Example: Supersystem for Men and Women
Let's consider an everyday example with agents represented by a man and a woman. What supersystems might exist that involve them in specific roles? Yes, they interact in some way, and they have certain functionalities as part of a supersystem. What are those functionalities?
You probably quickly realized that the supersystem here could be a family, with the woman and man existing in each other's systems environment, performing the roles of wife and husband. In other words, it is not simply a woman and a man who are part of the family, but rather a husband and a wife.
The puzzle of naming the supersystem can be solved by identifying a missing, unnamed, or unrecognized system in the system breakdown. This is a typical situation: supersystems are often hard to distinguish, and sometimes there are no established names for them[1].
These "missing" systems have to be identified—that is, you need to describe their roles or functions and assign them a name based on those roles. Sometimes, you will need to choose the most precise words. For example, when considering a car with a driver and a passenger, you need to find the supersystem, but there may not yet be a good term for it. As soon as you find an appropriate name for the system, many things become clearer and simpler. Learn to name systems correctly and work with semantics[2].
Often, there are no established names for certain systems in culture, unlike the concept of "family." In your work projects, you will often have to introduce new system names. Remember that the name should reflect the main function of the system. ↩︎
Semantics is one of the 16 transdisciplines of the intellect stack. ↩︎