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

MODEL (Continuous or discrete) 1)2)

Formal or mathematical models can be continuous or discrete. Historically, continuous models based on differential equations have been the accepted methodology for modelizing in science.

However, since the development of digital computing, "discrete models are influencing our conception of real world systems and the role classical mathematical methods are to play in modelling them" and: "In many applications of these discrete concepts the availability of theoretical results is replaced by the computational power of digital computers" (A.G. BARTO, 1978, or in G. KLIR (ed), 1991.p. 377).

Computers, becoming a kind of experimental laboratory tool, and being digital, offer (and require) a new class of models, frequently called "simulations". This offers at the same time, new variety and new constraints to modelization. BARTO, after a careful discussion, concludes that: "… computational power alone is not a substitute for the careful simplification and theoretical generalization that have helped make classical methods so fruitful" (p.395).

This clearly is a more polite, but still powerful caveat carrying the same meaning as the famous "Garbage in, garbage out".

In any case, both type of models are useful in their own right. Neither, however, tell us the ultimate "truth" about reality.

It is also possible that connection machines will introduce still another type of models in the future.

Modelization by computer (Limits of)

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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