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

FLICKER NOISE 1)2)

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An irregular criticality signal corresponding to the triggering of a timely variety of sudden changes in unstable composite systems.

P. BAK and K. CHEN state: "…flicker noise suggests that the dynamics of the system are strongly influenced by past events. In contrast, white noise, a random Signal, implies no correlation between the current dynamics and past events" (1991, p.28).

They add: "The theory of self-organized criticality suggests a rather general interpretation: flicker noise is a superposition of signals of all sizes and durations-signals produced when a dynamic (composite) system in a critical state produces chain reactions of all sizes and durations" (Ibid).

The flicker noise expresses an inverse relation between the amplitude of fluctuations and their number. Small fluctuations are very frequent and numerous, while giant ones are very rare.

The concept has been applied to earthquakes by B. GUTENBERG and Ch. RICHTER. The GUTENBERG-RICHTER law says that: "The number of earthquakes each year that release a certain amount of energy E, is proportional to 1 divided by E to the power of b where the exponent b is about 1,5. The exponent b is universal in the sense that it does not depend on the particular geographic area. Hence, large earthquakes are much more rare than small ones" (BAK & CHEN, p.29).

The comparison for example, with stock's quotations fluctuations, populations variations, or even social unrest, leads to the insight that small and frequent releases of tensions avoid the crossing of more dangerous instability thresholds. When they do not occur or are much delayed a runaway event becomes unavoidable and leads to an explosive release of pent-up stresses.

BAK and CHEN report that B. MANDELBROT has found fluctuations in the DOW JONES index, similar to flicker noise (Ibid).

→ Criticality; Elliot wave

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  • 2) Methodology or model
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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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