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

EIGEN-TIME 2)

← Back

The internal time of a system.

Systems appear to possess a kind of internal clock, related to their internal dissipation of energy. P. WINIWARTER and C. CEMPEL write: "The accumulation of dissipation energy in the form of internal structural quanta within a limited potential leads from "birth" to "death" of the system. Time is expressed as internal time, or eigen-time, starting at o and ending at breakdown b" (1992, p.23). While these authors study basically the case of mechanical systems, the French biologist P. LECOMTE du NOUY established that each living system has its own biological time (1936). The BETHE cycle can also be considered as the Eigen-time clock of stellar systems.

The existence of the eigen-time implies that no homeostatic system can be eternal. A better knowledge of this topic could lead to a clearer understanding of the cause and nature of the characteristic life span of specific systems.

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:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint