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

CHANGE (Propagation of) 1)2)

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In complex systems, propagation of change is very difficult to evaluate in real time and still more difficult to forecast.

It is in most cases a percolation phenomenon as for ex. in floods or in forest fires. This is so because:

- change can be self multiplying in a fractal form, for ex. by the production of flying sparks in a forest fire

- some parts of the environment are more conducive than others to propagation: sparks can trigger a new focus on a dry place or be extinguished in a pool of water

Such types of propagation are very difficult to predict because they affect environments which are similar to non-homogeneous networks, with locally different characteristics, which may, or may not brake or accelerate the process and, in cases, start secondary sequences of events of different types.

These in turn can be multiplicative by positive feedbacks or self-limitative by negative ones.

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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