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.

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ELEMENT (Frozen) 2)

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An element in a network, unable of changing its state.

St. KAUFFMAN explains this as follows: "In (a) small sample network, all the elements (may be) ruled by Boolean OR functions and (be) all initially off. Changes cascade through the system after one element is turned on. Because of the configuration of the network and the Boolean functions involved, some elements freeze into the on state. Thereafter they will return to that state even if they or one of their inputs is altered" (1991, p.67).

This is a very interesting property, the base of what KAUFFMAN calls "antichaos", i.e. progressive organization of random networks. This author explains: "Why do random networks with two inputs per element exhibit such profound order? The basic answer seems to be that they develop a frozen core, or a connected mesh of elements that are effectively locked into either an active or inactive state. The frozen core creates interlinked walls of constancy that 'percolate' or grow across the entire system. As a result, the system is partitioned into an unchanging frozen core and islands of changing elements" (p.67).

This very simple mechanism seems adequate for the modelization of numerous and seemingly unconnected properties of different kinds of networks. Memory, some neurotic or psychotic states, stable cores in languages, basic social structures could be examples.

Frozen cores, interestingly, appear also in some of CONWAY's games of life, by recurrent application of very simple rules.

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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