2 Taking Stock
much satisfaction in growing food was being swallowed up by a system
that squeezed profits until the plantation teetered on collapse.
The very idea of a system has not always existed. In fact, it is relatively
new to history. In the sixteenth century, planets such as Venus and
Mercury were already known. Unknown, however, was a unifying ex-
planation that tied them and Earth together. Enter Copernicus, who
mathematically ordered the planets in relation to the Sun. The fol-
lowing century, Galileo’s observations firmed up Copernicus’s earlier
work and solidified the existence of a system, a Greek-derived word
meaning a whole concept formed from several parts.
A “solar system” seems obvious today without having to recall how
it began as an effort to understand the relationships of nearby planets.
But it is worth remembering that such an understanding, especially
one without Earth at the center, landed Galileo a conviction of heresy
and kept him under house arrest until his death in 6 2.
Despite the rough start, the concept of systems has served humans
well, as did combining ink with parchment, or etching pictorial stor-
ies onto cave walls. Systems helped capture ideas, sort through observa-
tions, and refine understanding. This unifying premise accelerated
learning. Thus, bodies of water became systems where rainfall runs
off land, forming brooks that turn into streams and then tributaries
flowing into rivers before emptying into lakes and oceans. The human
body became understood as a series of systems that carry oxygen, pro-
vide nutrition, fight off disease, create offspring, and much more.
Through systems we could tie what we ate to gastrointestinal eruptions.
Or relate time to seasonal variations.
Insight into natural systems undoubtedly inspired human-made
systems. Adding zero to an arbitrary set of nine numbers led to the
base-ten numbering system that paved the way for measuring wealth.
Governance was a system that unified informal norms around accept-
able behavior, which eventually morphed into a political system called
government.
In every possible way, American life is now permeated with sys-
tems. Defense systems protect us. Insurance systems shield us from extra-
ordinary risk. Healthcare systems treat illness. Transportation systems