The interplay of modernism, postmodernism and systems engineering

Prior to World War 1 the dominant intellectual pattern was characterized by order and grand narratives. The success of the sciences and technology in particular led to this mood. This way of thinking has been called ´modern´. Challenges to ´modern´ thought arose through the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics and World War I, which shattered the confidence that European thought and experience was necessarily the highest form towards which all cultures were evolving. The loss of confidence led to existentialist thought and patterns not dependent on the existence of a unitary ´truth´. This intellectual pattern led to the ´postmodern´ theoretical framework. In technology the modern era was characterized by the development of mass production methods and the shift to the postmodern experience era from the mass production to the expectation of mass customization. Systems engineering developed as a method to address the management and development of large complex projects and reflected ´modern´ thought. This paper explores why methods derived from postmodern theory have failed to assist in the development of socio-technical systems for people living the postmodern experience.