On 5 July 2018, Robert K. Logan, Prof. Emeritus, Physics, University of Toronto, was invited by the UTI Research Group to give a talk on What is the Origin of Systems Thinking and Who Were the First Systems Thinkers. This talk was given in the framework of the Origin of Systems Thinking project. The event was supported by the TU Wien and took place at the Library of the HCI Group (see photo).

Here is the abstract:

We explore the origin of systems thinking that predates the work of Ludwig von Bertalanffy who explicitly defined it through his formulation of General Systems Thinking. We explore the roots of systems thinking that pre-date Bertalanffy in the emergence of verbal language, tool making and the organized activities of hunter gatherers, agriculturalists and industrialists. We discuss the role of information overload in the formulation of systems thinking. We also compare systemic versus systematic thinking.