Engineering (future) systems, as if life mattered

Humans interact with engineered systems in environments populated by other humans and autonomous systems of varying complexity. The systems, in turn, are situated in the broader cultural, natural, political, and social environments. Traditional approaches to modeling such systems are no longer adequate, primarily because they have followed a linear trajectory of devising solutions to fairly narrow problems without questioning, or adequately examining, the basic premises. For the methodologies to be relevant and not merely remain as academic exercises, they must incorporate cultural, social, and environmental factors that often manifest themselves in generational time. I have been studying the issues by looking at problems in domains that are central to life, and I offer some insights in this paper.