BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

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The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

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ADAPTATION by step functions 2)

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L.von BERTALANFFY writes: "ASHBY's model for adaptiveness is, roughly that of step functions defining a system, that is, functions which, after a certain critical value is overstepped, jump into a new family of differential equations. This means that, having passed a critical point on its trajectory, the system starts off in a new way of behavior. Thus, by means of step functions, the system shows adaptive behavior by what the biologist would call trial and error: it tries different ways and means, and eventually settles down in a field where it does not come anymore in conflict with critical values of the environment"(1956, p.7).

ASHBY's homeostat is an electromagnetic model of this adaptation mode.

The adaptive capacity of any system thus depends on the existence, at least potentially, of this type of step functions. This model can be usefully compared with other concepts related to adaptation: Requisite variety, Hypercycle, Organizational closure, Catastrophes, Bifurcation, Stability in topological terms, etc…

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

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Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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