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 (Principle of autocatalytic) 1)2)

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"Stable configurations that facilitate the appearance of configurations similar to themselves will become more numerous" (F. HEYLIGHEN, 1992, p.4).

HEYLIGHEN readily admits that this principle is self-evident. However, he adds that it "… describes as well biological reproduction as the positive feedback of nonlinearity characterizing most inorganic processes of self-organization, such as crystal growth. The principle simply states that it suffices for a configuration to be stable, and in some respect autocatalytic or self-replicating in order to undergo a potentially explosive growth" (Ibid).

In any case, autocatalytic growth is possible only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

- The substrate or environment must be able to supply the needed material and/or energetic resources for growth;

- A template for self-replication must be present.

Besides, growth remains unchecked only as long as the environment does not become overexploited or supersaturated.

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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