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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EQUILIBRIUM (Metastable) 1)2)

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An equilibrium that remains stable until some trigger element is introduced in the system, but undergoes a sudden change when such element appears.

Such equilibria are characterized by their potential for growth.

A. LOTKA states: "This is a common characteristic of the growth of living systems; growth is initiated by a nucleus of the same species of matter that is added… Conversely, in the entire absence of any nucleus of a particular species of living matter, growth of that species cannot take place, even though all other conditions for such growth may be satisfied, even though the system may, as it were, be supersaturated with regard to that species of matter" (1956, p.151).

This phenomenon is also well known in inorganic systems (supersaturated solutions).

Sudden epidemics in populations that overshooted their environmental optimum seem to respond to the same trigger effects: A case may have been the so-called "Black-Death" pandemy in Europe from 1347 on.

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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