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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INDIVISIBILITY of GLOBAL PROCESSES 1)3)

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In his critique of the EINSTEIN, ROSEN and PODOLSKY paradox, N. BOHR "… argued that in the quantum domain the procedure by which we analyse classical systems into interacting parts breaks down, for whenever two entities combine to form a single system (even only for a limited period of time) the process by which they do is not divisible. We are therefore faced with a breakdown of our customary idea about the indefinite analysibility of each process in various parts, located in different regions of space and time. Only in the classical limit, where many quanta are involved, can the effects of this indivisibility be neglected" (D. BOHM, 1980, p.73).

Thus indivisibility is another interesting formulation about the limits of reductionism. It has also important implications for the dubious way we dichotomize our most basic concepts as time, space, matter and energy.

It can however be argued that the indivisibility problem may surge at any complexity level, and not merely at the quantum level. In all cases it is a result of multiple simultaneous interactions among numerous elements.

→ 3 bodies problem

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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