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

CATASTROPHE (Delayed) 2)

A catastrophe occuring after a long and slow accumulation of small effects.

These catastrophes have been discussed by M. KARSKY (1993, p.1413-21). This is a very dangerous type of phenomena, in natural as well in artificial systems. Small individual effects are generally irrelevant, and perceived as such. But, as shown by KARSKY, the damped oscillations they provoke can suddenly "jump out of the track" and lead to new and unexpected macroscopic qualitative effects. KARSKY observes that: "this phenomenon takes place only in a very narrow band of parameters variations and may easily pass unnoticed in absence of a systematic policy of simulation through multiple scenarios. It could however explains in some cases the occurence of seemingly inexplicable catastrophes" (p.1417)

That the accumulation be slow implies another danger: the nonperception of the progressive buildup of a macroscopic change in the making. When finally it becomes evident that a dramatic change is to occur, it is generally too late to do something about it.

Cycles and Effects (Delayed)

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]


We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible: