A Trip from the Invisible Foot. Column in KomputerraOnline #59
The Invisible Hand operates in systems whose goals are aligned with the goals of their subsystems. The Invisible Foot manifests where the optimisation of subsystems conflicts with the optimisation of the system.
When every individual endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry <...> he intends only his own gain <...> and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.
Adam Smith, 1776
I recently purchased a remarkable book: Meadows, D.H. "Thinking in Systems: A Primer". Moscow: BINOM. Laboratory of Knowledge, 2011. — 343 p. This book not only enables one to structure one's own thinking, but also to derive genuine pleasure from doing so.
Donella Meadows was a leading American and global authority in the fields of modelling, systems theory, and global ecology. Together with her husband, Dennis Meadows, she was part of the team that in 1972 constructed the World3 model at the behest of the Club of Rome. In 1974 the report "The Limits to Growth" was published, with Donella as its lead author.