Framing a System

Abstract

Boundaries of a system are largely determined by human perception. To an extent this occurs arbitrarily, but to an extent it is a response to changing environmental conditions.  Given this dynamic, the way a system is framed in terms of its boundaries affects human action on a global scale.  Understanding this framing can empower the human agent and enable a recontextualization of human potential such that our planetary system is approached and maintained in an ecologically equitable and sustainable fashion. This paper outlines how such framing relates to different scales of human civilization and what some of the important practical distinctions are related to such an act of framing.