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

EXOSOMATIC INFORMATION 1)

The information created and eventually re trieved by living systems in, and from their environment.

This concept has been developed by S. GOONATILAKE (1992, p.83-117): "While almost all memories are internal in the brain of animals, external memory markers are sometimes used as cues for the internal functioning of the brain. Sometimes such "memories" are consciously created and externalized in the world outside the brain. Sometimes the external memories can be manipulated" (p.83).

The marking of territories by animals is already a form of exosomatic information. There is also a close relation with stigmergy. In human societies, exosomatic information became an "explosive" process. Men rely heavily on a growing number of non-biological external clues and devices to sustain their evermore complex organizations. Moreover, as noted by GOONATILAKE, exosomatic processes can now be manipulated and are even seemingly acquiring a kind of autonomous activity, through spontaneous self-organization, particularly in information networks (p.120).

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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