat similar situations in several other fields. In particular, we seek to discover some useful insights from consideration of analogous problems in energy, agriculture, and health care. In each of these areas, we contrast holistic approaches with nonholistic approaches. Holistic approaches are those that consider systems in their entirety rather than just focusing on specific properties or specific components. In each case, enormous culture shifts are required in education, training, business, government, and economic models.