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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GROWTH (Directional) 2)

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That growth be generally unequal in different directions is a basic condition for differentiation.

One cause of directional growth is expressed by C. ZELLER: "Growth becomes directional if, on one side of a minimal aggregation unit, free elements are more readily available than on the other sides" (1967, p.54).

ZELLER also states: "With the initiation of asymmetric growth,… a plan of development of the aggregate is laid down" (p.55).

This is the environmental cause of directional growth. It is difficult to pinpoint internal conditions of the growing system that may lead to the same trend, but their existence is doubtless, at least in biological and social systems. Internal asymmetric growth is probably related to the different levels of energy flows and of spatial substrate available for subsystems at different times.

M MARUYAMA's models of deviation-amplifying processes illustrate the subtle interactions of rules, as applied on initial conditions, which lead to directional growth.

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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