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

EXCLUSION (Mutual) 5)

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In a network of computers, "the property that the steps of one operation cannot be interleaved with steps of another" (P. DENNING, 1991, p.111)

According to P. DENNING: "One of the most fundamental requirements in all… (networks of computers) is that certain operations be indivisible: the operations must be carried out in some definite order, one at a time, even when different computers request them simultaneously. If, contrary to this requirement, the instructions of one operation were interleaved with those of another, the results would be unpredictable. Deposits and withdrawels could be lost; confirmed reservations might disappear, parallel processing computers could produce invalid outputs.

"Because indivisible operations are not allowed to be in progress simultaneously, we say that they are mutually exclusive" (Ibid).

It can be seen that the simultaneity problem is all-pervasive.

As simultaneity destroys perfect causal determinism, no perfect algorithm seems possible in parallel operation.

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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