Society, research policy and systems science

It is argued that systems science (modeling, decision and control theory, operations research, etc.) has many potentially beneficial applications for societies at all stages of economic development, and especially to societies attempting to achieve a steady state relationship with their physical environment. However, at least two current dangers are perceived: (i) the threat to civil liberties and privacy that lies in centralizing information and control (although it is emphasized that centralization is not a necessary feature of an application of systems theory and technology), and (ii) the possibility of charlatanry in the selling of "systems" solutions to complex social and economic problems. Presently it seems that governments and institutions lack the expertise to critically evaluate the modelling, simulation and control technologies on the market. In the near future systems sciences may be discredited by an erroneous association with some of these products. The author makes some proposals for combatting (i) and (ii) and for attempting to increase the contributions to human welfare that can be made by systems science.