International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

The state of a system at the beginning of its activity, or when an observer starts to observe it.

Authors like M. MARUYAMA, H.von FOERSTER and others insist on the importance of initial conditions as determinants of the nature of a system a-building.

The first one is the substrate or environmental conditions. No system is constructed in a void. Even in abstract models like in Go, in CONWAY's Games of life or in MARUYAMA's deviation-amplification processes, the substrate is a grid with specified properties, as for example, being formed of adjacent squares and having (or no) spatial limits in two or more dimensions.

For living systems, the initial conditions are clearly defined in each case by biological constraints, which are absolutely unavoidable.

Another initial condition is the homogeneous or heterogeneous nature of the original elements, which is paramount for their future ways of interaction. (Clustering, symbiosis, organizational closure, etc…).

A third one is their reciprocal localization, whose importance is visible in Go, in chess, or in CONWAY's games, and now also better known in embryogenesis, where they are paramount for an ordered development of the living system.

Finally, the question of the interaction rules is somewhat puzzling. Whereas introduced or potentially inscribed somewhere in the initial situation, they are undoubtly themselves a most important initial condition: Different development rules will necessarily produce different systems, even if all other conditions are identical.

For the importance of sensitivity to initial conditions for the onset of determinitic chaos, see "Sensitivity to…"

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