This paper is intended to challenge systems professionals to think about systems — not at the process level but at the foundational level: first principles. System principles at the concept level, and what we understand about them, determine what we practice at the process level – that is, how we define “systems engineering.” When Kant, Kepler, Newton, Einstein, and the others were deriving The Natural Laws, where was the comparable basic work in the natural order of things: systems? Is our profession one of simply employing some fairly good empirical procedures? Is there a legitimate place for a “First Law of Systems” along side The First Law of Thermodynamics? Who would do this research? Who would fund it? Is now the time? Why should we care?
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