What kind of world do we want to help make with our theories?

In response to Demetis and Lee's proposal that Information Systems needs to adopt system science in order to live up to the identity implied by its name and in order to develop better theory, this commentary seeks to answer two questions: What kind of reality does systems science produce? And, given that technological advances have moved the IS research agenda beyond the organizational realm, how likely is it that systems science will help generate better IS theory? Drawing on a relational ontology, reflections on these two questions are offered. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.