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

PROCESSING: Simultaneous or sequential 2)

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In common computation, processing is sequential. It: "requires that both data and instructions be encoded into notation" (F. FRISCHKNECHT and J.P.van GIGCH, 1989, p.245).

Symbol manipulation of this kind does not allow for autonomous behavior of the artefact. Moreover, it tends to be dichotomic, opposing state and process, as observed by the cited authors.

For example: "In A. I. we have a state language and a process language. In psychology knowledge is contrasted with learning, memory with cognition and imprinting with constructing. And systems have states and an evolution process" (p.246).

The authors explain many other implications of the dichotomic character of our processing artefacts.

Comparing the computer and the brain, as data processing devices, J.von NEUMANN wrote: "… the natural componentry favors automata with more, but slower organs, while the artificial ones favors the reverse arrangement of fewer, but faster, organs. Hence it is to be expected that an efficiently organized large natural automaton (like the human nervous system) will tend to pick up as many logical (or informational) items as possible simultaneously, while an efficiently organized large artificial automaton (like a large modern computing machine) will be more likely to do things successively… " (1958, p.50-51).

von NEUMANN expressed this at his Silliman lectures in 1956. The basic idea is still valid, in spite of the fabulous progress in computer's hardware. However, it seems now quite possible that the future connection machines will mimic more and more efficiently our "large natural automaton"… with results which are anybody's guess.

Finally, the universal problem seems to be: how to obtain complex and integrated thinking out of the basically binary processing, both in the computer and in the brain.

M. BODEN understands that there are basically two types of thinking; the "sequential-deliberative" and the "parallel-intuitive" (1990, p.205). The first one would be monotonically time-ordered in linear sequences, while the second one would be moreover multi-simultaneous.

BODEN adds: "By means of parallel processing of various kinds, human minds are well suited to have serendipitous ideas" (p.220).

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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