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 in a SYSTEM 2)

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A perturbation "which interferes with the otherwise deterministic behavior either additively, or through some of the parameters characterizing the system" (G. NICOLIS and I. PRIGOGINE, 1978, p.30).

Such a noise can generate an oscillation that can be damped, or lead to the destruction of the system, or playa critical role to orient dissipative structuration at a bifurcation point.

From this viewpoint, and according to G. BATESON, quoted by E. MORIN, anything which is neiter information, nor redundancy, nor form, nor constraint is noise. (1972). However BATESON considers that noise is the only possible source of new patterns.

This view is expressed by H.von FOERSTER in this way: "Thus in my restaurant, self-organizing systems do not only feed upon order, they will also find noise on the menu" (1960, p.31). H. ATLAN puts it as follows: "It is not bad to have noise in the system. If a system freezes in a specific state, it becomes unadaptable and the final state may easily be faulty. It will not be able to adapt to anything that would be an inadequate situation" (1972, p.24).

While this is acceptable, let us remember that too much is too much!… and that it may be difficult to know when a critical threshold of noise is too close for security.

Noise can also be generated within the system, which possesses internal communication channels. This is doubtless the case in biological and in social systems.

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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