Systems Intelligence is the level of understanding a system has over itself, its purpose and its surroundings. Hamalainen Saarinen defines Systems Intelligence as intelligent behavior in complex systems that are often human in nature. Key concepts a person uses when acting systems intelligently are perception of systemic occurrences, feedback from the system's structure and interaction with the system's agents and subsystems. Systems Intelligence is not in itself a tool but rather a behavior.
The three key concepts of systems intelligence (perception, feedback, interaction) are maximized assuming:
the environment consists of a complex web of interacting relationships, to which everything contributes
the system treats the environment as a complex system and not merely a collection of subsystems
the system perceives the environment as feedback intensive
the system interacts with the environment in a way that makes minor corrections within the system, generating huge effects due to the nonlinear dynamics of the system
If these assumptions are met than small efforts by the system are able to produce large positive outcomes while avoiding negatives.
Examples of Humans Acting Systems Intelligently
There are many examples in how humans take advantage of feedback intensive systems to change the environment to improve the quality of the results.
Scenario: you go to exit an MBTA station by ascending stairs to Park Street and discover it is raining – what small changes do you make to improve the outcome of ascending the wet stairs?
Application to Robotics
Applying the concepts of Systems Intelligence to human influenced systems within a complex environment:
Improves energy efficiency by reducing the work required for a desired outcome
Improves task effectiveness by reducing mistakes such as false positives
Improves situational awareness without increasing cognitive loading
Allows for more complex tasks to be accomplished
Reduces unwanted environmental impacts
Improves predictability of the system response over time
Results
When the concepts of Systems Intelligence are applied to the development of complex systems, higher reliability for lower cost is achieved. Systems perform successfully in complex environments, are easily adapted for other purposes, are more intuitively adopted, and make less mistakes.