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

MACRON 1)2)

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"A multiple globally stable regime" (E. JANTSCH, 1976, p.72).

E. JANTSCH assimilates macrons to dissipative structures. According to R. ABRAHAM, such BÉNARD phenomena are macrons. A complex system may transit through different macrons, during macrodynamic processes, as explained by R. ABRAHAM (1976, p.134 – 148).

These transitions are "catastrophic" in THOM's sense.

ABRAHAM distinguishes (mainly for practical purposes) three basic types of macrons: physical, chemical and electrical. Biological systems present combinations of these three types, which constitutes the bases for morphogenesis. He states that "… the mathematical description of a macron is an attractor" and "It is actually the theory of transitions of attractors, or catastrophes, as developped by René THOM (1973), which is the basis for the geometry of macrons…" (p.140).

The subject is related to W. d'ARCY THOMPSON famous work "On Growth and Form" (1916), to C. LAVILLE's study of the "Mécanismes biologiques de l'atome à l'être vivant" (1950 – A quite unknown masterwork on helixes and energetic whirls' role in morphogenesis) and to A. TURING's research on "A chemical basis for biological morphogenesis" (1952), itself related to the BRAVAIS brothers work on phyllotaxis (1837).

The – supposedly – static "objects" we do observe at our temporal scale of observation are, in fact, a snapshot of macrons. A good example are appearently immutable geographic features: oceans, mountain ridges, etc.

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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