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.

About

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.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

BEHAVIOR (Anticipatory) 1)2)

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The activity of a system that constructs a predictive model of itself, its environment, or both, in order to adapt itself to probable future change.

R. ROSEN found that such behavior is quite general in living systems of all kinds, even if at very different levels of systems complexity.

The notion of anticipatory behavior should be handled in a discerning way, in order to avoid logical contradictions: future events cannot of course exert influence on present ones, but what is now correlatively perceived or believed about what will probably or possibly happen, can. ROSEN gives the following example: "Many primitive organisms are negatively phototropic: they move toward darkness. Now, darkness in itself has no physiological significance; in itself it is biologically neutral. However darkness can be correlated to characteristics which are not physiologically neutral, e.g., with moisture or with the absence of sighted predators. The relation between darkness and such positive features composes a model through which the organism predicts that by moving toward darkness, it will gain an advantage" (1979, p.15).

This action of a present prediction upon the present behavior acts as a regulation or control and is called forward activation, the result of a feedforward.

ROSEN adds: "Of course this is not a conscious decision on the organism's part; the organism has no real option, because the model is, in effect "wired in" (p.544).

In animals with complex brains, however, particularly man, the model becomes much more complex and can evolve, becomes reflexive and self-corrective, and leads to changing goal-directness

An obvious conclusion, stated by ROSEN (p.557), is the need for ever-perfected predictive models, in order to improve anticipatory behavior. This field should urgently be researched upon as to the anticipatory behavior of social systems.

→ Club of Rome, Feedforward, System (Anticipatory) and Systems Dynamics

Categories

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

Publisher

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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