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

NOISE GENERATOR 1)2)

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Any source which produces an unpredicted sequence of events.

D. MacKAY considers the case of the noise generator as information producer in these terms:

"a) A noise generator… is a source not primarily of information but, if we must call it a source of something, simply of surprise

"b) it becomes a source of information if and insofar as it leads to representational activity, and its "output of information" is to be measured relatively to the ensemble of representations on which it evoques selective operations

"c) a source does not, however, produce significant information unless the representational activity evoked has significance for some receiver" (1969, p.137).

Further on, Mac Kay states: "… a noise generator can be regarded as a source of completely original, but meaningless information" (p.137).

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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