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

PROPAGATION 1)

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The spread or dissimination of some characteristic in a population, or between elements or subsystems in a system.

Propagation is possible only if the characteristic is adaptive, or at least not counter-adaptive. It is quite generally limited because no environment can support the unlimited growth of any type of system. Excessive propagation of some population normally leads to a crash.

This may also be the case for techniques, ideas (memes) and the like, a subject that would be useful to research.

From another viewpoint, propagation is never instantaneous and quite unfrequently isotropic and/or isochronic. As the basic interaction mechanism, it can be linear or nonlinear, in this case with different types of feedbacks, on different rhythms in time. It can also take place in hierarchical levels, between components, or clusters of components, organized or not in subsystems.

The simultaneous propagation of various effects within a system can lead to more or less deterministic chaos.

See for example J.C. ECCLES about propagation of impulses within the cerebral cortex (1977, p.201-2).

Propagation modes are also of great importance in human systems.

→ Criticality; Percolation

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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