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

PREADAPTATION 1)

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The condition of a system whose already acquired characteristics makes it fit to respond satisfactorily to new future conditions.

In a narrow sense, the concept is nearly tautological, i.e. when future conditions are a normal result of the present ones, as for example in the progress of a biochemical reaction (ROSEN, 1991 a, p.544).

In a broader sense, a system endowed with much variety may be preadapted to some variations in its enviroment that are of a completely new type.

The concept remains however fuzzy: Can it be said that the anopheles mosquitoes that became resistant to various insecticides were "preadapted", or possibly possessed a "potential for adaptation", whatever this may mean?

M. BUNGE introduces the curious concept of premaladaptation (1979, p.104): In this case the mosquitoes killed by insecticides would have been "premaladapted" (also somehow a tautology!)

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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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