This work completes Ludwig von Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory by providing the formal mechanism it has lacked since its inception. GST successfully unified concepts across biology, psychology, engineering, and social science, but it remained descriptive rather than mechanistic. It did not explain how systems detect internal contradictions, how equilibrium fails, how collapse occurs, or how new structures emerge. Using the Carlo Framework, this paper introduces the contradiction engine, the trajectory update rule, and the Reset Operator > as the missing structural components that model how systems destabilise and reorganise. The completed model treats a system as an evolving trajectory, where contradictions between structural demands generate tension loops. When these loops exceed tolerance, the Carlo reset mechanism forces structural reorganisation, producing adaptation, collapse, or emergence. This paper formalises the internal contradiction structure of systems, defines the conditions under which equilibrium breaks, and demonstrates how contradiction-driven resets produce the transformations GST described but could not mechanise. The result is a dynamic, internally consistent model of system evolution. General Systems Theory, GST, systems theory, systems science, cybernetics, complexity science, open systems, dynamic systems, system evolution, contradiction engine, Carlo Framework, Reset Operator, trajectory update rule, feedback loops, homeostasis, equilibrium, disequilibrium, system collapse, system reorganisation, emergence, adaptation, structural dynamics, system architecture, system modelling, system transformation, threshold dynamics, instability thresholds, collapse mechanisms, adaptive restructuring, contradiction loops, structural tension, system constraints, system behaviour, organisational systems, biological systems, cognitive systems, ecological systems, engineering systems, socio-technical systems, network theory, complexity theory, nonlinear dynamics, system trajectories, dynamic equilibrium, system reset events, contradiction-driven change, mechanism-level explanation, structural completion, conceptual engineering, theoretical reconstruction, meta-systems, hierarchical organisation, multi-level systems, recursive systems, systemic feedback, system stress, perturbation analysis, resilience, robustness, fragility, system adaptation, emergent behaviour, structural emergence, system transitions, phase transitions, system instability, dynamic modelling, computational systems theory, cross-disciplinary modelling, integrative theory, foundational systems science, system transformation pathways, contradiction thresholds, system adaptation mechanisms, dynamic reorganisation, system evolution modelling, structural change, system-level cognition, systemic analysis, system constraints mapping, dynamic architecture, system behaviour prediction, mechanism design, theoretical systems engineering, contradiction mapping, system-level dynamics, adaptive systems, complex adaptive systems, systemic collapse, systemic renewal, system identity, system boundary conditions, open-system dynamics, information flow, energy flow, structural coupling, system-environment interaction
Matthew Carlo (Mon,) studied this question.