Robert Hoffman
Robert Hoffman is an economist by training and a systems modeler by vocation.
He has been involved in integrated socio-economic and biophysical systems
modeling for four decades, first as an analyst and research program director at
Statistics Canada, then as Research Associate Professor at the University of
Waterloo, and currently as co-founder and president of whatIf? Technologies Inc.
His career at Statistics Canada began as a member of the team that developed
and established input-output modelling techniques for Canada. It was there that
his interest in systems modelling took shape . Then, influenced by the system
dynamics modeling of Forrester, the program culminated in the development of a
socio-economic-resource stocks and flows model for Canada and the ‘design
approach’ to socio-economic modeling in which models are seen as extensions
of the human perceptual apparatus.
whatIf? Technologies was established in 1989 in order to develop and
commercialize the whatIf? model development platform and to apply the design
approach philosophy. The company has designed and implemented in excess of
fifty custom simulation models used primarily for strategic planning, scenario
analysis and policy development, spanning a wide range of problem domains
including urban and regional planning, integrated energy systems, natural
resource management, and sustainability at global and national scales.
Robert Hoffman has been interested in global systems modelling since the
publication of the Limits to Growth in 1972. In 1990 he joined the Canadian
Association for the Club of Rome and participated in Club of Rome events as a
CACOR director. In collaboration with the CACOR, he led the development of a
global systems model intended as proof-of-concept for the application of the
design approach. He became an associate member and full member of the Club
of Rome in 2009 and 2014 respectively.
Global Systems Modelling and the Club of Rome: future directions?
Abstract
This presentation traces the history of the relationship between global systems
modelling and the Club of Rome from the Forrester/Meadows ‘Limits to Growth’
project and the Mesarovic/Pestel ‘Mankind at the Turning Point’ project. It
examines the need for a shift from the Newtonian to an evolutionary systems
paradigm and a renewed effort at global systems modeling inspired by the
current interest in the Anthropocence as the geological era in which human
decisions shape the evolutionary future of the earth system. The question
underlying the presentation is, ‘How do we come to an understanding of the
world in which we live such that we can make decisions that achieve our goals?.
This, of course, is a question addressed by the systems and cybernetics
community, particularly in the work of Kenneth Boulding, Umberto Maturana and
Francisco Varella.