You cannot sum up the behavior of the whole from the isolated parts, and you have to take into account the relations between the various subordinate … - Ludwig von Bertalanffy

General systems theory (in the narrow sense of the term) is a discipline concerned with the general properties and laws of “systems”. A system is defined as a complex of components in interaction, or by some similar proposition. Systems theory tries to develop those principles that apply to systems in general, irrespective of the nature of the system, of their components, and of the relations or “forces” between them. The system components need not even be material, as, for example, in the system analysis of a commercial enterprise where components such as buildings, machines, personnel, money and “good will” of customers enter.

# Information theory, introducing the concept of information as a quantity measurable by an expression isomorphic to negative entropy in physics, and developing the principles of its transmission.

We completely agree that description by differential equations is not only a clumsy but, in principle, inadequate way to deal with many problems of organization.