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

PROCESS (Self-destructive) 1)2)

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A process affected by a repetitive feedback which tends to finally annulate it.

The feedback may be positive or negative. A positive feedback leads to the exhaustion of some input or environmental condition basic for the maintenance of the process or the survival of the system in which it is functional. Examples are the exhaustion of oxygen for a fire in a closed environment; the growing costs of scientific research, the progressive clogging of traffic by a growing number of vehicles and the acceleration of technological obsolescence.

The negative feedback reduces either the inputs or the width of the fluctuation band of the process, and progressively stifles it. Examples are starvation or reduced resilience in ageing living systems, or declining adaptability in an organization.

The only way to avoid self-destructiveness in processes is a convenient blend of negative and positive feedbacks.

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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