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

LANGUAGE (Visual) 1)4)

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A language made of images whose meaning does not depend of any specific linguistic or cultural context.

Such a language of universal acceptance and understanding is mainly a result of the swift growth of a worldwide communication network based on technology.

It includes ideograms indicating for example telephones, restaurants, rest rooms, baggage rooms or booths, information stands, medical help, etc… in airports and railways stations. Roads signs indicating crossroads, curves, railways crossings, entries and exits, one-way traffic, parking lots, etc… are other ideograms. In many cases, arrows or flashing signs are used.

Other conventional signs representing for example some currencies (dollars, yens, pounds, euros), many times completed by small flags, are now widely used and recognized.

Still other signs are widely used in electrical artifacts and networks and in storage and transportation of dangerous products.

Moreover, a growing number of private concerns are slowly imposing their own brand images or logotypes: Special foods, or credit cards, for instance.

Another domain wherein this visual language is growing apace is the representation of systems or their parts by, for example, graphs, figures, drawings, or flow charts.

The appearance of such a universal language is doubtless part of the construction of a world system at a higher complexity level.

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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