So, what is a system? A system is a set of things—people, cells, molecules, or whatever—interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time. The system may be buffeted, constricted, triggered, or driven by outside forces. But the system’s response to these forces is characteristic of itself, and that response is s

In the twentieth century, scientists identified the elementary building blocks of nature: particles, atoms, and molecules are the constituents of all matter; genes, proteins, and cells are the components of life; bits, codes, and networked systems underpin intelligence and information. In this century we will begin to engineer new realities with th