[kortilla]

No, they exist on the internet but calling them part of the same system is a bit torturous.

My toaster and the dam 1000 miles away are on the same electrical grid. Calling my toaster part of the electrical generation system because it consumes from it doesn’t make sense.

Coming back to the dashboard example, almost none of those work together to provide some kind of combined outcome you would expect from complex systems analysis (e.g. electrical generation, healthcare, etc).

If all of the boxes were ISPs instead, it would be a great example. Because they all work together to provide IP connectivity to the world and many can be down while the overall internet continues to function.

[rcxdude]

Systems span all kinds of scales. You absolutely can think of everything on the internet as a system. Same with your example of the power grid. Your toaster and dam absolutely are part of the same system.