Most traditional science works within a very restricted disciplinary domain requiring a careful and often technically rigorous and demanding approach that includes, at least in theory, the use of the Baconian scientific method of test and control in a restricted laboratory environment. This is how most science operates, and it is often a very successful approach. However, such an approach is very difficult to apply to many real problems, including those in the complex natural or seminatural world outside the laboratory where many interacting variables can render laboratory results rather meaningless. For example, cleaning up sewage in a treatment plant can increase air pollution both directly and through the energy required.

One antidote to this problem is systems science, which seeks to find and use general principals, concepts, and equations that are applicable across, and can integrate, many disciplines. Numerous thinkers throughout history have used some...